""I have to say that I am astonished that a thread on a 'Professional' pilots' rumour network, even in the 'Private' (a.k.a. amateur) forum, entitled "Descending through cloud without a procedure" could have streched to 6 pages. The whole concept is wrong, stupid and, as Graham Hill, among others, discovered, ultimately fatal."
Personally I has always thought amateur means "doesnt get paid for" and professional "does". That saves any confusion about there being some amateurs better than professionals and vica versa
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Safe aviation is about assessing risk. If I really had to would I rather descend with an NDB / DME or with a GPS. Maybe there might be a situation in which I need to make a cloud break - what are the factors I should consider? The aircraft is not FM immune but I have managed to get into IMC - what are the consequences? IMHO that is one of the reasons we enjoy this type of debate.
There are always those who come along and say blindly - ah, you cant do that becasue the ANO says so, or convensional wisdom is agin it. I worry more about those pilots because they think within the box.