I know quite a few people who've nearly come to grief in those mountains. I was one of them - as a very, very new PPL(A) I flew over the tops from Welshpool to Caernarfon, scared myself trying to fly through a teeny weeny cloud on the way back, did a 180 and began the long trek round the North coast, eventually getting home safely. A friend mentioned in an earlier post who knows Snowdonia well hit unexpected turbulence which he almost couldn't outclimb. Another low hours pilot friend tried to follow a valley, and the cloud got thicker and thicker and lower and lower...he made it, luckily.
If you learn to fly in the South you treat mountains with the respect they deserve. If you fly out of Caernarfon, Welshpool, Shobdon and similar airfields....you learn to fly in mountains very early on. Except...you don't, not really! You get used to flying in lowish hills in good weather. You understand a bit about winds in mountains, and where to aim for in the event of engine failure. But you don't really know what you don't know...and realise just how much that encompasses. Mountain flying is a very definite skill.
In the case of me and the friends mentioned, we thought we knew the mountains and how to fly in them. We were over-confident, basically.
If G-EMMA had been caught out in bad weather at Caernarfon, she'd have followed the coast. So would I - I've scared myself too often, and I might have more hours these days, but I don't take risks now I know the extent of the risks. But a lowish hours pilot who feels comfortable in those fairly familiar hills????
We'll never know, but over-confidence COULD have been what did it.
