"In my opinion FTO's have a certain moral and unwritten(?) responsibility to ensure they do not place requests on club members that are well and truly beyond their abilities. Maybe this is something which will come out in the wash and change the present rather inadequate regulations which bundle all blame on the PIC on the premise that they're street wise experienced commanders capable of overriding their superiors. It is just unrealistic in some club circles.
VFE." - my bolds
Sorry, but I have a problem with this statement. Our Ops desk, as a representative of club management and/or CFI does not allow pilots to fly into situations which are knowingly beyond their experience or abilities. As instructors we will often question decisions made at the ops desk and advise where appropriate. However, that is all it is advice – until the Ops desk exercises their ultimate sanction and takes their toys away and say no.
Once more, as has already been said what the pilot does once the flight has been authorised and departed cannot be at the blame of anyone other than P1. If the P1 can’t/won’t/doesn’t read a TAF and make a Wx decision – or can’t/won’t/doesn’t fuel then those decisions lie with them – and unfortunately, them alone. It’s all very well saying someone held a gun to their head – but how long do we need to keep making decisions for pilots – and how are they supposed to grow as pilots if we do? We give them the information they need and guide them through the interpretation of the data so that they can make the (safe) decisions for themselves. And we do it so they can do it in front of an examiner who is a representative of the rule makers no less. Somewhere, somehow they have to have the strength of character to say ‘This is outside my comfort zone and it isn’t happening’
Any change in that status-quo will be very bad for the everyone concerned.
I’m sorry if this offends some of you, but there were umpteen places in which the chain of events here could be broken by the crew. They were not. Sad, so sad.