To summarise this thread to date.
1)The Pilot was qualified and experienced to attempt this flight.
2)The Pilot probably met the criteria of most insurance Companies of 100+ hours to hire a similar on line aircraft for a similar flight.
3)We assume there was no flight plan lodged, but don’t know enough to assume a flight note was left with anybody.
4)If a plan were lodged it would have assisted the SAR response earlier than a flight note.
5)Somebody activated an alert when the aircraft failed to arrive at its destination, possibly a flight note holder? Neither of the above would have any influence on the events that occurred. It appears no ELT was activated.
6)The Pilot made it North of Murrurundi Gap so there was probably an option to divert to Quirindi over friendly country. This was not taken up.
7)The Pilot appears to have planned the flight along the spine of the Great Dividing Range. Something most here would not contemplate given the circumstances. Some make the assertion that the flight was “high risk”.
8)There appears a strong possibility that there was mechanical turbulence on the day. As a result of strong Westerly winds.
9)Nobody has posted the forecast of the day. It would appear that there was no likelihood of a VMC into IMC scenario.
10)It appears there was no known weather that would prevent a VFR flight.
11)There is no evidence that the Pilot was responsible for, nor intended to “waste scarce SAR resources” in planning a flight without a flight plan, nor was there evidence of “the deployment of a massive SAR party”.
12)Some believe that a Mentor system would have had a positive influence and possibly have prevented this crash and others in the future.
I can offer no more than concur with the previous post plus make the point that a pilot is never experienced enough for any flight. I am still learning after 43 years.
Hindsight is a wonderful thing, pity the Pilot in this case had none.