I agree with gulliBell that time/experience/hrs/background has very little to do whether one bends a machine or not. For my 20 yrs in PNG listening to those that say unless you've flown in NZ then you can't fly in PNG, Bull..S
Flying around NZ in the freezing cold can pull the density alt. down to a low level whilst a high temp. in Oz can give similar D As anyway. Whilst chairmanoftheboard has a point re the 3 dead 1 maimed incident he knows of I new the pilot for 35 yrs & yes no-one is perfect. However, the guy did his early flying in Fixed wing in PNG which to my observations is a damn site harder (VFR) than what us chopper drivers put up with. I flew with this guy with him in the left seat for 3-4 hrs & the area he needed to know was about 5miles square with fuel no more than 3 mins away. The next day I sat in the left seat for 3-4 hrs whilst he did his thing which he did quite competently, & why not he'd been flying since '72. I left him with the thought that there is no need to stuff with the weather, everything is very close by including road transport for pax if required. The fact that his persona/decision making ability/ just plain having a bad day came to the fore is regrettable but stuff all to do with where he was flying before. When your time is up its up, simple but all to true sometimes
