IO540 how about my theory?
Yes, possible.
3 cases:
1) the pilot
can see the airport at the VOR approach MAPt
In that case, you come straight off the VOR approach, fly nearly overhead the airfield, and fly the LH circuit joining it late downwind, as tight or as loose as you like. Let's face it, looking at the typical VFR-only pilot, just about nobody else would have been airborne in this weather. I would always choose a LH circuit because I sit in the LH seat, and even in the TB20 (whose visibility out is excellent) I hate RH circuits because one cannot see the runway from downwind, unless one is a long way out.
2) the pilot
cannot see the airport at the VOR approach MAPt (but has to pretend to because it is
VFR-arrival-only)
In that case, what I would do is remain at a nice safe altitude, positioned myself on about a 3nm long final at 1000ft AGL (1700ft QNH), fully configured for a landing, and descended at say 700fpm to a self imposed MDH of say 500-600ft.
The Q then is how to position oneself on this 3nm final approach track. A straight-in approach is always safest, so using the GPS OBS mode I would fly reciprocal outbound first for about 10nm, do an FAA-style procedure turn, and then come back in.
Of course, being N-reg and aware of 91.175, I would not be doing this and if I was I would not be writing about it
But taking the totally hypothetical scenario (which you are not allowed to read unless flying a G-reg, in which it would not be illegal) that I was doing this, I would have done "due diligence" before departure (especially in this case, knowing the weather was going to be at best marginal VFR) by looking at the topo charts and checking that the 500-600ft MDH is fine
at the last SDF. (I do have 1:50k topo charts for Austria but in so many files, for Oziexplorer, that I don't have the time to find the tile which covers LOAV). I would have also fixed two GPS user waypoint SDFs (stepdown fixes), both on long final: one at 10D, one at 3D, and worked out a missed approach procedure (probably a straight climb back to the VOR). Ideally, flown that whole approach in VMC, first, on a previous visit. Actually there is more to this; one would check RAIM, check the fixes using VOR/DME, etc. The outbound would be flown using the OBS mode and the inbound would be best flown using the predefined waypoints but could also be flown using the OBS mode - that is how one flies NDB or VOR approaches using the GPS.
What would somebody else do? I don't know. My guess is that most pilots would self position on a long final and then descend towards the runway.
Very few people have accidents doing this kind of thing; after all it is practically a proper instrument approach all the way to the airport. But lots have accidents trying to play the official VFR game and remain VFR under a low cloudbase, perhaps flying a whole circuit.
3) the pilot comes off the VOR approach at the MAPt and can sort-of see the ground.
Difficult to say. It depends on what level of "sort of".
Looking at the crash location, 1) is a possible explanation, 2) very unlikely, 3) possible.
But we could go round in circles, without knowing the radar track. You bet some ATCO at LOWW is reading this....... in fact the staff at LOAV will know the exact track too.
LH2 - N2195B is the one I referred to. But I will read yours too
