Double Bogey
Unfortunately - having an expensive Ops manual published for you and operating as CAT under an AOC does not stop you crashing if you think you know better than the rules.
'Harding' was meant to have been CAT - and would have been fine if pilot had stuck to the rules.....ie, told passenger that flight was grounded due poor weather. Which goes the same for a PVT flight - if pilot had stuck to the rules.
Harding's PA paid for a vfr (let's call it ''daytime' for punter simplicity) machine afterall - or didn't his PA explain/understand the difference ...............
Unfortunately, scottish rally driver seemed to think he knew better - and being a mechanical wizz-kidd, probably thought he could cope with anything mechanical that was thrown at him.
We have guys working for us who used to 'spanner' for him and, despite being saddened by his loss (miracle driver etc), were not surprised that he had "stuffed it in" (their words not mine).
Most worshipped the ground he walked on - but as a driver - not a pilot!
They told me that he flew around as if he was in a rally car - take from that what you will - now can we simply dismiss this terrible accident as another case of a pilot under-estimating weather conditions and over-estimating their skill level?
A scenario that no level of rule implementation could realistically cater for?