Taken from a post on "the other forum".
Seems he did a lot more than just land in a tree!
"perhaps the will put a bit more meat on the bones - an "e" mail I received re the incident in question slightly filleted. It came via a third party and I have no idea who the originator was.
Starts
Here's what the papers didn't say about the Dundee light aircraft crash.
An aircraft on a 7000 squawk had been watched climbing out of Barrow towards TLA steadily climbing to around 9,000ft but not in contact with Scottish Information or Scottish Control. It turned out to be G-VINH a Flight Design CTsw.
GVINH tried to call Edinburgh Approach reporting 10 miles south of Edinburgh but couldn't get two-way contact so called Scottish Control (Talla Sector 126.3) and reported 15 miles south of Edinburgh at 8,700ft. That position would be well inside class D airspace which requires an ATC clearance to enter but where no separation is required to be provided between VFR and IFR traffic. The controller allocated him a squawk and identified him, actually some 45 miles south of Edinburgh and just outside but about to enter controlled airspace. He reported that he was flying VFR from Barrow to Kinloss at 8,700ft. The Talla controller gave him a clearance to transit the Scottish TMA at FL90. Though not legally required to, she took the moral decision to separate this VFR flight from all her IFR inbounds to Edinburgh, all of which would pass close to him whilst descending into Edinburgh. His level drifted between FL80 and FL95 and he commented on the fact that he saw many big aeroplanes passing him by and would prefer if they stayed further away. Pilot's reports and the controller's say that he had a very chatty and laid back attitude and seemed to be completely unaware of the trouble he was causing.
I was being kept up-to-date on these developments as I was on the next sector that he would enter (Tay Sector). At the time I was working an AA-5 northwest of Newcastle inbound Kirknewton at FL70. He was IFR but VMC on top of an 8/8th layer of cloud. I suspect that G-NH was also VMC on top.
Nearer to Talla GVINH asked to climb to 10,000ft and was cleared to FL100. He did not understand Flight Levels and eventually the harassed and busy controller cleared him to fly at 10,000ft on 1013mb which he was happy with. Thankfully at this point I was sent off for my tea break so had no further need to worry about him. However before reaching Edinburgh he requested to descend to 5,000ft "due to clouds". The Talla controller coordinated with Edinburgh Approach who cleared him down to FL70 only (the Standard Instrument Departures from Edinburgh all climb to 6,000ft). G-NH was cleared to FL70 and transferred to Edinburgh Approach. He was seen to descend through the Edinburgh CTR down to 3,000ft. Later Edinburgh Approach phoned to complain that he had dropped below FL70 and they were still waiting for him to be transferred from Scottish. However Scottish had transferred him when he started his descent out of FL100, which G-NH acknowledged. He never did call Edinburgh. By now my supervisor was involved and as G-NH was approaching Glenrothes at around 3,000ft my supervisor phoned Glenrothes and Leuchars to see if he was in contact with them. He wasn't. Some time later Dundee called to say that G-NH was diverting into them for fuel. He had called them saying he was at 10,000ft but radar indicates that he was below 5,000ft.
This next bit is not confirmed yet but will make interesting reading in the AAIB report. Apparently (I don't know if this is true) he did a low approach and go-around at Dundee, complaining that he thought he must have a fuel leak. Why didn't he land? A few minutes later the engine stopped and he elected to make a forced landing in a golf course to the North-East of Dundee City. Rather than landing on one of the 18 fairways he chose to stall his aircraft into a crop of trees (a manoeuvre he read about in a Biggles book, he says). He managed to 'land' some 40ft up a tree and after an hour was successfully rescued by the fire service. Rather than phoning the AAIB or my watch supervisor he then gave interviews to TV crews telling of his Biggles landing technique and the need to avoid houses in the area.
1) Why did he run out of fuel after 140nm of a 216nm flight?
2) Why was he prepared to enter the Scottish TMA (Class D) without a clearance?
3) Why did he not know what a Flight Level was?
4) Why when he discovered he had a fuel problem did he not land at Glenrothes, Leuchars, Perth or Dundee?
5) Why did he elect to land in trees rather than the many fairways available?
This microlight pilot was certainly not a hero for saving lives in the houses near to the golf course or those few golfers on the fairways. He was a reckless fool who endangered the lives of hundreds by planning to fly through the Scottish TMA without talking to Scottish and getting a clearance first (thank goodness he had a transponder with Mode C on), flying through the Edinburgh CTR without a clearance or making contact with Edinburgh, doing a go around at Dundee when he thought he had a fuel leak rather than landing to check it out. Or if there was no fuel leak then his fuel planning was terribly out, as he only had fuel for about 55% of the trip.
Unlike some I don't think this (low time) pilot should be banned but I do think the book should be thrown at him, heavy fines imposed and a lot of retraining and examination carried out before he is allowed to fly again. He made some mistakes and has paid a heavy price for them already, with a written-off aeroplane. But if he had run out of fuel over the mountains he would possibly be dead now. So he is very lucky.
Maybe the investigation will find some mechanical fault that caused his problem but that will not excuse his poor planning and poor airmanship. But he was definitely not a hero, as reported in the press and by witnesses to the crash. Pilots like this give us all a bad name and can only harm the few remaining freedoms we have.""