Hero to Zero
The 'evidence' such as it is on a rumour network does seem to add up, whereas the story Vince gives does not. It is my belief that Vince ran out of fuel, and failed to do a forced landing as he was taught. He found himself landing on a golf course, with a few feet to go and still travelling at 70kts and a tree looming fast. Rather than hit the tree he pulled back on the stick, the CT obliged and ballooned up to the stall. The aircraft rather than crash back to earth was caught in the branches of the tree. He then spent the next hour, while waiting to be rescued, dreaming up the Biggles story. To add some colour to the story he was telling the press, we had crashing into house, avoiding children, golfers etc..
When I have made a mistake I have laid awake at night beating myself up about it, wondering if I should be flying at all. Then speaking to my old CFI and telling him what I have done, being told I wasn't the first to do it and wont be the last does not help. However some good pointers and advise on how to avoid the error in future helps.
Vince while on the train home has plenty of time to reflect on just how very very lucky he was to survive. Not Vince, he travels home in his pajamas to draw attention from the public, and so he could tell them he was the hero pilot on the news. So rather than think about departing his home base with insufficient fuel and planning, flying above 8/8 cloud, busting airspace, failing to land at Dundee, running out of fuel, failing to carry out a forced landing as taught (not bad for one flight) he chooses to ask the CAA to ground all CT's until the fuel problem is sorted. I'm sure CT owners would be very grateful if the CAA grounded their aircraft to save them all from certain death.
PS Oliver please dont sell him another CT the profit will not be worth the hassle.
PPS It would be good to hear from the experts at Barrow, that advised him he was okay, to hear their side. I suspect it was not as Vince reported.