This is a discussion board and so surely aviators of various persuasions are free to discuss matters of interest and express their opinions. In fact 'our man' has positively encouraged discussion with his personal contributions, some of which were so ill-advised as to raise questions about his competence as a pilot. Furthermore, unlike many accident threads, this thread was based largely on the first hand accounts of those involved and is now based on the published official findings. Not exactly idle speculation.
Flying is an unforgiving activity and at some point positivity, optimism and fluffiness have to give way to some hard-nosed realism. In my opinion, the chap concerned is a liability to himself and a danger to other users of the sky and it would be best for all concerned if he moved on to another, less risky, hobby. I sympathise to a limited extent. Not many people find training to be a pilot an easy ride, and most will have had 'eye-opening' moments at some point, but when someone reaches the limits of their talent so readily, you have to wonder if maybe they're just not cut out for piloting. There isn't an automatic right to be a pilot, and those who are not safe shouldn't be up there. Tough titty. Just my opinion.
Many pages back our hero incredibly stated that he was simply going to refer the AAIB inspector to his comments on this thread rather than fill in the official paperwork despite most of his inputs setting alarm bells ringing in the rest of us. Clearly he didn't think he'd done anything wrong at all. He even stated repeatedly that he had not run out of fuel and that it wasn't a crash. Now read the AAIB report again. This guy seems incapable of self-critique even after stacking a perfectly serviceable aeroplane into a treetop and bonging controlled airspace inhabited by airliners with hundreds of people down the back. Sure, it's not my decision whether or not he flies again, but I'd feel more comfortable if he and his ilk didn't.
Last edited by Torque Tonight; 12th August 2010 at 20:41.