I think old Colin Glasgow has spent to long at altitude and the poor old bugger is starting to lose it! The only time you would use 15deg is at altitude. As for 30deg, that is available on the heading bug to select at any time! Hilarious!
Probably in Colin's day you would hardly ever here a "bank angle" or "don't sink" because they didn't have EGPWS in the cockpits of the aircraft he flew!
Quite a common things these days, just write a report.
He probably got a "don't sink" because he was acting as a pilot and manipulated the aircraft in order to stay "clear of cloud, in sight of ground or water" as any pilot would do flying an aircraft in VMC into Queentown.
Maybe CAA could go back over their files and pull a few on Mount Cook!! Jesus, they'll have a ball with the media there!
Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't ECT 30min before darkness? Which would make his departure 50 minutes before darkness? I know that ECT is the cut off but in an emergency, such as a return to land, aren't all bets off? I'm sure if it was an unfortunate day, and the chap was to suffer an engine failure on a 27K engined B737-800 with 60 odd POB, she would climb like a raped goat, even on one engine!
I'm thinking Mr Glasgow might lose a bit of credibility amongst his peers on this one.
Loving the media reports though, hilarious! Scary stuff!