What a very sad outcome. I didn't know Des but I've seen his plane before. He'd clearly touched a lot of people with his goodness and to all those people that are feeling so low right now, I guess we'd all do well to remember him for all that he was and be thankful to have had someone so passionate about aviation in our experience. The Des Porter's of this world bring colour and life to many, many people. Think of all those kids that that would have marvelled at that beautiful red Dragon. And all those older people whose hearts would have been warmed by the appearance of something so special from a bygone era. That he took an aircraft that had been associated with such family tragedy and turned it into a wonderful sight we've all been able to enjoy all these years is a testament to his determination to remember his father and his brother who perished in the crash in 1954.
I'm sure he, his wife and his best friends that have perished will be sorely missed.
Good work to the hundreds of people involved in the search. It was always going to be unlikely they'd be found alive and well; but at least they were found and this hasn't gone on for years like the NZ incident mentioned above or the Cessna VH-MDX that disappeared near the Barrington Tops in 1981 and has never been found.
I think what Slackie writes below is very true and I've had experience with his number 2 scenario as well. I personally think we all (us, CASA, AOPA, the industry) need to do so much more work on helping pilots strategise around making plans that involve taking passengers on cross-country trips over high ground VFR. I believe there's just so much more skill required on the whole about setting up fall-back options and briefing your passengers in advance that you may need to cancel a flight altogether and get them back days late (or that they may have to make their own way home on occasions). I can imagine some of the ways this trip up to Monto would have played out and some of the pressures Des would have been under, which on a beautiful day, wouldn't have been an issue, but on this day potentially added to this accident.
My deepest condolences to all the families impacted and people in the aviation community that knew Des and his wife well.
Ren