The relevance of the airworthiness issues is that they establish (as did his other legal divergences) that this individual was a man who was prepared to flout regulations because he did not think they were important or because he thought he knew better.
His cavalier attitude to the rules was both directly responsible for his death - had he not been illegally night flying he would not have died - and indirectly responsible as well - he thought he was more capable and knowledgable than he was.
He was an accident waiting for a place to happen and i'm glad that he did not take anyone with him. I happened to be visiting AAIB soon after they brought the wreckage of his aircraft in - very sad - all the more so because it was simply not necessary.
There are certain arenas that reward aggressive, contrarian behaviour and a flexible attitude towards rules... Aviation is not one of them!
I hope that people will learn from this sad tale - some will stalwartly refuse to and we will talk about them here when it is their turn.
OH