I have been reading this thread with some interest as my best friend has recently taken up microlighting and just soloed. Some time back I was searching pprune for microlighting info for him, and stumbled across this thread.
A bit of background. Although not a pilot, I was a full career aviator in the RAF and as both an aircraft commander and senior officer authorising officer on a squadron I was immersed in human factors, flight safety, CRM etc for over 27 years....so I've read, analysed and debriefed many hundreds of accident reports.
I have very little knowledge of microlighting (hence my questions below), but understand the very basics.
Finally, as a munroist, I'm very familiar with the venturi effect on mountains. by coincidence I traversed the summit of Ben More and its neighbour Stob Binnein, 3 days after this sad and tragic event.
My questions relate only the cause/effect and analysis of the accident. No judgement is intended. As an ex professional aviator it distresses me that aviation, civil and military, struggles so hard to separate the analytical from the judgemental. Accident reports IMO are integral to flight safety and any other purpose should be kept well out the way.
Apologies for the lengthy introduction, but my experience with pprune suggests if you don't make your intentions clear, posters will rip you a new one.
I have read the accident report in depth and discussed it with my friend. Two things puzzle me. I hope one or two of you microlighters out there can help me.
1. In overflying the summit (and hill walkers) at 100 ft, was the commander not in breach of the Air Navigation Act? This does not appear to be mentioned in the report (or is the link just to a redacted version of it?).
2. Although the commander was experienced the report says he only has one hour on "type". The keyword here being "type". I understand the ac belonged to the passenger, but if the use of "type" is accurate, it suggests he had virtually no experience of this "type" of microlight. Question...is that significant? Or are microlights so similar that it does not matter?
again I stress, these questions are asked for the purpose of helping a budding microlight pilot understand how human factors affect every part of aviation, in whatever form. No judgement of the commanders actions that day are implied or intended.
Safe flying folks, whatever your chosen chariot.