The real PIC.
Can I throw a few words in from a different angle.
As many will know, and apart from doing the standard commercial tasks .... I've been involved in helicopter sales and marketing since the early 1970s. From time to time, one meets up with a potential buyer who unhappily possesses many of the personal traits listed above, and its a tough nut to crack I can tell you. Just like the company pilot who wants to keep his job, the sales guy needs to make sales and I've had occasions when I've made a sale and handed the guy over to the training school only to see him (always male!) blast off home in poor weather. Post event, I've even called the guy in question to offer some sage words ... and sadly on too many occasions, I'd have got a better response from my cat!
I obviously can't list them, but over the years I've seen perhaps half a dozen avoidable fatalities where the base cause has been inadequate weather and the "I've made a few million quid following my own advice so I don't need your advice now," mantra! That situation become horribly all too apparent when in the 1970s a talented F1 driver attempted an impossible landing at a rural airfield that lacked suitable IFR facilities.
Where do our industry's professional responsibilities end?
That's the problem ... anyone out there have the cure?
Safe flying to all pps. Dennis Kenyon.