Andrewr, re your post #524, I'm not sure where you are going with this line of reasoning, however I'll note that under Night VFR the pilot must either navigate with continual reference to the ground or use Navaids. If he could no longer navigate visually and his navaids were not working, he had an obligation to report to ATC that he was unable to maintain standard track keeping tolerances, declaring an emergency if necessary and requesting radar vectors if available.
Dick, re your post #496 where your comment "No need for the gyro as it was CAVOK that would allow visual reference to ground all the way to Bankstown that night". Flying under NVFR it is mandatory to have a serviceable attitude indicator (artificial horizon) and heading indicator (directional gyro). See CAO20.18 Appendix IV Instruments required for aeroplanes engaged in: (i) aerial work and private operations under the Instrument Flight Rules (including night V.M.C.).
Also, remember that CAVOK means no cloud below 5000'. If you're flying at 8000' you could be flying over a cloud layer that prevents visual reference with the ground.
We know from the radio transmissions that the pilot was having trouble with his flight instruments but we don't know when these problems first became evident. Given that the pilot remarked to the refueller in Coolangatta that there was some problem with the gyros or electrics, therefore regardless of whether the pilot was planning to fly over the mountains or down the coast, one would have to question the pilot's decision to get airborne at night with suspect instruments. If the instruments failed airborne, the pilot should have declared an emergency right away which would have given him the ability to fly wherever he wanted even through active restricted airspace.
So if you're in the camp that states it was the fault of the RAAF airspace that caused the pilot to crash, you would have to agree that if the pilot had declared an emergency and flown down the coast, he would have reached his destination. And I could elaborate to identify other contributory factors as in all accidents removing any of the links or holes in cheese would have prevented the accident. My point is that the sweeping simplistic statement "I blame the situation on the military airspace at Williamtown" at the exclusion of all other factors is disingenuous.
Well said that man!
