In response to this story a friend from deep south of WA told me he knew of 3 muster pilots who succumbed to the same ailment and another who was not a muster pilot. Also of another who currently has a practice of it, even down to getting lost landing at the wrong station refuelling and carrying on when the original flight could have occurred in daylight in fifteen minutes. Clearly we will read about that bloke someday to.
Over the years I have known of quite some, often the response when one asks why is, "Oh, he had it hanging on the wall." Well bugger me, how do they get stopped at doing it cos it's not them that suffers when they wipe themselves out?
I really don't know what to think, certainly it is dang stupid to contemplate it without both training and equipped panel, but teaching a couple of easy tricks to people how to save themselves leads me to think then more of it will happen.The big trouble is they will not recognise the difference between tricks and reality when you have to land and swag it and they will not be prepared for that as we used to be with basic stuff like adequate water, tucker, swag, good radio (nowadays a sat phone) and matches to keep you warm.
Perhaps there could be some mandatory very cheap shock techniques that they should all go thru every couple of years to bring it home, say standing in a room being slowly darkened and with a shifting image of the horizon as it slowly fades being projected onto a wall in front of them, but have the floor lined with beds of nails so when they fall it hurts. Some more reality like standing by with a big stick to beat them with when they are on the floor because they didn't call out to stop in time might be a good idea as well, then hit them with the full wall image of a grieving woman and kids to contemplate.
One of the big troubles is that these blokes are not professional aviators with accomplished professional airman-ship and downright refuse to seek or acknowledge such traits.
tet.