Skill, judgement and the situation - @ Cland
We are finally getting to the core of flying safety here, and we must take into account technology, human factors and the bottom line $$$$.
Late here, and will opine later, but first.
Few of us here arrived on this forum without having experienced one or more situations that were not planned or we could not avoid with all our skill and planning. Face it. Sierra happens. Mechanical things break. Weather is not what the troop told us. and the beat goes on.
The bottomline is how we handle the unexpected and how were we trained. Along the way, how do we fly day-to-day? Do we assume nothing bad will ever happen? Or do we think "what would I do if "x" happened this instant". I can tell you what this old survivor did. And I'll do it later, as just got back from TDY and hitting the rack.