Our sympathies to everyone involved. It is always upsetting whenever this happens...
Having done the YMPC to YBLT many times, the weather can quickly change as showers come in. The ground rises heading towards YBLT and it rises quickly just past Bacchus Marsh. More than once I have had to upgrade to IFR. Although there is a comment on the Channel 9 link, from someone at the Ballarat Aeroclub that the ceiling was 1500'AGL at the time of the accident.
Re the Garmin 1000- all the flight data is recorded on an SD card, you can up load this on various websites and get very detailed data. This SD card goes in the upper slot on the MFD. If there was no SD card then I am not sure if any data gets recorded.
Sad day indeed.
JERR