John
I appreciate you are a well experienced Aussie helicopter pilot who has flown nice well organised flights
in expensive kit.
With all due respect I paid for my helicopter PPL at Jandakot in 1989 but spent 8 years flying across Wales in a single engine fixed wing aircraft and often in winter at night.
The low end of fixed wing and rotary flying.
Have you ever flown accross the mountains of North Wales,day or night?
The weather can change so quickly in that part of the world which is why so many pilots from England have died trying to cross Snowdonia or the Cambrian mountains.
Australian weather is quite predictable.
Australia does not have rapid weather changes in a matter of under an hour.
You say
Jay, again you need to look outside your limited box. WA certainly does have wave rotors and downdrafts, albeit not as severe as the Welsh mountains. Glider pilots and the Stirling Ranges spring to mind, odd little ridge lines up Tom Price way, even the Kimberleys can give some difficult turbulence for helicopter ops. If your instructors failed to teach about that as part of your training then they were deficient in preparing you for flying.
I know from experience the chances of having a helicopter operating there as a private flight in marginal weather is on a par with Bob Hawke becoming Premier again.
This is a recent example of where two commercial pilots flying a state of the art helicopter died.
http://www.edp24.co.uk/news/witnesse...rash-1-3992567
The pilot in the accident we are discussing did not set out to kill himself and the passengers.
He just never had the experience or training to warn of the danger ahead if he chose the direct route.
That is what catches pilots out.
VFR flying across the UK is dangerous if you ignore the weather.
It a lot more dangerous at night single engine and single crew.
The odds become even greater flying from Wales to the Channel Islands at night in winter a PA28 or a 172.
Night VFR single engine is risky but very few accidents happen because the aircraft let you down.
I am sure some of my critics who fly for a living in very expensive kit view private pilots flying their own helicopters or fixed wing as cavalier.
If that was the case commercial pilots would never make a mistake such as the one above.