@PatoWalker: Broad grin, old friend. Yes the water is certainly there, and it is topped by a lack of available altitude to glide clear if and when things go pear-shaped. OTOH my confidence in the niner-twelver has never lacked, and has never been disappointed. But it is neither blind nor absolute.
Yes, my professional experience has taught me to strongly believe in Mr. you-know-whom, one of our most reliable collaborators even if not figuring on the paylist. Things will go wrong at a time and/or place they shouldn't but then really shouldn't.
Then again we all know "no risc no fun" but to each their own limits. To terminate a brilliant life like mine foddering shrimps or Norman soles doesn't bear thinking of, neither should I risk further poisoning the North Sea with the various additives of mogas 95E10 and Aerosport 80 oil. But to take all those risks only to land into a bunch of fools who probably even fly on the wrong side of airways is really too much but then really too much. Busting an MATZ to come eye to eye with a forlorn Sopwith triplane overhead might make up for some of it all but even in this extremely exotic airspace the chances seem limited.
PS @chevvron: thanks for explaining some of the backgrounds, that might help me get to a milder tone. Still I note even @DML concedes MATZ's are - what was it? - well behind their "sell-by" date.
Last edited by Jan Olieslagers; 20th Oct 2017 at 08:33.