tomshep wrote:Would it now be a good time to lock this thread?
No.
The semantics around the legal or casual use of the work negligence is an aside. The wider human factors brought up deserve to be talked about.
I have, on occasion, either scrubbed a flight where an instructor was happy to go, or said, when in the air, "I'm not really comfortable with this, I think we should turn around" and then did. Neither was in ab-initio flying but still fairly early in my flying career.
On another occasion, just a couple of years ago, a front had moved in quicker than forecast and I was on the way back to Bourne Park. Sitting with me was a friend of mine from work who, in another life, is a very experienced bush pilot and instructor. The cloudbase was lowering but I was ok at 800-900ft AGL, but then there was a ridge of cloud ahead. Well, I didn't know if it was a ridge or whether it continued at the lower height beyond. I would have just, where I was, been ok to go under it...but then I was landing on higher ground further to the west, into the worsening weather. I decided I wasn't going to chance it and that I'd divert in to Blackbushe.
My friend seemed a little put out at my decision not to continue but I knew the terrain and the obstacles and decided even if that bit of cloud was just a small ridge, the journey on the other side into the lowering cloudbase wouldn't have been much fun. I was P1, My friend is senior to me in work, and senior to me in flying, but I was flying, and I was the one not comfortable continuing further west.
Thankfully, having diverted into Blackbushe, GAF4F of this forum came and did a bit of car ferrying, so thank you GAF4F for that!