russp wrote:Did I miss something? IFR rated pilot flies into IMC in an aircraft that appears to be instrumented for IMC and after contacting ATC lands safely.
I missed this one first time round, only looked at it following the recent YouTuber bashing that has been going on in a few threads. I think this is a good example of how to bare your soul after an error in judgement. I don’t think this was made up or hammed up, you can hear it in his voice in the ATC transmissions.
I think you maybe did miss something @russp, IFR rated pilot, in an IFR/IMC fitted and capable aircraft, inadvertently flies into IMC, gets a bit flustered despite his training, forgets some of his checks despite his training, gets help, mildly panics when autopilot disengages and bells and whistles start flashing and screeching, IFR training kicks in, remembers to Aviate, messes around with stuff, remembers that achieving a sensible pitch and power setting will make sure he is not in a stalled condition, finally kills the noise THEN remembers his pitot heater and the world calms down around him.
Eventually continues to apply his IFR training and successfully fights his instincts and follows the instruments, gets to VMC lands safely.
Now, suppose he wasn’t in an IFR equipped aircraft and didn’t have a pitot heater. Let’s assume he only has the basic NPPL(A) M level of training, ie no instrument training… how much more flustered would he have been, especially if he had never thought about what he would do or practiced a 180 level turn by sole reference to instruments… now look at the thread in the general forum on the CAA consultation on revisions to PPL level licencing…