[Kharon]

From the SBG:-

Which brings to item last; sadly we have had yet another fatal accident. Too early to tell for certain if the latest was a VFR into IMC incident; but it serves as a stark reminder of the perils associated with such an excursion. There has been furious debate, spread over many decades on how best to reduce this repeating statistic.  It is an old killer, always present, the dangers well known. You can take your pick of practical solutions – there are many on offer. But clearly ‘regulatory’ penalties and punishment don’t work, much has been written of the ‘psychological’ reasons for pushing your luck; volumes have been published on what’s best to do and what’s not; yet the statistics, world wide, show no reduction. We’ve all done it – junior to senior; yet the only folk not tempted are those who have done it, survived and sworn never to do it again. One instructor, definitely of the ‘old school’ and decades ago, used to take his students into cloud and ‘time’ how long they lasted; not long was the answer.



So much depends on ‘other’ factors that it is almost impossible to determine how long it takes to become ‘disoriented’ and once the holes in that famous cheese start to line up – the outcome is in the lap of the gods. “Just don’t do it” shout the purists – but what of the accidental encounter, the unintentional: or, what of the old trap, that of letting the door behind you close, of always having an escape route and somewhere to go, when trumps turn to dog-pooh? Don’t know the answer and I’ve never heard a complete solution. Seven families have been left grieving. ATSB and CASA do what they can – in their own way, they do and it is not their fault. The advent of GPS and reliable auto pilots create a false sense of security; perhaps these should be removed from the basic training syllabus. Situational awareness is an imperative – contact with the reality of what’s ahead, behind and around the corner; in your own hands and on your own head. I’ll leave it there; for I have no solution to offer, no silver bullet; just our condolences to those left behind.

P7 - One of the reasons I miss the old Air Safety Digest (ASD) is that it never failed to provide a timely reminder to both old and new generations of airmen (I do include the ladies in the honorific title ‘airmen’) of the old killers – Carby ice for example; VFR into IMC; all the ‘traditional’ killers of aircraft and crew and some ‘new’ wrinkles in the old rules which govern that mysterious ethos ‘airmanship’. Fuel injection, GPS, auto pilots which work, cool head sets which take away the noise, no requirement for position reports, radio generated landing bills and a solid belief that ‘our’ engine will never quit; all lull us into a ‘false’ sense of security; a cocoon of belief that all will turn out well in the end, the legislation assures us of this – we are all so much ‘safer’ now

And yet the grim reaper still earns a crust from the same old traps. Murphy has never resigned and continues to enjoy his law.  But then; and not be mawkish, perhaps fate is the hunter after all. Don’t know – who’s to say you won’t get out of bed, feeling great and fall over the cat – land on your head and it’s lights out. Be careful, but not afraid; there are old pilots and there are bold pilots, but very few old, bold pilots.

CW -
What sticks out to me, in terms of my flight training, is the lip service given to basic instrument training. I really don't think that 2 hours under the hood, where you can still see outside the cockpit if you tilt your head just so, is good enough for a PPL, and likewise 10 hours for a CPL.

Most sausage-factory flying schools will cancel a VFR nav if the conditions are marginal - I say why not launch, and make the go/no-go decision in the air? So you may not achieve the objectives, flying from your home base to various waypoints around the place, BUT you get exposed to something a little more real, I would think.

Why don't instructors take their students into cloud and let them figure things out for themselves (at a safe height)? We do the same for stalling - one of the things I told my students was that you should never stall an aircraft by accident, but then we went out and did it deliberately. Why not with *real* IMC?

TB - Its interesting to note that in the USA almost 80% of private pilots hold instrument ratings, against around 20% in Australia. An instrument rating in the USA does not carry the very expensive impedimentof the costs of unrealistic over regulation nor recurrency requirements imposed upon the holder of an IF rating in Australia.

Its very simple to gauge a comparison of cost between the US and Australia.
A simple brows around charter operators in the US reveals that their hourly charge out rate, i.e. cost plus profit, is way less than the operating cost of the same aircraft in Australia. This would suggest that the cost of operating in the US, no matter if its private or commercial is cheaper than Australia,way cheaper.

It is not to much of a stretch to assume that if flying is cheaper in the US because the regulatory burden does not soak up vast amounts of money, private pilots get to fly more and are therefore far more "current" than their Australian brethren. The old axiom "Practice makes Perfect" I believe is so true.
I'd love to see some statistical comparisons between the average hours per year for a US private pilot against an Australian PPL.

Its very difficult to regulate nor educate against inadvertent or deliberate entry into IMC by private pilots. Far better to make it attractive and cost effective for them to up skill with sensible regulation