Recently, Hilton posted:

Hi,

Unfortunately some folks have degraded the initial thread to some
political rambling, so I figured I'd post this to a new thread.

As I predicted:
1. "non-instrument rated private pilot"
2. "Night instrument meteorological conditions prevailed"

What does this mean, exactly? A clear, moonless night in a rural area
would qualify. I thought this accident was during a time when IMC
prevailed, regardless of the time of day?

3. "a flight plan was not filed for the cross-country flight"

Would that have made a difference?

4. "As the airplane proceeded east from the departure airport, the
pilot reported that he was having trouble maintaining outside visual
contact and controlling the airplane and wanted help getting back to
the airport."

http://www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/brief.asp?e...27X02016&key=1

I am a CFI-I and I wouldn't have taken my wife and two kids up on that
flight in those conditions.

My own rule-of-thumb is that, one might survive a single bad decision, but
would be unlikely to survive multiple simultaneous bad decisions. If this
person took off in IMC (not being instrument rated), he made the worst
possible decision, and any other aspect of the flight only served to
guarantee his demise.

Neil