mpls623995

Aaron, Yep, this is my first post. And if you are insinuating that I am Scott...you are incorrect. I was, however his instructor at one point, and I can attest to his superior flying skills and judgement. I would trust him to fly my family, any day. You keep mentioning "flying from the right seat" as if that is less safe than from the left. What seat to do you think is more comfortable for a CFI to fly from? Clearly you have never been an instructor. That is not a poor decision...instructors don't sit in the left seat unless they are teaching an initial CFI applicant. I think his decision to shoot the approach wasn't a poor one. Even primary students should experience solid IMC and an ILS at some point during their training...it is a MUCH better option than hood time. So you think he should have asked the opinion of the passengers to see if they wanted to go into KROC first? I mean, that is a choice, I suppose...but he is the PIC, and gathering public opinion when they aren't pilots isn't always a good idea. And on a last note: for someone in a leadership position, such as yourself, you should be really careful posting such bold statements about an accident and posting pictures on a forum about it before an investigation has taken place. Not only could you and your organization be sued, you never know who is going to read it. The aviation community is a small one, and getting your name out there with posts like this can really come back to bite you.

Aaron, In reading your post, I am still shocked as to what you were trying to receive by sharing this information. I am sure you feel important to be privy to information after a crash, and feel as though sharing your gossip with others is entertaining, however you need to be careful stating such information when an investigation has not been completed. I know you were not onboard that aircraft during that flight. You don't know exactly what happened. You haven't talked to the pilot. I think it is only fair to the pilot and the passengers to not share such information. If your intent is to create something for others to "learn" by, well, that is hard to do if you don't know what actually took place. You said: "Im guessing he got dissorianted, as looking across the cock pit to look at the instruments and looking up for lights can really screw a person up." Well, he may have been disoriented...but you aren't him, and you weren't there, so why would you jump to that conclusion? Wouldn't it be interesting if your airplane was at fault? Would that change what information you would post? Also, for an instrument rated Private Pilot like you to judge the decision making abilities of a CFI, CFII, and former airline pilot is interesting to me. Sounds like he did nothing wrong with his decision making to me. He chose to shoot an approach after a Citation just landed...sounds legit to me, I would do it. He had the gas, and an alternate in mind...why not shoot the approach? Clearly you haven't flown for an airline where you are required to shoot an approach as long as it is legal...and in this case, it was. Now, we may never know why he didn't make it to the runway. Yes, it may have been an error or omission, but it may have been something else. But, I think we can all agree that jumping to conclusions before a formal investigation is complete is not fair to the pilot. What if that had been you?