Gary Drescher wrote:
"Tony" wrote in message
oups.com...
The other thing about the OP's note is the pilot asked for circle to
land after flying the ILS to what sounds like MDA before breaking out.
Fate punching one's ticket happens, but those of us who fly SEL in IMC
often (at least if they were trained as I was) fly the approach
expecting to fly the miss and treat finding the runway as a happy
accident. We'd just not consider requesting circle to land under a 200
foot ceiling.

Exactly. A "circle to land" under a 200' ceiling can't possibly be legal or
safe, so the very request already shows serious confusion about elementary
IFR procedure (even though the crash itself didn't occur until the
subsequent approach).

OK, I agree on this specific point. My OP on "getting your ticket
punched" was more addressed at the suggestion that a 1400 hour pilot
was unlikely to be involved in a fairly common, garden-variety accident
mode. I still think it's grasping at straws to suggest that it was CO
poisonin or a medical, but I suppose one could make a case for it. I
still think the fact he was from Phoenix says an awful lot,
potentially.

-cwk.