http://www.aopa.org/asf/acs/acs_into...&cmp=ePlt:Phto

I watched this video this morning and it has been buzzing around in my head. I own a tennis shop and while stringing away, I was trying to think of what this pilot should have done or could have done. First, I'm only thinking about getting my license, so my thoughts may be all wet. At any rate, I wanted to talk this through and figured you veteran pilots would add a lot to my thinking.

First, he should have been getting continual updates on the weather and when it was obvious that his destination was degrading, he should have either turned around or diverted. That didn't happen, so...

He was in a Cirrus SR20 so the chances are excellent that he had either the Garmin Perspective avionics or the Avidyne with something like the Garmin 430W. He supposedly had some IFR training. Here's where I probably go off the rail, but I've viewed enough videos and tutorials that without even sitting in a glass cockpit, I could program an IFR flight plan. And there in lies one of my questions: In this situation, when the pilot saw the weather going downhill and even though he wasn't fully IFR trained, had he known how to program the avionics and using the autopilot, could he do an IFR flight plan "on the fly" (bad pun)? I thought that if he could have done that, he could have been vectored in a certain direction, eased up on his cruise speed and programmed in an IFR flight plan to get him back to DuPage? Again, being a Cirrus, it was probably WAAS capable and could have done a coupled approach and at least got him lined up with the runway.

Or am I all wet? Anyway, this incident and how it played out has really got my though processes churning. Thanks for your indulgence to a wanna' be pilot.

David