I dont want to talk down to those who were involved in these tradgedies.
That is not my point here. But lets do something pro-active with this
discussion - let me make a suggestion:

   I just finnished giving a BFR to a pilot who flies as part of his
business. I ask myself after the first flight if I would put my family in
the plane with him and send him into IFR or dense traffic. The answer was
no. The BFR then required a little more time and training. He was a rare
businessman/pilot as he agreed with me and was more than willing to come out
for more training. But how many pilots do you meet that are really
interested or take time to do this?

     All of us can upgrade our abilities if we are a little disciplined.
When you fly with another pilot, go under the hood and practice - and
practice with some malfunctions. Vaccume failure, gear failure, electrical
failure - gps failure.  When you have an experience with your avionics where
you didnt understand how to get the GPS/MFD or whatever to show what you
wanted to show - get out the book and look it up. Then practice doing it the
right way.

    Get some time with an experienced professional pilot who flies hi
performance airplanes (something that burns Jet A preferably) - and learn
how to develop good habits.

   Always leave yourself an out, and like I said to the BFR candidate -
dont wait 2 years to ask your next question or get some recurrent training.
Dont be one of those that say any landing you can walk away from is a good
landing. That's just an excuse. A good landing  is one that was preceeded by
a well planned flight, decent, and approach and was properly and
professionally handled. Reach for a little higher level of flying han you
normally have in the past..

    If we dont do this kind of self discipline we may soon find ourselves
in difficulty of insuring our aircraft (at best) or with our children /
grandchildren missing us (at worst) Life is short - there is no reason to
cut it shorter.

Nathan Kanagy