You're probably right that they perished quickly. I don't think that discounts the usefulness of a flight plan. Not every crash kills its victims on impact. Plus, didn't it take a week to find these folks? What if one of them managed to live for even two or three hours afterward?
In fact filing a flight plan is mostly a waste of time. I really can't think of a single instance where someone saved their life because they filed a flight plan.
I haven't argued that filing flight plans saved peoples lives. Frankly, I don't think there's anything you can do to guarantee 100% that you're not going to have an accident while flying. But we do these things...preflight checks, careful flight planning, etc....because it's one more thing you can do to help yourself.
Flight following is good for peace of mind, but I know quite a few pilots that use flight following, set the autopilot and then just sit back and listen to tunes. They might just as well fly commercial, it would be saferr.
Yeah, I definitely would not feel comfortable flying with those who would take that sort of attitude. But that's not the fault of flight following....
Personally my rules are no mechanical problems what so ever, good weather, plenty of fuel, plenty of time, a rested and relaxed pilot (me) competent and current in the plane. I may bend 1 of those rules at a time but that is it.
Which rule of the above do you occasionally bend?
I think it was Chuck Yeager who said that it is the third problem that kills you. So my fly, no fly decisions depend limiting the chances of three problems occurring : ) Filing a flight plan or using flight following is of very little importance when I fly. It also seems that when I need flight following the most, like at Oshkosh, it isn't available.
We just have different ways of thinking on this, which I can completely accept. I just don't think filing a flight plan or requesting flight following is that much of hassle. Then again, we filed flight plans for everything cross country in flight school, and I could pretty much have one filed in about 45 seconds and get a weather brief. Yeah, it'll give you a little more radio work early in your flight, but even that is still negligible. And I agree with you 1000% that flying is fun, and should be. I always have fun flying.
In fact, I owe one of my most favorite times to flight following. It's pretty cool to hear over the radio "Cessna 8-Fox-Romeo, traffic is two F-16s your 10 o'clock, three miles.....would you like a fly-by?" (thanks to Luke AFB).