God...the guy died doing probably what he was saying was okay to do...karma, man. Karma.
Anyway, I upgraded at the end of last summer. The first thing I learned was NO ONE HAS YOUR BACK. At least not in 134.5. I've gotten in a few "discussions" about flying in crap wx, why can't you land on a 4000' runway...usually with sigmets abound and airport analysis, and I honestly feel that because I'm the only "PIC" on the equipment, I still have a job. Does that give me extra confidence? Yup, but it still wouldn't deter me from saying "no" if we had 10 PIC's. My mantra, "No one ever NEEDS to land in ASE".
He DID die doing something he used to fuss at me for ,but he was not overgross at the time. What comes around really does go around!