Posted on 01/26/2020 2:53:27 PM PST by Duke C.
S-76 probably broke up upon CFIT (controlled flight into terrain) nosed in to the mountain side at 186MPH. By design helicopter would auto-rotate to the ground but the S-76B broke up on impact.
I was talking to my sis, the retired ATC, about it, and we both think the circling was maybe just sightseeing since it was near the Hollywood area at that point. We feel that as much as he flew around the area, Bryant was probably quite familiar with the sights from the air over LA, as was the pilot.
On flightradar, it appears that the guy was flying (with exception of the circling) almost at max cruise most of the time, or only 10-15 knots below that. I think he chose the wrong canyon to fly through, and because of his speed had to climb rapidly when he sensed it was close ended, got behind the a/c as he went for a 180 in the soup, and came out of his turn in a dive.
My dad always told me: If you sense that you are getting behind the a/c, and you have plenty of speed and power,..... slow... it... down, and catch up with it.
That happened when I took my ME (c310) flight exam back in 86. The examiner really put me through it: chopping engines while making climbing turns, you name it. Then he has me put on the hood, and does the same stuff, only he makes me go partial panel for a while,..... but we forgot the suction cup gauge covers......
I’m looking through the hood, there is his hand wedging business cards against the round edges of the gauges. It was funny. One would fall, and he would pull out more.
I did have to back off the power a couple times to stay with it, but he didn’t complain.
My understanding was he was flying in dense fog, lost and wanted vectors but ATC said he was too low to be picked up on radar. I receive the NTSB Reporter and I’ll post their findings here.
Yeah, when the track shows he wasn’t following hwy 101 anymore, he was most likely losing sight of the ground. That would have been a good time for a departure climb rate on autopilot, then radar could have helped him.
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