More background on pilot of the crashed helicopter:
50-year-old Huntington Beach resident Ara Zobayan, the pilot of the aircraft who had a clean safety record and was attempting to travel through adverse conditions.
Before Sunday’s crash, the pilot and flight instructor had no prior accidents or flight incidents, according to Ian Gregor, a California spokesperson for the Federal Aviation Administration. Zobayan received his first private pilot license with a helicopter rating on January 21, 2001, and his commercial pilot license on December 3, 2007.
After learning to fly, Zobayan worked at Group 3 as a flight instructor. One of his students there, Darren Kemp, told the Los Angeles Times that Zobayan had worked as Bryant’s private pilot for some time. “[Bryant] doesn’t let anyone else fly him around but Ara,” Kemp told the paper.
Zobayan later took a job as a pilot at Island Express Holding Corporation, the family-owned helicopter charter company that contracts with Catalina Island to do local tours and was listed as the owner of the vehicle that crashed Sunday. The vehicle, a Sikorsky S-76B, was nearly 30 years old at the time of the crash, having spent several years in the possession of the state of Illinois before getting sold to Island Express in 2015. Representatives for Island Express did not return requests for comment for this story.
Zobayan was a licensed instrument pilot, meaning that he was trained on the safety and navigational tools needed to fly under poor weather conditions.
In recordings from Zobayan’s conversations with aircraft controllers published by LiveATC.net, you can hear the pilot activating what’s called “Special Visual Flight Rules,” meaning that the air controllers might help him detect things he couldn’t himself see. “If you listen to the audio recordings,” the charter employee said, “he asked to be tracked by air traffic control—which means, I need you to track me because I’m in bad conditions.”
https://www.thedailybeast.com/who-was-ara-zobayan-the-pilot-killed-in-kobe-bryants-helicopter-crash
AKA, flight following. SVFR doesn't require it, and in that area it is not as effective because of the terrain. Sounds like Kobe's guy was a good stick, but even good pilots can pork it up and crash. I make the assumption that the freezing level was low that day, otherwise he shoulda filed/flown IFR to Thousand Oaks and been on top.
“Special Visual Flight Rules,” meaning that the air controllers might help him detect things he couldn’t himself see.
That isn't what SVFR means, and if you need tracking for things you can't see, wtf happens when the tracker tells you 'something' is there and you still can't see? Over or around are the two choices.