Posted on 01/27/2020 8:02:45 AM PST by C19fan
JFK Jr. took off under marginal VFR conditions near dusk. He had had one or two lessons on instrument flying, but was not instrument (IFR) rated. He became disoriented and got himself and his plane into a “death spiral”, where a pilot flies at a constant rate of curvature, but continually loses altitude. The fluid in the inner ear begins to rotate at the same rate as the spiral. Leveling off makes you feel like you are spinning, so inexperience, or untrained pilots ignore their artificial horizon (which is correct) and altimeters, and rely on the “seat of their pants”, which is wrong.
No evidence that that occurred here. I have taken puddle jumpers out of LAX to Santa Rosa, and you fly below the level of the nearby mountains. It’s scary, even in good weather.
I’m no expert here but if the police had ground their choppers due to fog the pilot should have chose to use the IFR however inconvenient or not fly at all. Oh well.
Don’t wait, fly the damn plane(helo) and do what you have to do to survive.
But every modern high end airplane and helicopter has onboard navigation systems with GPS based terrain displays. So the pilot, if competent, would always know their position relative to the terrain.
This seems like a case of a VFR pilot flying into IFR conditions. I am surprised anyone would fly what amounted to a commercial job around IFR conditions without being able to handle their aircraft in IFR conditions.
Wife was getting manicure.
This was obviously a controlled flight into ground. Pilot Error. The rotors on helicopters act as parachutes, sort of. If a helicopter loses power the pilot can "auto rotate" - i.e., glide with about as much control as a fixed wing aircraft in similar circumstances, and *way* more control than with parachutes.
It’s a 12 passenger helicopter.
This was an experienced pilot with IFR certification. The helicopter is IFR capable and often has 2 pilots.
Like I said, pilot error.
Kobe is not to blame. Ultimately, it’s the pilot’s fault. However, there is a lot of truth to the claim of “using a helicopter as a school bus because you don’t like to sit in traffic.” On a Sunday morning, Orange County to Thousand Oaks should have been a 1.5 hour drive, tops. A pain but big deal for the rest of us peons.
I’m guessing the one from GA.
;)
You are right. And even after arriving at the destination airport they still would have had to drive.
It’s hard to imagine any commercial flight (and I believe this was a flight for hire) operating without GPS. The foreflight app is less than $1k and installs on iOS and android.
It projects a map of minimum clearance altitudes directly over a GPS map on your device.
Just waiting for the lawsuit against Sikorsky helicopter company.
The last 5 readings (in the last minute) are:
1750
1950
2125
2050
1700
What is the terrain like there? Steep mountains? Dropping from 2125 to 1700 in 30 seconds at the most is disturbing but if you’re up against a steep mountain your altitude could drop quickly that way too.
That is not true. The pilot was an instrument rated instructor pilot flying under SVFR (special VFR) rules allowing him to fly low. This was done for expediency to save time. Probably pilot error unless a mechanical problem is discovered. When flying that low you simply have no margin of error. If things go wrong you have no altitude to recover.
-—> Theres a cell phone video of the seconds before impact. Total control loss like tail rotor gone or some equivalent mechanical failure. <——
Sorry. My bad. The video i was referring to is fake news. Please disregard my previous post.
I realize that now. I think instead of speculating about what happened and wait to see what the NTSB says what happened.
I understand at the time of the crash Bryant was texting a certain screen writer and was discussing starting or developing a new movie studio. The person who was texting with him noted the text just stopped and he assumed it was a cell phone reception issue.
The terrain is hilly, and they were apparently trying to fly in the valley where highway 101 runs. Most peaks in the area are under 2000 ft tall, a couple are over that. I suspect at 3000 ft you would be clear of the terrain anywhere in the area.
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