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Thanks. My cell isn't that loud. All I have to compare it to is the helicopters that fly over my house which has been fairly often since this crash. I'm so used to it that I never realized it's at least one or two a day. They're flying pretty low too. I'm not to far from a small, local airport where people skydive.
I also live across from electrical lines. They have a low chopper to check the lines. I can see the guy hanging out that's looking at them
You can hear the blade slap sound at ~16 seconds in, and I think people are mistaking that for a failing engine. Blade slap is a pretty normal sound at speed combined with sharp banking, like this chopper did.
In the soup, there is no time to react, even at slow speed. By the time you'd see an obstruction (IF you did) you're already on top of it.
IMC leading to spatial disorientation leading to CFIT.
There is no indications this started out in the fog or clouds. He was initially climbing to get over one. This is classical scud running. Got a few hundred hours doing it - any the even more fun of ducking between the towering cumulus. So there is no reason he could not slow his ground speed to whatever was comfortable. In fact he could slow circle until he was above the clouds.
Experienced CFII don't get disoriented. They simply go to the gauges. I was not IFR rated but I could do that easily. Soon as I get suspicious gauges you set the small plane upright and level and then figure out what to do next. This is a pilot who would do that vastly better than a normal one. And I do not think there is any indication of control input to the copter after the start of the dive. And no CFII is going to sit there and watch his bird dive into a hill side without doing something.
It has been interesting how everyone is comparing this flight to what the law enforcement helicopters do. LAPD/LASD both have a conservative policy over and above what the FAA weather minimums are, you can not compare this flight to them. LAPD is based downtown, and it is very common for the weather to be worse, then even 5 miles away. The L.A. basin, has a greater marine influence then the San Fernando valley area. LASD is located at Long Beach airport, which is near the coast. Again, it will fog in at the airport, and be clear 5 miles away. It is very common for LASD to be out flying, but unable to return to Long Beach (in that case they have not only any other airport, but almost all of the sheriff stations have helipads), or be stuck at the airport unable to fly the couple of miles to get to clear/better weather.
The problem is, going west bound on the 101 freeway from the San Fernando valley, the terrain raises and the clouds usually get thicker and lower due to increased marine influence coming from the Ventura area.
This /\
I work at a large medical center and our trauma center choppers follow conservative minimums...probably similar to those LA County follows. IMO, that's a good thing, because medical choppers often fly to places their pilots have never been before ---places with uncharted hazards. Farmer's arm gets caught in and ripped off by a tractor's power take off shaft, chopper responds and will land in / meet local EMS in farmer's field. Chopper must circle proposed landing site first to check for obstacles -- silos, powerlines? --first. Coming in below visual minimums they could miss something and put pilot and flight nurses as well as folks on the ground in danger. Bryant was going to Camarilo ? airport near Mamba Sports and presumably a car would pick them up and drive them from the airport to the game. Even if they landed in the Mamba parking lot, they'd done that before, so are aware of the obstacles. Same for other executive choppers (Bezos, the list goes on) -- I presume most fly to and from Known locations / hazards known by the pilot. County LE may be flying to places unknown after disaster strikes.
There is no indications this started out in the fog or clouds. He was initially climbing to get over one. This is classical scud running. Got a few hundred hours doing it - any the even more fun of ducking between the towering cumulus. So there is no reason he could not slow his ground speed to whatever was comfortable. In fact he could slow circle until he was above the clouds.
Experienced CFII don't get disoriented. They simply go to the gauges. I was not IFR rated but I could do that easily. Soon as I get suspicious gauges you set the small plane upright and level and then figure out what to do next. This is a pilot who would do that vastly better than a normal one. And I do not think there is any indication of control input to the copter after the start of the dive. And no CFII is going to sit there and watch his bird dive into a hill side without doing something.
You seem to think being an "experienced CFII" makes you immune from Spatial Disorientation. You're WRONG. You don't know how he dealt with VFR into IMC. The evidence seems top point to not well.
It isn't a put down, and I apologize if it came across that way.
Hovering a helicopter is not easy and it requires outside visual reference to keep you in one place. The airspeed indicator in most helicopters is just not accurate enough to detect minute changes in speed when close to zero airspeed.
I wasn't meaning to say it is easy. I wouldn't describe any part of flying a helicopter as easy. I was addressing a comment that suggested visual reference is the only way to control tilt. Bubble levels can measure tilt. (Or balls, hey Kobe can you put that basketball and the floor and tell me which way it rolls, lol).
In addition to minute changes in speed there is wind so an airspeed indicator may not be able to tell you ground speed. But GPS is pretty accurate these days. A dynamic positioning system to actually control hovering might be expensive but seems to my layman pov that a device to assist a pilot hovering would be simple and inexpensive.
You seem to think being an "experienced CFII" makes you immune from Spatial Disorientation. You're WRONG. You don't know how he dealt with VFR into IMC. The evidence seems top point to not well.
Not immune but the likelihood is orders of magnitudes lower. Face it. Those guys spend enough time in real or simulated IFR that their responses are automatic. And an experienced helicopter CFII in the LA area has thousands of hours in ugly conditions. It is in the nature of the area.
In a helicopter, either one will kill you right quick.
No. At 20 knots and most presentations the bird would hold together and you would have a pretty good chance of survival. At 10 knots virtually no chance you would get killed.
At 100 knots plus the bird is going to disintegrate with virtually no chance of survival.
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