Kobe Bryant gone???!!!!!

Shocking.
Just coming in:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/nb...crash-in-calabasas/ar-BBZlI5N?ocid=spartanntp

Now on CNN: https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/26/us/calabasas-helicopter-crash-trnd/index.html

Woah! Growing up in Chicago during the MJ era, I have incredible respect for Kobe. RIP.

Five souls total. Terrible.

Although I have no interest in the NBA, I still knew who Kobe was from back when he played HS ball in Philly. Such sad news...and just a day after LeBron had passed him on the all-times point list.

News I'm watching says TMZ reports - not independently confirmed - that his daughter was with him. Have seen on a couple sources, all unconfirmed as now.

https://www.tmz.com

I re-played his flight on Flightradar24

Yes, I now read that one of his daughters (13 years old) died as well.

Now count up to nine. Pilot and 8 passengers.

LarryK said:

Now count up to nine. Pilot and 8 passengers.

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Sad...very sad.

I just heard a prominant person on television say that Kobe did many great things on and off the "field."

Now, I don't really follow Basketball all that much, but I'm pretty sure it isn't played on a field.

It appears they were flying too low in dense fog, still a lot of questions to be answered. So very sad.

I remember the standing ovation he got from the crowd the last time he appeared in Oklahoma City shortly before retiring.

PAUL161 said:

It appears they were flying too low in dense fog, still a lot of questions to be answered. So very sad.

Click to expand...

I'm now reading that the LAPD had grounded its helicopters due to fog.

Some of the witnesses yesterday were saying to news outlets that they didn't think it was running quite right, claims of hearing sputtering and uneven engine sounds. Terrible thing to happen to all those people on board.

Having a commercial helicopter license, I try to listen to the NTSB reports on accidents and very few accidents are caused by parts failures, even though pilot error is on top of the list, they do happen! I was in one that one of the vertical links to one of the blades broke in half, fortunately we were only 15 foot off the ground when it happened, one blade cut the cab in half right behind the front seats! Helicopters are very complicated machines and take a ton of constant maintenance to keep them operating properly, so I wouldn't rule out equipment failure. JMHO. PJ

As another commercially licensed rotary wing pilot: I certainly wouldn’t rule out mechanical failures/malfunction but the turbine engines in modern helicopters don’t “sputter”. The witnesses were most likely hearing “blade slap” which often happens in a turn with a lightly loaded disc. Given the reported weather at the time, photos of the scene, and what one can glean from the witness reports (which are often proven to be inaccurate), it would suggest to me that the pilot lost reference in poor visibility. Whatever the cause, it is likely to be a long time before we know officially but in the meantime RIP to everyone on board. It is very sad.

A you tube contaminator who does aircraft subjects "Blancolirio" was saying that a helicopter can not be hovered while flying in IFR conditions?

I have never been in one so I have no idea.
A friend was in the British Naval flight school training to be a helicopter pilot. He got bumped off the course when he could not make the required progress in helicopter blind flying. He said it was the hardest thing he had ever tried to master. Said fixed wing blind flying was a breeze compared to helicopters. I think he said he had close to 200 hours when he got pushed off the program.

David

Oddly, I just finished my recurrent training which for a FAA license requires Inadvertent IMC (Instrument Meteorological Condition) recovery training. In a helicopter with no autopilot it is difficult to manage turns and fly a heading due to inherent instability of helicopters.
Transport Canada mandates Low Visibility training in order to fly down to 1/2 mile (1 mile is the minimum in Class G airspace unless certain requirements are met) which involves considerations of fuel management, time of day and other things that one must be mindful of and then evasive maneuvering. Basically avoidance and prevention.
The FAR’s in the USA allow us to 1/2 mile in Class G airspace anytime if you have done the foggles (obscurred glasses so you can’t see out the windows) on training and passed the ride. Basically how to handle it once it is encountered. I am dual licensed and have done both for nearly 20 yrs and for me the adage that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure holds true but to be fair the differences in philosophy might be due to the extent of remote areas in Canada vs the US.
Hovering in these conditions has never been discussed in a training flight in either system. If one was to try that while flying VFR without being close to a stationary object to keep in site I fear it would be the last mistake they’d make...

if anyone is interested, there is some interesting reading in this forum about this particular accident. Of course, there is some nonsense but also lots of food for thought;

https://www.pprune.org/rotorheads/629197-kobe-bryant-killed-s76-crash.html

regards
c74

My only experience instrument flying was in gliders in the UK back in the 1970s. We were allowed to cloud fly under certain conditions.
Self learning with a T&S plus air speed, some of us had a mechanical artificial horizon but that took a while to spin up. Quickly found that a peek out the window resulted in a quick exit from the cloud often in a spin.

David

That is sad,but I'm getting really tired of the hourly reports -
it was mentioned at least TWICE on the local news.