JuiceCrewAllStar
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perhaps the discussion of Kobe Bryant -- both positive and negative -- on a Wake Forest message board doesn't have much real life impact
Those marine fog layers are seemingly so random at times. Sometimes it can be bright and sunny at one location, but near zero visibility 2 miles down the road. And they can come and go very quickly. I'm guessing something along those lines is what happened here. Probably fine at takeoff, became really bad, pilot got disoriented, and tragedy happened.
This is probably a dumb question from someone who has never flown in a helicopter before, but could the pilot have just flown straight up and above the marine layer? They're typically very close to the ground, and I'm pretty sure choppers have no issue flying at 5,000-10,000 feet or so.
Yeah, it sounds like they were flying in conditions they really shouldn't have been. It's shame, I mean the pilot could've just sat the thing down somewhere instead of trying to continue on since it was a helicopther. Definitely just sad
Something else about that area is it's not just a line of hills or low mountains as you'd find in most ranges. It's more of a bowl. Depending on where you are, you could be virtually surrounded by hills of different heights on almost all sides. Normally, you could have miles and miles and miles of visibility, but when the marine layer or these fog episodes happen, you might not be able to see a hundred feet. Hell, I've been in fog on PCH near Kobe's house where I had to pull off, because I couldn't see twenty feet in front of my car.
About the same distance from John Wayne to Calabasas is from Calabasas to what is called the Grapevine on I-5. It seems like almost every year there is a 25 or 50 or even 100+ car accident due to the fog.
This is probably a dumb question from someone who has never flown in a helicopter before, but could the pilot have just flown straight up and above the marine layer? They're typically very close to the ground, and I'm pretty sure choppers have no issue flying at 5,000-10,000 feet or so.
From the description (circling landmarks and following certain highways), it seems like the pilot was flying VFR (visual flight rules) and got stuck in heavy fog. Without IFR (Instrument flight rules) training, he/she would be totally lost when he could no longer see the landmarks on the ground. He should have saved them all by getting above the fog and flying over it to a safe landing spot. But doing so would mean losing sight of the ground and the landmarks he was using to navigate, so there is not telling how far off track he would wind up - and they would likely miss the game.
Sounds like the old saying - there is no such thing as old, bold pilots.
To some of you, 500 words, threats of physical violence, and a picture of Brett Kavanaugh may seem out of place. But to me,,,this is Mamba Mentality.
Guessing (based on no experience) that they were only cleared for a specific flight altitude window?
He also asked SOCAL for flight following but was denied as he was too low for that. Ceilings were reported at OVC1300' on NOAA history. The SF valley floor is only 800 to 1000'. He probably went in to IMC when he met the rising terrain westbound on 101, attempted a 180 out while in the soup and hit. We read reports on these outcomes in mountain passes before, eg. Donner pass, Grapevine, the Rockies, etc. where scud running the highway leads to VFR into IMC, then...your boxed in. We'll see in a year when the report comes out, RIP.
How high are the mountains? A couple thousand feet? It's been a while since I've been out there, but it seems like it would be easy to fly straight up/above them and look for an area with no fog to land.