Spacial disorientation certainly played a role I'd have to imagine. This doesn't happen with commercial airlines etc. but small fixed wing, helos or fighter aircraft pilots just flat out get disoriented if they can't see the landscape, it's dark, bad weather etc.
If you can't see, that has to be a very lonely feeling.
My question is this. If the pilot of this helo couldn't see, why not just pull straight up to 4,000 feet to get out of the cloud cover? I guess it isn't that easy.
If you can't see, that has to be a very lonely feeling.
My question is this. If the pilot of this helo couldn't see, why not just pull straight up to 4,000 feet to get out of the cloud cover? I guess it isn't that easy.
He radioed in multiple times...
When me and my uncle are flying in the small Piper or our racing hot air balloon, it’s definitely a different feeling in the cloud cover, especially in the balloon. I love helicopters, but they’re definitely the most dangerous aircraft out there. Glad I don’t have the money for one, sometimes...
My favorite thing to fly has become the hot air balloon, but false lift and a few other things will create a nightmare that even the best pilot has zero chance at getting out of the situation...
nah. That was just one small hill he didn’t see. He wasn’t even trying to clear anything. He was lost.
He may have missed a hill he didn’t see by 20-30 feet....but pulling up on the helicopter would have put him in jeopardy against other hilly terrain that was much higher than the hill he actually hit. They were surrounded by mountains and couldn’t see anything. And he was speeding. First thing he should have done was slow down. Like the article said, he was aware of the ground, and the terrain ahead of him...what he failed to reckon was the terrain on the sides of him so he turned right into that
He descended 800 ft in a matter on seconds too. That’s pretty quick. Definitely wish we knew why he or the helicopter did.
that's absolutely huge and I don' think that's said enough. Imagine being in an environment where everything looks the same. No depth perception, no left or right , up or down. Everyhting's unidirectional. I 99% guarantee the vertigo is why the helicopter to a fast decent at a high velocity at the very end.
NTSB stated publicly that it wasn’t that simple because he had terrain ahead of him that he wasn’t sure he could clear in time. The media asked if it was true about only not clearing by 20-30 feet. NTSB said yes that was true but there were mountains all around and pulling up wouldn’t have necessary been the best outcome either. That’s the gist of what a lady said in a presser for NTSB.
I don’t think you can switch from VFR to IFR in the middle of the flight. I believe it has to be set up before you take off. I don’t think it was ever an option for the pilot based on how long it would take. And they may take you on a route that takes much longer. They say in the article sometimes you’re waiting an hour just to get clearance. And the pilot had just flown this exact route the day before....he was confident he could get there without any problems.
no. But it does take time to get on it AND the helicopter has to be to high enough in the air (for the radar signal to pick it up). He wasnt, he had radioed in; they couldnt help cause he was too low (noted on the tapes). The guy was stuck, and with the fog basically semi blind.
apparently 'scud running' is the term given when pilots try to out race deteriorating conditions
