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Bobby_Batronic

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Everything posted by Bobby_Batronic

  1. Using iPads for primary or secondary navigation is not unusual at all. Some iPad programs like Foreflight even have backup instrumentation options in case the ship’s instruments crap out. If it quits working you’d do the same thing you’d do if your car GPS died. You’d handle it manually. I haven’t seen anything about the helicopter clipping a hill before crashing , but that might be the cause for the sudden dive. There’s some thought that the hard climbing maneuver combined with high speed and weight could have caused the main rotor to hit the tail boom. Or, if the pilot got vertigo he may have managed to get the thing inverted or nearly so, and keeping a positive G feeling in his butt led to an unrecoverable dive at low altitude not I liken a death spiral in a plane. All the wreckage in one spot makes the me think the latter case is it.
  2. Yeah, none of our planes were older than 7 years. The average was 3-5. I was shocked by a 29 year old helo, but the overall gist is the same.
  3. I’m not talking about one of thousands of small charter operators with planes on certificates, and just hopping in random jets. I’m talking about flying planes that have their names or their LLC’s name attached to it. And it’s not just the sports world. I mentioned those names for recognition as most names are public nobodies. I flew plenty of business/wealth managers etc too. They don’t care. I’m not talking about riding private jets on occasion with friends. I’m flew in that world for 11 years. Some took a real interest. Most did not. The people who roll in their own7X, Challenger, G or Global are by far the exception. Most are doing exactly what Kobe did.
  4. Look, I used to fly folks who had to be worth about $100M just to enter the program. And it went up from there. The planes were lavish in back, but extremely basic in front. A few people wanted to know about it, but most could care less. Did it look good on the ramp, look good on the inside and meet their price expectations? Yes? Then hop in. I know lack of price sensitivity and vetting by experts is a thing with some, but it isn’t the norm. Hell, Tiger bought a used NJ’s GV and paid a crew bottom dollar to fly it. Jim Crane, the Houston Astro’s owner, bought a used Citation X with no frills, ran one Captain into the ground driving it for minimal pay and used contract First Officers until he recently upgraded to a Challenger 350. A good comparison is for us mere mortals to take a ride in a sedan service/Uber Black. Do you really care that the Lincoln that pulls up has 200k miles on it and doesn’t have all the bells and whistles that are now available on modern cars? No you don’t. Does it look good inside and out and reliably get your there? Hop in. More and more of of the modern aircraft are coming out with Synthetic Vision or FLIR etc. as standard equipment. Kobe bought a three decade old helicopter lacking modern toys, and had one guy flying it in the weather between terrain. I’m not throwing shade at him for that as it happens all the time, and people get away with it all the time. But he was fine with it even with his high net worth. And no expert vetted it for an “it’s ok” check other than to see if the aircraft was legal, the company providing the pilot had the required certificates and and the pilot himself had the requisite experience. In other words, it was barely vetted if at all.
  5. Again, many very wealthy people could care less about the age of the aircraft or the toys up front as long as the paint and interior are nice.
  6. There haven’t been any brand new rocks in California in some time. A brand new helicopter might have allowed the pilots to see through the clouds via synthetic vision or FLIR. Ground proximity warnings is tied to the location as calculated by the flight management computer. So that should have been shouting at them, and maybe it was hence the steep climb.
  7. Nah. Just that it lost out to several million year old pieces of rock.
  8. That’s because they don’t understand that quite a few wealthy folks don’t give a rip about the equipment up front or age so long as the paint and interior are nice, it gets the job done and is cheap to purchase.
  9. I’m thoroughly unfamiliar with the load characteristics of an S-76, but they were and are used pretty extensively to haul folks out to oil rigs. And those usually aren’t small people. Also, and this may not be the case here, but rules are often bent on personal aircraft.
  10. ATC gave them the go ahead so the FAA would’ve pointing the finger at themselves. That’s the busiest IFR airspace in the world so taking away special VFR from them probably isn’t going to happen.
  11. 29 year old helicopter. They very likely were flying a six pack or maybe had an electronic HSI. I’d think it’s have a GPWS though.
  12. Depends on the age of the S-76. Synthetic vision is largely a GA item and on a new private jets. This one was 29 years old and probably not refitted. Convenience would be my guess. Flying IFR around BUR and VNY is a hassle whereas Special VFR allowed them to scud run a bit and follow corridors. The weather wasn’t VFR, but it wasn’t hard IFR either.
  13. Autopilot off, pull up, max power, retract the spoilers, wings level and don’t change configuration until clear of obstacles. Keep all of the lift vector pointed up. Probably different than helos though.
  14. Helicopters don’t really stall. Probably pulled up hard after going IMC to clear local terrain, or some granite popped out of the gloom, clipped it and crashed. I’d guess that an S-76 has a ground proximity warning system.
  15. They probably filed to El Monte with the intention of picking up a Special VFR clearance to get the rest of the way home.
  16. Always a chance, but controlled flight into terrain due to continued visual flying in instrument conditions is a pretty common killer. Too early to tell anything, but thats likely the case again.
  17. An oft repeated story with all manner of flying machines.
  18. They allow it to fit into existing gate spaces.
  19. Sounds like UAL is hedging their bets. 321XLR if the 10 is a dud, or option down/trade those slots if the XLR is a weak performer. I’m curious to see what they can do with the XLR wing. Supposedly they are reworking the slats/flaps to yield better field performance, but the 321 is usually pretty unhappy above FL330 with anything approaching a full cabin without glassy smooth air. I can’t imagine the XLR will do better with the same span and a good deal more weight.
  20. The problem is that Airbus will have had the 321XLR in production for almost a decade, teething problems fixed and shortcomings largely identified/addressed by the time Boeing can produce the next 757. It's basically going to be the 757-300 with better fuel economy, and hopefully better 321 field performance with a modified wing attached.
  21. Double tap. Works on zombies and passenger planes.
  22. You’d be disappointed. I’m too busy enjoying the roomy simplicity of the Airbus flightdeck. On a serious note the Max is too big too fail. They’ll certify it, go through political theater and passenger angst, and then it’ll be in mass use.
  23. Is one the son of Dana Dimel who happened to be the Co-OC at KSU? Way to go out on a limb for the low hanging fruit their Snyderlet.
  24. I would care if I thought any of this had a chance of working.
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