Quote:
Originally Posted by rattlsnak
You cannot come to a stop or hover in the clouds in a helo.. You have no visual clues which way you might be moving.
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Some helo's have auto-pilot coupled hover capability with dedicated instruments that depict velocity vectors in the hover. Thinks over water search and rescue at night with no horizon. It is amazing to do.
I could even pass control of the helicopter (limited in velocity) to the crewman working the rescue.
In this case it would not have helped.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cajundaddy
Preliminary NTSB findings were released. The data suggests that the pilot got closed out of VFR conditions and was climbing to get above the soup. He likely became disoriented and lost control, going into a steep left spiral at 4000' per minute.
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Wow.
A 4000ft a minute rate of descent is hard to do if you want to.
I have about 50 hours in an S-76 (I did the Sikorsky pilot instrument checks when I was at the factory) and can't imagine establishing that rate of descent in that helo.
Wow.