Kobe Bryant and daughter killed in helicopter crash

[Eleazar]

No warranty on this, but it's on TMZ.

https://www.tmz.com/2020/01/26/kobe-...-in-calabasas/

[Bump]

Originally Posted by stumppy

Riiiiiiiiiiight!

have trouble hearing or something?

[Bump]

Originally Posted by wazu

Oh for crying out loud. People want so bad to be outraged about something. It's an obvious slip of tongue and her explanation makes perfect sense.

don't care, they helped create cancel culture. Let them reap what they sow.

[Buehler445]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

My firm had a plane for a couple of years. About a half-dozen of us were getting pilots licenses, etc...

I was a solo trip and a few solo landings from qualifying when a friend of a partner crashed his plane and barely survived. After some discussion we all came to the same conclusion - it isn't really 'if', it's 'when' and how badly. We sold it and all parties walked away.

In a lot of ways I'm surprised this doesn't happen more often. You wanna know why flying cars aren't a thing that's likely to happen in several lifetimes? There's your answer.

Flying is a constant fight against physics and it takes so very little for tragedy to strike. If you're lucky you walk away but more often than not you don't.

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

Exactly.

It takes maybe a dozen flight hours to be able to fly in ideal conditions. Even landings aren't that tough (and take-offs are a day 2 thing).

But so many private pilots just aren't prepared for adversity. And really, the difference between redundancies on commercial craft vs. private are so enormous.

Flight's simple - lift + velocity. Wings and a motor = flying. Flight surfaces are laughably rudimentary; just redirecting air to steer. So stuff like ultralights are as simple (in many ways more simple) than an economy car.

Commercial craft have the long-term viability chuck hundreds of thousands of dollars in redundancy into and they easily pay for themselves. But to make a commercially viable private aircraft that has those kinds of backup systems is prohibitively expensive for most.

And frankly on a helicopter it's just borderline impossible. Think of how many of those tend to go down in war due to mechanical difficulties. They're just so damn complicated that any kind of system failure is borderline catastrophic.

Like I said - I'm surprised this doesn't happen more often more than anything. It's an inherently dangerous activity.

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

Ours was a 172 w/ an engine conversion to give it the guts of a 182. And yeah, built in the late 60s, early 70s.

I never felt unsafe on it; we didn't **** around with safety or maintenance. Any flight that might encounter weather was just scrubbed and the hearing continued. But I had an instructor who put us through some adversity paces and do shit like surreptitiously kill the motor without telling us. And that rattled the hell out of me.

It wasn't hard to convince me to walk away because as comfortable as I am w/ vehicles, I knew I was lying to myself when I'd say I was ready for real adversity. The 'carb heater' trick and the like would just rattle me more than I'd expect.

We wasted all the flight training and took a bath on the sale, but nobody really cared at that point. Someone was going to be killed or seriously injured at some point so it was the right decision. I haven't been on a light aircraft since and really don't expect that I will be again.

Juice just isn't worth the squeeze.

There is a lot right with what you've posted here, but also some wrong.

It takes work and hours, but I think the average guy could get competent enough with a small airplane to reasonably remove catastrophic pilot error from all but the most extreme outliers of situations. And let's be real here - a vast majority of terrestrial vehicle operators have not achieved this competency. Sure, the stakes are lower, but one can certainly get dead in a terrestrial vehicle.

Dad's got a 182 my grandpa bought and we've had some pretty in depth discussions about safety. Similarly some friends of mine (who happen to exist in a different universe financially than I do) love to fly and lent their plane to a friend who crashed it. I think there was a thread about it here. Anyway, they've dedicated themselves to safety, education and mitigating risk. I really think you can get there, but yeah, the fresh faced newly licensed pilot isn't there. Small planes catch a bad rap, but I'll repeat, I think the average small plane pilot can get competent enough to reasonably remove catastrophic pilot error from all but the most extreme outliers of situations.

Those friends of mine have a ton of hours in a simulator that they simulate crazy shit happening. Dad also took some aerobatics training that he said really helped to potentially prepare him for weird shit happening. Largely though, the go/no go decision framed with an objective analysis of your competencies as a pilot contribute the most to preventing bad shit.

I'm not a pilot but I love to fly in small planes. Grandpa built 3 different planes and I've got quite a few trips - mostly in the county in them, and I'm fairly comfortable that I've only been in one situation that could get hairy. It was a front that moved in and it was windy as ****. Our grass strip at the farm had an impediment that wrecked the aerodynamics in the wind. Dad had good presence of mind to identify what was happening and take another lap. I guess another time we flew into some ice, but that didn't take anything other than the decision to turn around.

[RedRaider56]

Sad and tragic death. So sorry to hear about it earlier today

[eDave]

Originally Posted by Buehler445

There is a lot right with what you've posted here, but also some wrong.

It takes work and hours, but I think the average guy could get competent enough with a small airplane to reasonably remove catastrophic pilot error from all but the most extreme outliers of situations. And let's be real here - a vast majority of terrestrial vehicle operators have not achieved this competency. Sure, the stakes are lower, but one can certainly get dead in a terrestrial vehicle.

Dad's got a 182 my grandpa bought and we've had some pretty in depth discussions about safety. Similarly some friends of mine (who happen to exist in a different universe financially than I do) love to fly and lent their plane to a friend who crashed it. I think there was a thread about it here. Anyway, they've dedicated themselves to safety, education and mitigating risk. I really think you can get there, but yeah, the fresh faced newly licensed pilot isn't there. Small planes catch a bad rap, but I'll repeat, I think the average small plane pilot can get competent enough to reasonably remove catastrophic pilot error from all but the most extreme outliers of situations.

Those friends of mine have a ton of hours in a simulator that they simulate crazy shit happening. Dad also took some aerobatics training that he said really helped to potentially prepare him for weird shit happening. Largely though, the go/no go decision framed with an objective analysis of your competencies as a pilot contribute the most to preventing bad shit.

I'm not a pilot but I love to fly in small planes. Grandpa built 3 different planes and I've got quite a few trips - mostly in the county in them, and I'm fairly comfortable that I've only been in one situation that could get hairy. It was a front that moved in and it was windy as ****. Our grass strip at the farm had an impediment that wrecked the aerodynamics in the wind. Dad had good presence of mind to identify what was happening and take another lap. I guess another time we flew into some ice, but that didn't take anything other than the decision to turn around.

I grew up with Mooney's and Cessna's. Probably inheriting my dad's 172 RG. I bought him the 3 bladed prop he put on it. We used to rebuild airplanes in our garage. Favorite was the 1953 PA20 Pacer (Piper). It was white and metallic green. Had a stick. Here's me with it at Roosterville Airport outside of Liberty. I took off and flew nearly all of the dozens of airplanes we owned but never this one. As of last year, this plane has skid's on it and is being flown around Alaska.

[Shiver Me Timbers]

Originally Posted by eDave

I grew up with Mooney's and Cessna's. Probably inheriting my dad's 172 RG. I bought him the 3 bladed prop he put on it. We used to rebuild airplanes in our garage. Favorite was the 1953 PA20 Pacer (Piper). Had a stick. Here's me with it at Roosterville Airport outside of Liberty. I took off and flew nearly all of the dozens of airplanes we owned but never this one.

Pretty cool
memories my friend
memories

[Chieftain]

I was shocked when I read the news on Twitter earlier. You see stories about helicopter crashes coming out of places like Hawai'i almost every month. That's why I made a promise to myself to never get on a helicopter. They are just not as safe as planes.

[Buehler445]

Originally Posted by Raiderhader

Back in the early 90’s we took a family trip to D.C. and one day we stumbled across this military... I don’t know what to call it exactly, exhibition for lack of a better word. “Fan fest” maybe. We played tic tac toe with a Navy SEAL who was in a water tank to give you an idea. Anyway, there was a Blackhawk parked there and people would stand in line to sit in the co-pilot seat and have the pilot give you some info on it and answer any questions you might have. One of my questions as I was looking around was, “Where are the parachutes?” I was informed there weren’t any because helicopters were designed to magically (not his words) land safely in case of a failure. Even at the naive young age of roughly 10-11 years old I wasn’t sure how much I believed that or trusted the system in place.

Originally Posted by Frazod

If you have trouble on a plane it might be able to land safely. But if the rotors stop on a chopper it just turns into a falling rock.

I talked to my Dad about this today and how much more comfortable I'd be in a plane than copter on engine failure. He told me he had the same conversation with the FAA guy that certified grandpa's planes. The FAA guy said, "no, the blades are an airfoil. As air moves across it, they'll turn. You're going down, but you'll have control. I gave Dad this super skeptical kind of look, but WTF do I know, he may be right.

[Mulliganman]

No doubt a horrible tragedy! I wouldn’t be surprised to see something come out that the 49ers are dedicating their performance to Kobe or even all wearing number 9 jerseys.

[Demonpenz]

are people that dumb on CP? Like one of the training things on a helo is being able to put the thing down with engine failure.

[wazu]

Originally Posted by Demonpenz

are people that dumb on CP? Like one of the training things on a helo is being able to put the thing down with engine failure.

No they're just trolling you.

[smithandrew051]

Instead of his step back jump shot celebration, Mahomes should do that patented Kobe turnaround fade-away at the Super Bowl

[ILChief]

Originally Posted by Mulliganman

No doubt a horrible tragedy! I wouldn’t be surprised to see something come out that the 49ers are dedicating their performance to Kobe or even all wearing number 9 jerseys.

SF and LA are six hours apart. Warriors are the Bay area’s NBA team.

[Perineum Ripper]

Originally Posted by Buehler445

I talked to my Dad about this today and how much more comfortable I'd be in a plane than copter on engine failure. He told me he had the same conversation with the FAA guy that certified grandpa's planes. The FAA guy said, "no, the blades are an airfoil. As air moves across it, they'll turn. You're going down, but you'll have control. I gave Dad this super skeptical kind of look, but WTF do I know, he may be right.

I can say without a doubt, helicopter crashes ****ing suck. A lot. A whole ****ing lot.


Also Blackhawks have been designed to fall from like 40-60 feet straight to the ground and keep the passengers safe from injuries. Something between the suspension on the bird and the suspension seats inside.

Edit: the blades will spin if you are moving forward fast enough, from my experience if you are just holding in place. Then the blades shit out, not much spinning from them.

[Demonpenz]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pL1-QH7eQAY