Originally Posted by
TheRotorTrash
..... A strong cyclic pop into the clouds resulting in what would have to be an immediate transition to an aggressive IFR scan is a recipe for disaster, especially in a single piloted aircraft....
This is just a horrible tragedy, and aside from a catastrophic mechanical failure, I was trying to find a sequence of events that an experienced pilot could allow to happen that would have resulted in this accident. Completely conjecture of course, but after reading the insight from RotorTrash and viewing this recreation of the flight path in VFR conditions (skip to the last 2 minutes),
Accident path flown VFR
I'm left wondering if the answer isn't just as simple as that.
I know fixed wing commercial aviation life, and that you are trained to get out of inadvertent IMC; but how hard is it for an experienced single pilot helo to do a 180' turn in IMC? If this guy flew in the LA basin he must of had plenty of actual time, how could this do him in?