If you’re like most of us, today is like yesterday, and yesterday was just like the day before. That’s how life is – we plod along day after day, all of them with a certain sameness. Weeks...months...and sometimes years go by without any big changes. Eventually we get into a mental rut in which we assume that tomorrow will be the same as today.
I call it psychological momentum but the eggheads and shrinks probably have an official term for it. Whatever that name may be, the fact is that we develop certain expectations about how our days are going to go. And we are never really, truly prepared when something unexpected and bad happens that knocks us off our feet. Our world sometimes gets turned completely upside down.
This is why being a helicopter pilot is so different from being an airplane pilot, and why, in generality, airplane pilots are open, clear-eyed, buoyant extroverts, and helicopter pilots are brooding introspective anticipators of trouble. They know if something bad has not happened, it is about to.”
Hah! It was true then and it is true now. We helicopters are, quite literally, “brooding introspective anticipators of trouble.” Old Harry got that part right. I know some helicopter pilots who are outwardly jovial and carefree, but it's an act. Deep down, hidden from view are the exact qualities that Harry Reasoner talks about.
The way this manifests itself in my personal life is that I’m never surprised or shocked by…well…anything. If the dreaded “something bad” happens, I won’t go so far as to say I saw it, specifically, coming, but its arrival was not unexpected. Seriously: Accidents, sickness, death…I just don’t get freaked out by any of those things. Years and years and years of flying helicopters has conditioned me to expect the unexpected.
Unfortunately, this has a bad side-effect. Psychologically, it makes me more than a little paranoid. I have to work very hard to not be pessimistic and negative…to enjoy the good times for what they are and not be a Negative Nancy waiting for a shoe to drop. On the other hand, the really good things in life don’t thrill me either. Emotionally, I try to keep everything on an even keel. No super-highs; no super-lows.
Socially, this can be challenging for the people closest to me. More than once, I’ve heard, ”Why are you so negative all the time?!” And my reply is that I’m not negative! I’m…realistic. I’m…practical. I’m…cautious. I’m…I’m…I’m… I’m anything but negative!
Okay, maybe I am.
I am not normal, this I know. Normal people aren’t so guarded and careful with their reactions, feelings and emotions. Normal people don’t always feel that if something hasn’t already gone wrong, it’s about to.
On the other hand, I believe that this mindset allows me to keep things in perspective; to not be overwhelmed with emotion when major upsetting event happens. It’s all about keeping those emotions in check, baby!
Bad things will happen. They always have, and always will. To some degree we can steel ourselves for them, hopefully without being such a sourpuss.
But the more important thing to remember is that there is absolutely no guarantee, no assurance...no reason to think that today will be anything like yesterday. But we do anyway. Well, most of us do. And most of us are caught off-guard by the unexpected. Not me. Nothing fazes me anymore. I continue to be a brooding, introspective anticipator of trouble. Thanks for putting a name on it, Harry.
At four a.m., the streets of Pensacola, Florida are empty. There are lots of trees, and streetlights are few and far between, so the city is spooky-dark. There are few other cars out. No police…don’t know where they disappear to.
Smooth jazz plays from the radio, volume low. It’s not that I like smooth jazz, but it seems to fit the dead-of-night mood. I drive around slowly, slouched against the door, one hand on top of the steering wheel, waiting for the Uber app on my phone to *ping* signaling me that someone needs a ride.
At night there’s a sense of aloneness…of isolation. You feel like a night watchman, or a guardian, prowling around while everyone else sleeps peacefully, snug in their beds.
I know a lot of people like the night time. It’s quiet…gives one time - and space - to think. Not me. I’m not a big fan of the night. My motto is: ”Nothing good ever happens after midnight.” Words to live by. I normally don’t drive at night. I'm a daytime Uber driver. On Fridays and Saturdays, I will stay out a little later, up until around nine o’clock if business is hopping. I’ll bring people out to the bars, but I ain’t pickin’ ‘em later. No one has ever gotten sick in my car; I aim to keep that record intact.
However, during the week I start early. I’m an old guy, and I wake up early to…well, let’s just say that there is a certain physiological need that plagues men of a certain age. And I am of that age. When I wake up, I’m up – there’ s usually no going back to sleep. So I just get dressed, make some coffee and get the day going. I’ll turn the Uber and Lyft apps on around four a.m. – or maybe five if I’m being lazy. There are always trips. Either I’ll just sit in the house and wait for them, or if I’m bored or need gas, I’ll go out cruising. The latter is not cost-effective because it means I’m putting “deadhead” (i.e. unpaid) miles on the car.
As I said, I don’t like driving at night. The night vision and depth perception aren’t what they used to be. It takes a long time now for these old eyes to adapt to the dark. The good thing about driving the really early-morning shift is that I know it’ll soon be getting light out. And I like watching the sun come up. It’s always invigorating: The promise of a new day!
By four a.m. the drunks have long been kicked out of the bars, so I don’t get them. But I still get called to the bars to pick up the staff who’ve closed up. Some of them are seriously drunk! Evidently bar workers like to hang out and drink after the customers are gone. The good news is that they tip well. Along with them are the travelers catching the 6:00 a.m. departures from the hilariously-named Pensacola International Airport – all of the airlines have these super-early flights. Our dinky airport is incredibly busy at 4:30 - 5:00 in the morning.
I make fun because there are no international flights into or out of Pensacola. We are, however, what is called an Airport of Entry, meaning that U.S. Customs is available for private flights coming in from Canada or Mexico. Our former mayor noted that fact and decided that we could legitimately change the name of our airport from "Regional" to "International." Sounds much better, right?
Next are the early-birds who have to be at work before everyone else. There is a woman I’ve taken a few times who goes to a Hardee’s long before they open where she does, indeed, make the biscuits from scratch, which I thought was just an empty commercial slogan.
Finally come the “normal people,” who Uber to their regular jobs at the various area credit unions, hospitals and businesses. More and more I take people to the new bunch of so-called “CBD” dispensaries that have cropped up since Florida legalized medical marijuana. One morning, I had a rider who was really late for work. I foolishly asked if he was going to get in trouble. And he goes, ”Naw man, they’re really chill." I mentally slapped my forehead: Heh, of course they are.
If I’ve hit my revenue goal, I’m home by nine or ten in the morning. That leaves the rest of the day for goofing-off. If it’s been a slack morning, or I’m just bored, I’ll go over and sit in the airport queue, which I normally try to avoid.
I’ll tell you, this Uber thing is the best job I’ve ever had – not the most highly-paid job, mind you, but the best job.
My friend, Terry has written and published a book. I won’t say he made it look easy, but writing is what writers do, so how hard could it have been? People occasionally suggest that I write a book. But I have no novel aspirations. Then again, sometimes I’ll read a really great book and think to myself, “I could do that!”
And so I started writing a book. I’ve got the basic outline of a plot, and an idea of the protagonist and supporting characters. Since I know a ton about aviation, my book would obviously be about motorcycles. Of course, right?
Immediately, I ran into a big issue: Dialogue.
I suspect that you are probably like me: When you read something, you probably “hear” it in your own voice. (Which brings up an interesting question: What voice do you hear when you read these words?)
My problem is that everybody in my book talks like I do. If there are two or three people in a scene, their speech is indistinguishable from each other...and from me, the guy at the keyboard dreaming all this crap up. I find it very hard to communicate a person’s personality onto the printed page. And so it ends up being multiples of me talking.
When my friends and I sit around talking, each one of them has certain idiosyncrasies to his speech. Maybe one person will curse/swear more than the others...maybe someone will use more slang - like the word ain’t, which I personally try to avoid. Up in Washington, one year we had a young pilot who…I shit you not…every other word out of the kid’s mouth was the f-bomb. We were, like, “Travis, was your father a sailor?” (He wasn’t.)
Or maybe he/she will have an annoying habit of using the word, like too many times. Some people have different accents. My friend, Brandon speaks like the surfer-dude he is, and on the other hand, Terry has a strong southern drawl. Some people talk super-fast…or loud…or extremely softly. Brandon mumbles softly when he gets pensive. You know people who get that “thousand-yard stare” in their eyes? Brandon gets it in his voice.
My friend, Eddie spoke with a perpetual “Oh gosh!” tone of voice, as if everything in life just amazed the shit out of him. Every sentence he uttered ended with an exclamation point. He was fun to talk with.
I have one friend who, when we’re talking about something technical, often says, ”That’s pretty complicating.” He means complicated, of course. But I don’t want to correct him.
The people in my book have none of those little conversational quirks. They all speak in bland, perfectly correct English, with no mispronunciations or Norm Crosby-ish malapropisms. They don’t curse and/or interrupt each other. In short, they’re boring. And to be honest, even I have trouble telling them apart. I wish I had taken a Creative Writing course. Or two.
And then I ask myself: How important are these things in telling a story? Isn’t the message more important than the way it’s delivered? I fear that including some of these conversational quirks would then require too much explanation or digression – both bad things when you’re trying to move a story along. I’m not trying to rewrite “War And Peace.” Terry suggests that I build a character’s personality into the story, and his or her voice will come out in the readers’ minds. Pffft – easier said than done!
But even in Terry’s book, he’s often got a half-dozen or so main male characters in every chapter. To be honest, all of their voices kind of blend together for me so that I have to refer back to see who’s “speaking.” Then again, I’ve noticed the same thing in some of Clive Cussler’s books (may he rest in peace), so Terry is in good company.
At this point, I’m not happy with the dialogue I've written. And since the book is not a travelogue but a character-driven work of fiction, getting the conversations right is pretty important. And so the novel-writing has stalled, perhaps for good. Maybe I’ll get back to it, but I’ve really just lost interest.
I think I’ll just stick to these little first-person stories.
Terry's Book: The Broken Earth: America's Journey Home
Rich white guys have certainly been taking a lot of heat lately. And that got me thinking, which is usually not a good thing.
1) If we had left the area of land now known as the U.S. to the Native Americans, what would they have done with it? Would they have developed it into the Greatest Country On Earth? Would they have built the steel and textile mills and the railroads and the highways, and the automotive and aviation industries? Would they have come up with this wacky "democratic republic" form of government? Would they have gone to the moon?
I think we can safely answer those questions.
2) Who were the people who actually did begin the modern development of this country? Umm, gee, could it have been well-to-do white guys from Europe (mostly England) who risked it all and brought their families over here looking for a better life? Could it have been those "rich white guys" who dreamed of a government for and by the people, where citizens were not only free but also encouraged to pursue their fortunes?
If it were not for "rich white guys," would we even have the America we know and love today? …The country where so many people risk life and limb to get here so they can enjoy the pursuit of "the American dream?" ...The country where you have the freedom to demonstrate and criticize and complain?
Seems to me that instead of denigrating and castigating "rich white guys" and blaming them for all of the wrongs, and all of the faults of the U.S., you should simply say, "Thank you!" Because if not for them, America would be one big Indian reservation right now.
"No one is above the law!!" Jeez-Louise, how many times have we heard that? A kazillion. And we're still hearing it. "No one is above the law!!" And yet...and yet! When the House of Representatives went about impeaching President Trump, they didn't charge him with any actual...you know...crime.
My left-leaning friends go, "Wellll….he didn't need to actually violate a specific law...his actions were enough of a violation of our Constitution to warrant impeachment."
Oh yeah? Then why all this bullshit about how, "No one is above the law!!" If it's not about violating a law, then what's it about? It's about how democrats hate Donald Trump and will do anything to stop him and remove him from office. We Americans aren't stupid; we see what was going on.
"Obstruction of Congress" and "Abuse of Power" were simply insufficient charges to have Trump removed from office, and the Senate agreed. Republican senators are not stupid, either. To say that they are would mean that the Democrat senators are stupid as well. If Republican senators actually felt - like Mitt Romney did - that President Trump did anything worthy of impeachment, they would have voted that way. But they did not.
Here's the thing. The Democrats are all acting like the world did not exist before Donald Trump was elected in 2016. But let's remember: Nancy Pelosi has been around forever. She was still Nancy Pelosi before Trump (i.e. mean, petty, vindictive, etc.). Chuck Schumer has always been a huge asshole. Trust me, I lived in New York and remember Chuckie when he was a mere State Assemblyman.
Donald Trump did not simply fall out of the sky and magically win over the hearts and minds of the American people. Our political system has invented...scratch that, required him. The Democrats are just as responsible for Trump's success as are Republicans.
People were sick of politics as usual - we realized that Democrat or Republican, it did not matter which one was in the White House. I did not like Obama - and I could not bear the thought of a Clinton presidency. On the other hand, there were no Republican candidates who were worth a crap either.
Nobody in the political establishment (or the media!) ever thought Trump would or could win. The rest is history. Trump took off the mask...took off the gloves, and showed us just how "down and dirty" politics really is. I will tell you this: Nothing will ever be the same.
State of the Union speeches have historically been boring. The president says something - and then members of his party stand up and applaud while members of the other party sit resolutely silent. Blah-blah-blah. I cannot ever remember a president mentioning something bad that he or we (as a country) did. Generally, presidents have kept emotion out of their speeches. Next day, you can be sure that you'll see stories titled: "Fact Checking the President's SOTU Speech."
Well President Trump turned that all upside down, of course. Whether you like him or not, you have to admit that he is a great showman. The SOTU was perhaps his Master Class. You knew...come on, you KNEW that he'd turn it into a campaign speech, right? Because that's exactly what he did. Nancy Pelosi probably tore up those papers after the speech, thinking, "Goddammit, he just got himself reelected, and I had to sit through it. Well this will show him!” Very disrespectful, sweetie, but nothing we didn’t expect from the likes of you.
This was the first State of the Union message I've ever watched that did not bore me to tears. Not because of the content, but because of the show. From that perspective, it was awesome!
Whether he does or not, Trump gives people the impression that he loves America and loves Americans. This is huge, because people want to believe it. America is the best and strongest country on the planet, agreed? Are we perfect? No. Will we ever be? No. But in spite of our imperfections, the U.S. is still the place where everyone wants to come to pursue "The American Dream." Do you not find it ironic that neither Russia nor Iran, Mexico or even Canada has a problem with keeping illegal aliens out? No! That is a uniquely American problem.
There are a lot of people like me who disagree with the idea that we should throw open our borders and let anyone in. No! We have immigration policies for a reason; let’s keep them and make immigrants abide by them – as my grandparents had to do.
There are also a lot of people like me who don’t think that illegal aliens should get free health care and the right to vote. No! If I don’t get it, they don’t get it, period.
And there are a lot of people like me who don’t believe that we have a “gun problem” in America, and that the solution to this phony bullshit issue is confiscation of guns. No! Instead, let’s put some money and effort into figuring out why people are so angry these days and why more and more of us are inclined to use violence as an expression of that outrage.
What’s my point? It is on those particular issues that President Trump is more closely aligned with my own personal beliefs than any other candidate. People claim that he is a hateful, divisive racist. I don’t see it that way. Very simply, the State of the Union message emphasized our strengths as a nation and as a people.
It’s too bad that the Democrats could not celebrate the verbalizing of those special qualities that make us who we are. They showed us who they are. In the end, it really was all about the show, wasn't it?
(Forgive me if this post rehashes some of the things in my previous post on this subject.)
Well, the Kobe Bryant helicopter crash is still front-page news. Accidents like this are embarrassing for us helicopter pilots. People who know I’m a helicopter pilot – or people who find out – always ask me about the Kobe crash. The embarrassing part is that it’s looking more and like a case of pilot-error. It does appear that Kobe’s pilot “simply” screwed-up. I put that word in quotes because there’s nothing simple about the issues and circumstances that lead up to this crash.
The “simple” part was that he flew into a cloud or fog bank which put him in a situation for which he was unprepared. In his attempt to reverse course and fly back to better weather, he flew smack-dab into a mountain. Boom. Not the first pilot to make such a dumb mistake; won’t be the last, sadly.
But how did it happen? What lead up to this event? Well, that’s more complicated.
Kobe’s pilot was 50 years old and very experienced; he had plenty of flight time and he was very familiar with the Los Angeles area. He was not only qualified to fly “on instruments” as we say. Not all helicopter pilots are. Not only that, but he was also qualified to teach the skill to other pilots. So he was no slouch.
He’d made the same flight plenty of times before with Kobe, who obviously trusted his judgment. On that fateful Sunday morning, the weather was bad but not horrible. Nevertheless, the pilot went VFR – that is, he flew by visual flight rules. Instead of going up, flying in the clouds, and then making an instrument approach to the airport at Camarillo (the closest one to Kobe’s sports academy), they would stay low.
The helicopter, a Sikorsky S-76 is a big, fast, sleek, sophisticated, capable twin-engine helicopter. It is used by corporations and government officials all around the world. Until recently, it was considered the “standard” for executive travel. Most S-76’s are equipped with all of the “bells and whistles” that smaller helicopters usually don’t have…for example, stability-augmentation systems and autopilots, weather radar, certification to fly in IFR (i.e. “bad”) weather…things like that. The incredible S-76 can often fly in weather conditions that keep lesser helicopters on the ground.
But…! But at the same time, the S-76 can be used like any other helicopter, plugging along down low, VFR, taking people from one off-airport site to another. You know, doing the things helicopters do. In these cases, the incredible capability of the S-76 is not needed. You might as well be in a dang ol’ Bell 206. The S-76 is designed to go fast. Like a Ferrari, it doesn’t like going slow. It’ll do it, but it’s not happy.
So why did they not “simply” file an IFR flight plan and go that way? We learned today from the NTSB that the charter company that owned and operated “Kobe’s” helicopter, Island Express Helicopters was not authorized to fly charters under an IFR flight plan. In other words, they were limited by the FAA to visual, VFR flights only. This is not uncommon. The FAA regulations are onerous for certifying an operator to fly IFR trips.
Meeting all of the requirements is expensive for a helicopter operator. Then maintaining the required proficiency is also expensive. In an area like Los Angeles that has generally good weather, the need to fly IFR trips is low – maybe less than half a dozen trips per year. For most operators, IFR certification is not worth the money it costs to get it.
What do VFR operators do if they have a charter on a bad-weather day? If the weather is truly bad and forecast to stay that way, they call the customer and cancel the trip. Or if the weather is low-but-doable, they strike out VFR and hope they can make it through. For a helicopter, it’s not as dangerous as it sounds. You go as far as you can, and then you turn around and go back. If you push too far into the shit and it gets really, really crummy, you can always slow down to just above a hover while you find a place (e.g. ballfield, big parking lot) to set down. I’m not proud to say I’ve done it, but I have. Setting down anywhere is better than crashing.
So Kobe’s pilot did not have the option of going IFR. They took off VFR with a reasonable expectation that they could make it to their destination. The would just follow the roads, which is easy and convenient to do in L.A. and we helicopter pilots do it all the time. The route would need to be circuitous, because there were a couple of airports along the way. At such airports, when the cloud ceiling drops below 1,000 feet and/or the ground visibility drops below three miles, the field now becomes “IFR.” Air traffic is restricted. VFR traffic is permitted, but it is by special permission only, and priority for VFR aircraft is low. Preference is given to aircraft on Instrument flight plans.
The visibility at Burbank was 2.5 miles, just under what is needed for VFR flight. The cloud ceiling was 1,100 feet above the ground, which put the clouds at about 1,900 feet above sea level. The Burbank Airport sits about 800 feet above sea level. Kobe’s pilot reported that he was at 1,400 feet above sea level, or about 500 feet below the clouds and 600 feet above the ground (1400 minus 800). This is where most helicopters live. We usually don’t like flying high for a number of reasons.
The flight took longer than expected. The ATC tower controller at Burbank Airport initially denied Kobe’s pilot entry into his area because of heavy IFR air traffic that morning.. Thus, the helicopter circled outside of Burbank’s zone for fifteen minutes. Helicopters burn just as much fuel when they’re circling as when they’re going full-steam ahead. When there was a break in the traffic level and the helicopter was finally cleared in, the pilot accelerated up to his usual cruise speed of 130 knots or so. Perhaps he was trying to make up time. Perhaps fuel was an issue – helicopters do not carry unlimited amounts of fuel - often not much more than required to do the flight.
In any event, as directed by ATC, he proceded north up the east side of Burbank, then looped up and around, north of Burbank and Van Nuys Airports to come back down on their west side. His intention was to pick up Highway 101 and follow it westbound out to Camarillo. Maybe not the greatest plan, but an okay plan.
But there was rising terrain to the west of Van Nuys. Consider this: If you’re flying at 600 feet above the ground and the terrain comes up below you while the cloud level stays the same, it puts a helicopter pilot in an uncomfortable squeeze. You might have been cruising happily at 600-700 feet before, but now that the terrain is coming up you find yourself maybe only a couple of hundred feet above the ground.
At some point as they followed Highway 101 westbound, Kobe’s pilot found himself in a cloud or fog bank. This should not have been a big deal for an Instrument-rated pilot in an aircraft like the S-76. All he would have needed to do was keep the aircraft level, initiate a climb above the fog, and then call ATC and let them know. They undoubtedly would have vectored him to the Camarillo Airport, or maybe back to Van Nuys or Burbank. But that’s not what happened.
Instead, Kobe’s pilot decided to try a course reversal. This might have worked in a more pedestrian (read; slower) helicopter like a Bell 206 which cruises at a mere 95 knots (110 mph). But remember, they were in the all-singing/all-dancing S-76, which scoots along at 130 knots/140 mph. Had the pilot slowed down a bit before entering the cloud/fog, he might have pulled it off. A turn at 90 mph takes up a whole lot less airspace than does a turn at 140 mph. You can get a fast aircraft to turn more sharply, but it requires a steep angle of bank, “Top Gun” style. This is not only unwise and inadvisable when you’re unexpectedly in the clouds and can’t see out the windows, but you don’t lay a helicopter over on its side when you have someone like Kobe friggin’ Bryant onboard.
In any case, the turn took up a lot of room. Too much room. The helicopter used up all of the space in the valley they were over, and then some. They impacted a mountain of the opposite side of the valley. The pilot probably never saw it coming until the last second.
Ultimately, the pilot’s advanced qualifications worked against him. He knew that he was capable of flying in the clouds, so there was no fear of that. Trouble was, when he found himself actually in a cloud, he did not commit to it and go “on the gauges” as we say. Instead, he very likely tried to get back to visual conditions. It is a bad mistake…an often-fatal mistake…that many pilots have made in the past, including yours truly. Fortunately for me and my passengers, we did not end up like Kobe’s S-76. But let me tell ya, I’ve come close.
At the same time, the all-weather capability of the marvelous S-76 works against VFR pilots, especially Kobe’s. It gives them a false sense of security. If the pilot had been in a more basic helicopter, like the aforementioned Bell 206 which is (typically) not equipped and in any case not authorized to fly in the clouds, he likely would’ve been much more diligent about maintaining visual references. And even if he didn’t slow down, the low cruise speed of the 206 might have allowed him to see the fog bank/cloud before they flew into it.
So this is not a “simple” accident by any means.
