re: Pilot in deadly Iowa, LA helicopter crash had student license

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he or she is about to find out

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Would t be surprised to hear his CFI was a buddy.

Haven’t read whole thread but was alcohol involved at all? They were at Pats of Henderson for a good while

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what would be the reason he wouldn't have done this in your opinion? is it cost? it seems like he would have wanted to do this ASAP

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Instruction is $100/hour and the checkride is about $1000. So don’t think it’s a money thing. I’m assuming he likely just didn’t care.

Or maybe he couldn’t get a medical for past medical, drug, or legal history. There’s a lot of things that could hold up a medical that people don’t learn about until almost ready to solo. I waited 5 months for my medical waivers to come through and it’s a minor condition.
It’s all speculation though.

Armchair crash investigator here, couple things Ive noticed that hasnt been mentioned:

- He was traveling directly towards a 1,500 TV tower. Its KPLC-TV on TV Tower Road if you want to look. He was 300' below the top of the tower. He crashed 4 miles short of that tower. He might have gotten spooked from recent crash in Houston and reason he stopped his path.

- He traveled NE basically parralleling the Calcasieu River watershed. After dark, this would be inky black darkness. Could easily be spatially disoriented at some point.

- It seems he delibrately circled that immediate area. Maybe someone can see if the family has ties there. Maybe they were sight seeing and wanted to get low.

- Toddler on board. That provides interesting seating arrangement in an R44. Where was toddler seated or was toddler in mothers lap? Was the toddler a distraction where pilot needed to focus on mother and toddler, losing orientation and control of aircraft?

- He was flying just under the Class D airspace shelf of KLCH, literally at the time of crash. Im sure he entered the airspace at some point and was communicating with someone... maybe. Transcripts may shed more clues.

- I dont think weather was factor. It was visial meteorological conditions, actually a damn nice night for flying. Wind 6kts zero gust, visibility 10SM, scattered clouds 4700 AGL. There is a special METAR flagged for aircraft mishap at 02:12 zulu.

- The report says a tip of blade was found 200ft away from fuselauge. No wire strike but I bet there was tree strike. The two photos show heavy impact to cockpit including knocking landing skids away. Hardly any damage to tail, just minor damage to vertical stablizer. I think tree strike and then hard fall from some height, possibly nose down.

- Speaking of above damage, the marks on ground, possible tree strike, waded up main rotor, this may indicate powered flight an not a fuel starvation situation or autorotation to ground. I think he would have come down sooner if it was fuel starve.

40 hours is all you need for a helicopter as well.

You can’t carry passengers until you’re actually licensed.

The R44 is a 4-place aircraft. The R-22 is two. There was room for all 3 in the 44.

Gotcha.

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Hovering isn’t like pulling over to the side of the road. It is one of the more difficult maneuvers to do and he was a pretty limited skill pilot.

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Not true, depends on the aircraft technology. In some, it's a s simple as pushing a button and making the helicopter stabilize in place (hoover)

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Quite true, but poor weather is not a requirement for spatial disorientation. Night unaided visual references are often difficult without a lot of experience.

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Do I really have to say he should not have been flying at night in inclement weather? I was pointing out he wasn’t licensed. You’re adding to reasons why he’s climbing the wtf tree right now.