Originally Posted by
FIRESYSOK
Any helo drivers care to advise why it would be- barring major airport airspace complications- not common practice to file an IFR flight plan and cruise at say, 5000’ or so, well clear of terrain? Then cancel the IFR and land visually at the destination? I never understood running scuds if it weren’t entirely, positively necessary.
Not commenting on the cause of the accident, just the above query:
Significantly difficult if you're above cloud and your min descent altitude is above the cloud base - often the case in hilly/mountainous areas where the tops are in clouds but the valleys are clear. In that case decent chance you wouldn't be able to descend without an instrument approach, which is often far enough away that you'll end up " scud-running " underneath anyway.
To be honest, flying underneath is perfectly safe so long as you're aware of the limits (of yourself and your machine). The killer historically (and I am specifically not talking about this accident) has been press-on-itus, due to whatever pressure. This gives often gives an accident sequence either inadvertantly entering IMC, or a last ditch mvr/CFIT trying to avoid it, when often the slow down/turn around option much earlier would have been perfectly safe.
I'd agree, it's a different mindset to airline flying. However, most corporate rotary flying is much closer to BizJet flying, which holds a very different set of pressures to airlines. You see similar "press on" accidents in that world. No way you can compare directly to airlines.