Originally Posted by
Indelible Spirit
I don’t know what avionics this aircraft was equipped with, but even ForeFlight for $200 per year would provide moving terrain maps, which probably would have helped more than distractions of numerous radio frequencies, while getting caught “special VFR” in the soup, near terrain. Tragic.
To be clear, he was only Special VFR while transitting the Burbank Class C and the Van Nuys Class D. Once he was west of Van Nuys and following the 101 into the mountains regular VFR applied.
Special VFR is only for transitioning thru controlled airspace that touches the surface.