Originally Posted by
Gordy
Either one---my point being 4 or 5 posts ago was that this statement may not be true: "having already decided it wasn't a better idea to turn around". I believe he made the decision to turn around, albeit too late. I believe the initiation of the turn was deliberate, where he "lost it" after that is irrelevant.
Gordy, I have to admit that I did not consider the "deliberate 180" scenario. And with all due respect, I don't think that's what Ara was trying to do. He told the SoCal Approach controller that he was climbing to 4,000 feet. Heck, he was only about 7 nm SW of Van Nuys. If his intention was to return to Van Nuys, I believe he would've done his 180 and called Van Nuys Tower, not tell SoCal that he was climbing. I really think that Ara's intention was to continue on to Camarillo, as "VFR" as possible. After all, from anecdotal stories we've heard about him, he doesn't seem like he was the most stringent follower of FAR's.
On the other hand, I can't believe that Ara was hand-flying the S-76 at 140 knots or so with *no* SAS or AFCS or whatever you guys have in the Sikorsky. That doesn't make sense. So, how the ship tried to go inverted is a head-scratcher. At that speed, a little aft cyclic would've had them climbing fast right up to the top of the layer, which was reported to be not all that thick. I mean, it's not like he was climbing up into a solid overcast.