Originally Posted by
Uplinker
Do whatever you want by yourself - as long as you don't crash into my house or my car - but with fare paying passengers, or other commercial operations, I am surprised. Remember I am talking about marginal VFR or night flying. Exciting and good fun, yes I am sure, but seems unnecessarily risky to me in the sort of situation this helicopter crashed in.
You seem to have an unreasonable fear of flying below MSA and to assume anyone doing it puts themselves, and others, at risk.
Did you understand the relationship betwen the elevation of my base airport and the MSA? Did you understand that MSA is based on the highest obstacle in a very large area? All flight operations in my local area are below MSA and that includes all the IFR arrivals to KPHX following the BRUSR ONE or BUNTR THREE arrival routes and perhaps other STAR.
MSA may be critical to safety if you don't know where you are in relation to the terrain or obstacle that defined it. It has no influence at all on safety if you are 20-30 miles aways from that terrain or obstacle and in VMC.
Also MSA is of no importance if IFR and being controlled at or above the minimum vectoring altitude which is much lower than MSA in my local area.
Again - airport elevation 1,480 ft, MSA 7,800 ft