Angry [More Info]

Orval Fairbairn wrote:
There is another factor not mentioned here. About 10 years ago, a friend
did some radar surveying for San Jose and found a radar hole in the
vicinity of South County, up to about 3000 ft. It is possible that the
pilot, thinking he would have instantaneous radar, took off, attempted
to raise SJC Approach and maintained heading right into the hills.

Orval,

I have flown in that area MANY times (I fly out of RHV) and never heard of
that radar hole, I've also never heard ATC even mention it to me or anyone
else. Do you have any additional information on it? have they 'plugged the
hole' by now?

I find it very surprising that he took off and called SJC tower which is
23nm NW when he was going East. They could pick him up and correctly handed
him off the Departure. Why did he call the tower? Perhaps he didn't
know/remember the freq of Departure, perhaps his papers fell on the floor,
perhaps he already had his hands full with the IMC and did a little CRM,
perhaps it was his inexperience... For a low time pilot, dialling in
120.7/124.0, calling them, squawking some number and identing, waiting,
having them say "sorry, call 120.1", dialing that in, calling them, etc...
must have been a huge distraction given the 'bad' conditions he was in.
Just some things that jumped out at me while reading the report.

But again, a visit to Starbucks on that cloudy night would have been the
better option. Sad.

FYI: The crash site was only 4nm east of E16.

Hilton

Oops, I meant SJC Tower "couldn't pick him up" - the report says: "San Jose
was unable to make radar contact with the airplane and suggested NorCal
TRACON."

Hilton

In article . net,
"Hilton" wrote:

Oops, I meant SJC Tower "couldn't pick him up" - the report says: "San Jose
was unable to make radar contact with the airplane and suggested NorCal
TRACON."

Hilton

That sounds like the radar hole!

--
Remve "_" from email to reply to me personally.

In article t,
Hilton wrote:
Orval Fairbairn wrote:
There is another factor not mentioned here. About 10 years ago, a friend
did some radar surveying for San Jose and found a radar hole in the
vicinity of South County, up to about 3000 ft. It is possible that the
pilot, thinking he would have instantaneous radar, took off, attempted
to raise SJC Approach and maintained heading right into the hills.

I have flown in that area MANY times (I fly out of RHV) and never heard of
that radar hole, I've also never heard ATC even mention it to me or anyone
else. Do you have any additional information on it? have they 'plugged the
hole' by now?

Climbing out of South County, Norcal usually can't pick me up on
radar until Morgan Hill or so. Overflying South County I've had
no trouble being seen on radar at 3000ft and above. I haven't
flown out of South County in awhile, so my data point is probably
a few years old.

It would be interesting to know where the radar transmitters are
in the area. If the radar transmitters covering South County are at
SJC and MRY, they would have a hard time seeing traffic down low
near South County.

John
--
John Clear - http://www.clear-prop.org/

GS wrote:
I agree but these these were not really mountains. There are no
airports in these "mountains" either so really these bumps are only
during the enroute phase. Big woop. Typically You are cruising
along typically at 6000 to 8000 feet all fat dumb and happy. There
is literally no reason to be lower. The killer (literally, no pun
intended) was the pilot was pushed lower and/or continued into IMC and was
forced lower into ground whether that was at 0 MSL or 3000 MSL.

I disagree. I believe (and I could be wrong) that he took of into low
clouds (IMC), lost control, and spun it in. FYI: He crashed 4 miles east of
his departure airport.


I've flown in this area a bunch of times. If I were VFR-only, I would
NOT have chosen this route especially at night. Following
Interstate 5 gives you nearly continuous visual contact with the
ground below.

Sure, but to get to Hwy 5 you need to cross these hills. Anyway, if he had
actually managed to get to Hwy 5, I bet he would have headed for Fresno
(east) and not followed Hwy 5 (SE).


There was just a Lear accident at Truckee. That is mountainous terrain.
what those guys did was insane. Mountainous with known severe updrafts
and downdrafts, at visibility minimums (I don't have any reports on the
ceiling), in snow or rain and probably below freezing, non-precision
approaches only with one of which only is a circle to land. Ummm,
sounds to me like they should have gone to Reno's 11000 foot runway
with an ILS.

Where did you get all that meteorological condition information? There were
witness reports of watching the airplane on the approach, so I would
question you comment "visibility minimums".

Hilton