ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 215487
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| Date: | Friday 11 March 2011 |
| Time: | 14:50 |
| Type: |  Robinson R22 Beta II |
| Owner/operator: | 702 Helicopters LLC |
| Registration: | N8360T |
| MSN: | 2758 |
| Year of manufacture: | 1997 |
| Total airframe hrs: | 556 hours |
| Engine model: | Lycoming O-360-J2A |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 2 |
| Aircraft damage: | Substantial |
| Location: | North Las Vegas Airport, North Las Vegas, Nevada -
 United States of America
|
| Phase: | Landing |
| Nature: | Training |
| Departure airport: | North Las Vegas Airport, North Las Vegas, Nevada (KVGT) |
| North Las Vegas Airport, North Las Vegas, Nevada (KVGT) | |
| Investigating agency: | NTSB |
| Confidence Rating: |  Accident investigation report completed and information captured |
On March 11, 2011, about 14:50 PST (Pacific Standard Time), a Robinson R-22 Beta II helicopter, N8360T, rolled over onto its side after one of its skids contacted the terrain during an instructional flight at North Las Vegas Airport, North Las Vegas, Nevada. The certified flight instructor and his student were not injured, but the helicopter, which was owned by Tamiry Aviation LLC, and operated by 702 Helicopters, sustained substantial damage. The 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 91 local instructional flight, which was initiated about 50 minutes prior to the accident, was being operated in visual meteorological conditions. No flight plan had been filed.
According to the flight instructor, the primary objective of the instructional flight was to teach his student, who prior to the flight had accumulated less than 2 hours of instructional flight time in a helicopter, how to perform a stationary hover.
While completing the startup and pre-takeoff sequence of checklist items, the instructor noticed, "… a dramatic drop in rpm when the right magneto was checked, but only a four (4) or five (5) percent rpm drop when the left was checked." He therefore checked the right magneto a second time to see if it stayed within the Robinson allowable limitation of no more than seven percent drop within two seconds. During that check the rpm dropped about six or seven percent in two seconds, but then continued to decrease to a total drop of about fifteen percent in about four or five seconds. Although the instructor was "concerned" about the fact that the rpm had continued to drop so far past seven percent, since it technically met the maximum allowable two-second drop limit, he elected to continue the flight.
As the flight continued the instructor noticed that the helicopter required, "… an unusually high power setting to maintain even a 2 or 3 foot hover." He eventually commented to his student that some of the difficulty he was having maintaining a hover might be the result of the helicopter being "very underpowered." About 30 minutes into the flight, because the helicopter did not seem to be performing at the level that the instructor was accustomed to, he decided that he should land and perform another magneto check. During that check the selection of the right magneto produced similar results as during the check that was performed prior to the initial takeoff (a drop of about six or seven percent within two seconds, followed by a continuing total drop of about 15 percent in four or five seconds). After this second magneto check, the instructor ran the engine at a lean fuel setting for about two minutes, hoping to burn off any carbon or lead deposits that may have been affecting the engine's performance. After the completion of these two actions, the instructor lifted the helicopter back into the air in order to detect any change in performance, but he soon determined that, "…nothing had changed in the amount of power required, and it still seemed underpowered, requiring right at about maximum continuous power to hold a 3-foot hover."
The instructor then made the decision to continue the instructional flight, and turned the controls back over to his student. The student then established a hover about three feet above ground level (agl), and was, according to the instructor, hovering fairly well, when the helicopter suddenly began to descend. As the student reacted to the descent, he input right cyclic control, resulting in the right skid coming in contact with the ground with the helicopter tilting to the right. At that time the flight instructor took over the controls and tried to correct the situation by adding left cyclic and up collective, but he was unable to keep the helicopter from rolling over onto its side.
The National Transportation Safety Board determines the probable cause(s) of this accident to be: The partial loss of engine power for undetermined reasons. Contributing to the accident was the certified flight instructor's decision to continue the flight after the helicopter exhibited inadequate performance capabilities and an unresolved power production issue
Accident investigation:
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|
Sources:
1. Accident Number WPR11LA161 at https://app.ntsb.gov/pdfgenerator/ReportGeneratorFile.ashx?EventID=20110311X15408&AKey=1&RType=HTML&IType=LA
2. FAA Registration: https://registry.faa.gov/aircraftinquiry/NNum_Results.aspx?NNumbertxt=N8360T
3. http://helihub.com/2011/03/11/11-mar-11-robinson-r22-north-las-vegas-airport-us-nevada/
4. http://helicoptersafety.blogspot.com/2011/03/11-mar-11-n8360t-robinson-r22-north-las.html
5. http://www.ktnv.com/story/14236614/helicopter-makes-hard-landing-near-north-las-vegas-airport?clienttype=printable
6. https://prijet.com/accident/20110311X15408
History of this aircraft
Other occurrences involving this aircraft
| 3 July 1999 | N8360T | Robert J. Neider | 0 | Theriot, Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana | |
sub |
Location
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 18-Sep-2018 22:44 | Dr.John Smith | Added |
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