ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 300076
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| Date: | Friday 30 September 2022 |
| Time: | 13:10 |
| Type: |  Robinson R44 Cadet |
| Owner/operator: | Southern Utah University Aviation (SUU) |
| Registration: | N297SU |
| MSN: | 30017 |
| Year of manufacture: | 2017 |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 2 |
| Aircraft damage: | Substantial |
| Category: | Accident |
| Location: | Cedar City, UT -
 United States of America
|
| Phase: | Landing |
| Nature: | Training |
| Departure airport: | Cedar City Airport, UT (CDC/KCDC) |
| Cedar City Airport, UT (CDC/KCDC) | |
| Investigating agency: | NTSB |
| Confidence Rating: |  Information verified through data from accident investigation authorities |
On September 30, 2022, about 1310 mountain daylight time, a Robinson R44 Cadet, N297SU, sustained substantial damage when it was involved in an accident near Cedar City, Utah. The flight instructor and student pilot were not injured. The helicopter was operated as a Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 91 instructional flight.
The flight instructor and student had just completed a series of practice maneuvers and decided to perform some off-airport landing practice at a location the instructor had used before. They performed a series of reconnaissance orbits, low passes, and power checks over the landing area and with the helicopter operating nominally, the CFI decided to proceed with a landing.
The student began to maneuver the helicopter for landing, but he had moved to a sloped area, so the flight instructor asked him to pull to a hover of about 7 feet. They hovered there and noted the manifold pressure gauge was indicating between 20.8 and 21.1 inches of mercury. They then began to initiate a departure when the “full throttle” light illuminated. The manifold pressure gauge indicated 22.5 inches of mercury, and the instructor lowered the collective control and the light extinguished. This resulted in the helicopter descending down to about 3 ft. Concerned that they might strike surrounding trees, the instructor asked the student to pull into a 5 ft hover, and taxi forward to clear the tail and then perform a pedal turn to allow the helicopter to face a clearing in the trees so they could climb out.
As the student pushed forward on the cyclic to begin the departure, they felt a jolt, and the helicopter yawed to the left. The instructor was concerned that they might have struck a tree, and he took the controls. Due to the confined area and the helicopter already moving forward and climbing, he continued to apply forward cyclic. The helicopter began to vibrate and yawed aggressively to the left with an accompanying reduction in engine RPM. The helicopter began to descend, and the engine RPM had now descended below the main rotor RPM and was continuing to drop. The instructor lowered the collective and rolled on the throttle, but the engine did not respond, and with the low rotor warning now sounding, he committed to an autorotation.
During the landing flare the helicopter made contact with the trees, and the pilot applied aft cyclic to stop them from tipping forward down the hill. The main rotor blades then cut through the tail, as the helicopter came to rest.
The pilot noted that the engine was still running after impact, but at sporadic speeds.
Sources:
NTSB
FAA
https://flightaware.com/live/flight/N297SU
Location
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 21-Oct-2022 18:38 | Captain Adam | Added |
Corrections or additions? ... Edit this accident description
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