Individually Owned: 150,657
Corporate Owned: 137,281
Aircraft Accident/Incident Report
Salinas, California 93907
Wednesday, September 30, 1998 11:30 PDT
NTSB Narrative Summary Released at Completion of Accident
The chief pilot of the flight school reported that the student helicopter pilot was briefed for his first nonsupervised solo flight. The pilot was instructed to practice traffic patterns and to fly normal approaches and takeoffs, with no emergency maneuvers. The student pilot reported that he practiced traffic patterns, then decided to practice autorotations. He entered the autorotation from approximately 800 feet agl and 70 knots of airspeed. About 200 to 300 feet agl, he initiated a go-around to abort the autorotation. He raised the collective but didn't get a response. He reported that at that point he was 'not sure what was going wrong but felt [he] was losing control and going down very fast.' Once he realized he was about to hit the ground, he raised the collective and applied full aft cyclic. The helicopter impacted the ground and rolled over. The chief pilot reported that when the pilot called him for help after the accident, the pilot stated, 'I did what you told me not to do,' referring to the autorotations. The pilot had been given a solo endorsement on September 14, 1998.
NTSB Probable Cause Narrative
The failure of the student pilot to maintain control of the aircraft while practicing autorotations.
Event Information
| Type of Event | Accident |
| Event Date | 9/30/1998 |
| Event Day of the Week | Wednesday |
| Time of Event | 1130 |
| Event Time Zone | Pacific Daylight Time |
| Event City | SALINAS |
| Event State | CALIFORNIA |
| Event Country | -- |
| Zipcode of the event site | 93907 |
| Event Date Year | 1998 |
| Event Date Month | 9 |
| MidAir Collision Indicator | No |
| On Ground Collision occurred ? | No |
| Event Location Latitude | -- |
| Event Location Longitude | -- |
| Event Location Airport | |
| Event Location Nearest Airport ID | |
| Indicates whether the acc/inc occurred off or on an airport | Off Airport/Airstrip |
| Distance from airport in statute miles | -- |
| Degrees magnetic from airport | -- |
| Airport Elevation | -- |
| Weather Briefing Completeness | Not pertinent |
| Investigator's weather source | Witness |
| Time of the weather observation | 0 |
| Direction of event from weather observation facility (degrees) | 0 |
| Weather Observation Facility ID | |
| Elevation of weather observation facility | 0 |
| Distance of event from weather observation facility (units?) | 0 |
| Time Zone of the weather observation | |
| Lighting Conditions | Day |
| Lowest Ceiling Height | 0 |
| Lowest Non-Ceiling Height | 0 |
| Sky/Lowest/Cloud Conditions | Clear |
| Sky Condition for Lowest Ceiling | None |
| Visibility Runway Visual Range (Feet) | 0 |
| Visibility Runway Visual Value (Statute Miles) | 0 |
| Visibility (Statute Miles) | 10 |
| Air Temperature at event time (in degrees celsius) | -- |
| Dew Point at event time (in degress fahrenheit) | -- |
| Wind Direction (degrees magnetic) | 0 |
| Variable Wind Indicator | Unknown |
| Wind Speed (knots) | 0 |
| Wind Velocity Indicator | Unknown |
| Wind Gust Indicator | Not Gusting |
| Wind Gust (knots) | 0 |
| Altimeter Setting at event time (in. Hg) | -- |
| Density Altitude (feet) | -- |
| Intensity of Precipitation | Unknown |
| METAR weather report | -- |
| Event Highest Injury | Serious |
| On Ground, Fatal Injuries | 0 |
| On Ground, Minor Injuries | 0 |
| On Ground, Serious Injuries | 0 |
| Injury Total Fatal | -- |
| Injury Total Minor | -- |
| Injury Total None | -- |
| Injury Total Serious | 1 |
| Injury Total All | 1 |
| Investigating Agency | NTSB |
| NTSB Docket Number (internal use) | 1964 |
| NTSB Notification Source | -- |
| NTSB Notification Date | Sep 30 1998 12:00AM |
| NTSB Notification Time | 1145 |
| Fiche Number and/or location -used to find docket information | IMAGE |
| Date of most recent change to record | Mar 10 2001 4:07AM |
| User who most recently changed record | dbo |
| Basic weather conditions | Visual Meteorological Cond |
| FAA District Office | -- |
Aircraft Involved |
|
|---|---|
Aircraft #1 |
|
| Aircraft Registration Number | N8340D |
| NTSB Number | LAX98LA311 |
| Missing Aircraft Indicator | N |
| Federal Aviation Reg. Part | Part 91: General Aviation |
| Type of Flight Plan filed | None |
| Flight plan Was Activated? | -- |
| Damage | Destroyed |
| Aircraft Fire | None |
| Aircraft Explosion | None |
| Aircraft Manufacturer's Full Name | Robinson |
| Aircraft Model | R22B |
| Aircraft Series Identifier | R22B |
| Aircraft Serial Number | 2618 |
| Certified Max Gross Weight | 1370 |
| Aircraft Category | Helicopter |
| Aircraft Registration Class | U.S. Registered/U.S. Soil |
| Aircraft is a homebuilt? | No |
| Flight Crew Seats | -- |
| Cabin Crew Seats | -- |
| Passenger Seats | -- |
| Total number of seats on the aircraft | 2 |
| Number of Engines | 1 |
| Fixed gear or retractable gear | Fixed |
| Aircraft, Type of Last Inspection | Annual |
| Date of Last Inspection | Aug 10 1998 12:00AM |
| Airframe hours since last inspection | 74 |
| Airframe Hours | -- |
| ELT Installed | Yes |
| ELT Activated | Yes |
| ELT Aided Location of Event Site | No |
| ELT Type | -- |
| Aircraft Owner Name | VERTICARE INC |
| Aircraft Owner Street Address | 240 MORTENSON AVENUE |
| Aircraft Owner City | SALINAS |
| Aircraft Owner State | CA |
| Aircraft Owner Country | |
| Aircraft Owner Zipcode | 93905 |
| Operator is an individual? | -- |
| Operator Name | |
| Operator Same as Owner? | Yes |
| Operator Is Doing Business As | -- |
| Operator Address Same as Owner? | Yes |
| Operator Street Address | |
| Operator City | |
| Operator State | |
| Operator Country | |
| Operator Zip code | |
| Operator Code | |
| Owner has at least one certificate | None |
| Other Operator of large aircraft? | No |
| Certified for Part 133 or 137 Operation | Unknown |
| Operator Certificate Number | -- |
| Indicates whether an air carrier operation was scheduled or not | -- |
| Indicates Domestic or International Flight | -- |
| Operator carrying Pax/Cargo/Mail | -- |
| Type of Flying (Per_Bus / Primary) | Instructional |
| Second Pilot on Board | No |
| Departure Point Same as Event | Yes |
| Departure Airport Code | SNS |
| Departure City | |
| Departure State | CA |
| Departure Country | |
| Departure Time | 1030 |
| Departure Time Zone | PDT |
| Destination Same as Local Flt | dest & departure same, accident can occur anywhere |
| Destination Airport Code | |
| Destination City | |
| Destination State | |
| Destination Country | |
| Specific Phase of Flight | Maneuvering |
| Report sent to ICAO? | -- |
| Evacuation occurred | -- |
| Date of most recent change to record | Mar 10 2001 4:07AM |
| User who most recently changed record | dbo |
| Since inspection or accident | -- |
| Event Location Runway Number and Location | 0 |
| Runway Length | -- |
| Runway Width | -- |
| Sight Seeing flight | No |
| Air Medical Flight | No |
| Medical Flight | -- |