Individually Owned: 150,657
Corporate Owned: 137,281
Silver City Airport
Aircraft Accident/Incident Report
Silver City, Montana 59633
Thursday, January 31, 2002 10:04 MST
NTSB Narrative Summary Released at Completion of Accident
The pilot/owner of the Robinson R-22 helicopter along with the FAA pilot/inspector departed on a flight to build time for the inspector. The total flight time accrued in his logbook was 827 hours of which 693 hours were in the R-22 helicopter (681 pilot-in-command). The FAA pilot/inspector had approximately 8,000 hours of helicopter time of which approximately 6,000 hours were logged as pilot in command and 5,000 were as an instructor. He had less than 50 hours of flight time in the R-22. The FAA pilot/inspector demonstrated an auto rotation and then turned the controls over to the pilot/owner who then executed the same maneuver. The FAA pilot reported that at the initiation of the maneuver, the pilot/owner applied abrupt, full left (anti-torque) pedal at which time the helicopter entered into an uncoordinated turn, began to vibrate violently and the airspeed dropped off down to between 30 to 20 knots. The pilot/owner continued to fly the helicopter recovering from the yaw and began to apply collective approximately 250 feet agl when the FAA pilot/inspector got on the controls to stop the recovery, which he believed was initiated at an altitude higher than desired. Both pilots were on the controls and the pilot/owner reported that he had full throttle with normal rotor RPM about 150 feet agl, however the helicopter landed hard and rolled on to it's right side.
NTSB Probable Cause Narrative
Both the pilot/owner and the FAA inspector pilots' failure to maintain adequate rotor RPM during a practice auto rotation landing which resulted in a hard landing. A contributing factor was the pilot/owner's application of excessive anti-torque pedal during the initiation of the auto rotation.
Event Information
| Type of Event | Accident |
| Event Date | 1/31/2002 |
| Event Day of the Week | Thursday |
| Time of Event | 1004 |
| Event Time Zone | Mountain Standard Time |
| Event City | Silver City |
| Event State | MONTANA |
| Event Country | -- |
| Zipcode of the event site | 59633 |
| Event Date Year | 2002 |
| Event Date Month | 1 |
| MidAir Collision Indicator | No |
| On Ground Collision occurred ? | No |
| Event Location Latitude | 464458N |
| Event Location Longitude | 1121049W |
| Event Location Airport | Silver City |
| Event Location Nearest Airport ID | MT18 |
| Indicates whether the acc/inc occurred off or on an airport | On Airport |
| Distance from airport in statute miles | -- |
| Degrees magnetic from airport | -- |
| Airport Elevation | 4380 |
| Weather Briefing Completeness | Not pertinent |
| Investigator's weather source | Weather Observation Facility |
| Time of the weather observation | 953 Mountain Standard Time |
| Direction of event from weather observation facility (degrees) | 120 |
| Weather Observation Facility ID | HLN |
| Elevation of weather observation facility | 3874 |
| Distance of event from weather observation facility (units?) | 12 |
| Time Zone of the weather observation | MST |
| Lighting Conditions | -- |
| Lowest Ceiling Height | -- |
| Lowest Non-Ceiling Height | 11000 |
| Sky/Lowest/Cloud Conditions | Scattered |
| Sky Condition for Lowest Ceiling | None |
| Visibility Runway Visual Range (Feet) | -- |
| Visibility Runway Visual Value (Statute Miles) | -- |
| Visibility (Statute Miles) | 10 |
| Air Temperature at event time (in degrees celsius) | -3 |
| Dew Point at event time (in degress fahrenheit) | -8 |
| Wind Direction (degrees magnetic) | -- |
| Variable Wind Indicator | -- |
| Wind Speed (knots) | -- |
| Wind Velocity Indicator | Calm |
| Wind Gust Indicator | Not Gusting |
| Wind Gust (knots) | -- |
| Altimeter Setting at event time (in. Hg) | 30.11 |
| Density Altitude (feet) | -- |
| Intensity of Precipitation | -- |
| METAR weather report | -- |
| Event Highest Injury | Serious |
| On Ground, Fatal Injuries | -- |
| On Ground, Minor Injuries | -- |
| On Ground, Serious Injuries | -- |
| Injury Total Fatal | -- |
| Injury Total Minor | -- |
| Injury Total None | -- |
| Injury Total Serious | 2 |
| Injury Total All | 2 |
| Investigating Agency | NTSB |
| NTSB Docket Number (internal use) | 13219 |
| NTSB Notification Source | FAA SEA ROC |
| NTSB Notification Date | Jan 31 2002 12:00AM |
| NTSB Notification Time | 953 |
| Fiche Number and/or location -used to find docket information | DMS |
| Date of most recent change to record | Apr 18 2003 4:34PM |
| User who most recently changed record | NTSB\MONR |
| Basic weather conditions | Visual Meteorological Cond |
| FAA District Office | Renton FSDO |
Aircraft Involved |
|
|---|---|
Aircraft #1 |
|
| Aircraft Registration Number | N7507G |
| NTSB Number | SEA02FA035 |
| Missing Aircraft Indicator | -- |
| Federal Aviation Reg. Part | Part 91: General Aviation |
| Type of Flight Plan filed | None |
| Flight plan Was Activated? | No |
| Damage | Substantial |
| Aircraft Fire | None |
| Aircraft Explosion | None |
| Aircraft Manufacturer's Full Name | Robinson |
| Aircraft Model | R-22 BETA |
| Aircraft Series Identifier | -- |
| Aircraft Serial Number | 3240 |
| 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 | 100 Hour |
| Date of Last Inspection | Jan 27 2002 12:00AM |
| Airframe hours since last inspection | 33 |
| Airframe Hours | 722.6 |
| ELT Installed | Unknown |
| ELT Activated | Unknown |
| ELT Aided Location of Event Site | Unknown |
| ELT Type | -- |
| Aircraft Owner Name | Grant, Jerry L. |
| Aircraft Owner Street Address | -- |
| Aircraft Owner City | Bozeman |
| Aircraft Owner State | MT |
| Aircraft Owner Country | USA |
| Aircraft Owner Zipcode | 59717 |
| Operator is an individual? | No |
| 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? | -- |
| Certified for Part 133 or 137 Operation | -- |
| 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) | Other Work Use |
| Second Pilot on Board | Yes |
| Departure Point Same as Event | No |
| Departure Airport Code | HLN |
| Departure City | Helena |
| Departure State | MT |
| Departure Country | USA |
| Departure Time | 948 |
| Departure Time Zone | MST |
| 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 | Descent |
| Report sent to ICAO? | No |
| Evacuation occurred | No |
| Date of most recent change to record | Mar 5 2003 1:20PM |
| User who most recently changed record | STAM |
| Since inspection or accident | Time of Accident |
| Event Location Runway Number and Location | -- |
| Runway Length | -- |
| Runway Width | -- |
| Sight Seeing flight | No |
| Air Medical Flight | No |
| Medical Flight | -- |