Individually Owned: 150,657
Corporate Owned: 137,281
Flying M Ranch Airport
Aircraft Accident/Incident Report
Yerington, Nevada 89447
Sunday, May 27, 2007 10:45 PDT
NTSB Narrative Summary Released at Completion of Accident
The helicopter landed hard while practicing a low altitude engine failure and autorotation. According to the CFI, the student had rolled off the throttle to flight idle in preparation for the maneuver. As the helicopter descended the CFI heard the engine spool down, but did not observe a split between the rotor and engine tachometer needles. He realized that the student had not completely bottomed out the collective, and he immediately took over the flight controls. He attempted to regain some of the decayed rotor rpm's by rolling the throttle to full flight rpm, lowering the collective, and raising the nose to build inertia in the blades; however, he realized that the engine did not have enough time to spool up. He then reduced the throttle to flight idle, leveled the skids, and used the pedals to control the yaw in preparation for the touchdown. The helicopter landed hard with forward speed, and came to rest upright. The CFI reported that the maneuver had been initiated at 100 feet agl, with a targeted recovery of 20 feet agl. The CFI said there were no mechanical anomalies noted with the helicopter.
NTSB Probable Cause Narrative
The failure of the student and instructor to maintain an adequate main rotor rpm, and the instructor’s inadequate in-flight supervision while conducting a low-level simulated emergency procedure, which resulted in a hard landing.
Event Information
| Type of Event | Accident |
| Event Date | 5/27/2007 |
| Event Day of the Week | Sunday |
| Time of Event | 1045 |
| Event Time Zone | Pacific Daylight Time |
| Event City | Yerington |
| Event State | NEVADA |
| Event Country | -- |
| Zipcode of the event site | 89447 |
| Event Date Year | 2007 |
| Event Date Month | 5 |
| MidAir Collision Indicator | No |
| On Ground Collision occurred ? | No |
| Event Location Latitude | 383600N |
| Event Location Longitude | 1190000W |
| Event Location Airport | Flying M Ranch |
| Event Location Nearest Airport ID | FMR |
| 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 | 5000 |
| Weather Briefing Completeness | -- |
| Investigator's weather source | Pilot |
| Time of the weather observation | |
| Direction of event from weather observation facility (degrees) | -- |
| Weather Observation Facility ID | -- |
| Elevation of weather observation facility | -- |
| Distance of event from weather observation facility (units?) | -- |
| Time Zone of the weather observation | -- |
| Lighting Conditions | Day |
| Lowest Ceiling Height | -- |
| Lowest Non-Ceiling Height | -- |
| Sky/Lowest/Cloud Conditions | Clear |
| 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) | 23 |
| Dew Point at event time (in degress fahrenheit) | -- |
| Wind Direction (degrees magnetic) | 310 |
| Variable Wind Indicator | Wind direction could be determined |
| Wind Speed (knots) | 5 |
| Wind Velocity Indicator | -- |
| Wind Gust Indicator | Not Gusting |
| Wind Gust (knots) | -- |
| Altimeter Setting at event time (in. Hg) | -- |
| Density Altitude (feet) | -- |
| Intensity of Precipitation | -- |
| METAR weather report | -- |
| Event Highest Injury | Minor |
| On Ground, Fatal Injuries | -- |
| On Ground, Minor Injuries | -- |
| On Ground, Serious Injuries | -- |
| Injury Total Fatal | -- |
| Injury Total Minor | 2 |
| Injury Total None | -- |
| Injury Total Serious | -- |
| Injury Total All | 2 |
| Investigating Agency | NTSB |
| NTSB Docket Number (internal use) | 22146 |
| NTSB Notification Source | FAA |
| NTSB Notification Date | May 27 2007 12:00AM |
| NTSB Notification Time | -- |
| Fiche Number and/or location -used to find docket information | DMS |
| Date of most recent change to record | Aug 30 2007 12:18PM |
| User who most recently changed record | NTSB\lema |
| Basic weather conditions | Visual Meteorological Cond |
| FAA District Office | WP-RNO-FSDO |
Aircraft Involved |
|
|---|---|
Aircraft #1 |
|
| Aircraft Registration Number | N526BH |
| NTSB Number | LAX07CA177 |
| Missing Aircraft Indicator | -- |
| Federal Aviation Reg. Part | Part 91: General Aviation |
| Type of Flight Plan filed | None |
| Flight plan Was Activated? | -- |
| Damage | Substantial |
| Aircraft Fire | None |
| Aircraft Explosion | -- |
| Aircraft Manufacturer's Full Name | MD Helicopters |
| Aircraft Model | 500-E |
| Aircraft Series Identifier | -- |
| Aircraft Serial Number | 0467E |
| Certified Max Gross Weight | -- |
| Aircraft Category | Helicopter |
| Aircraft Registration Class | -- |
| Aircraft is a homebuilt? | No |
| Flight Crew Seats | -- |
| Cabin Crew Seats | -- |
| Passenger Seats | -- |
| Total number of seats on the aircraft | -- |
| Number of Engines | 1 |
| Fixed gear or retractable gear | Fixed |
| Aircraft, Type of Last Inspection | -- |
| Date of Last Inspection | -- |
| Airframe hours since last inspection | -- |
| Airframe Hours | -- |
| ELT Installed | -- |
| ELT Activated | -- |
| ELT Aided Location of Event Site | -- |
| ELT Type | -- |
| Aircraft Owner Name | Air Finance Corp c/o The Flying M Hunt Club |
| Aircraft Owner Street Address | -- |
| Aircraft Owner City | Yerington |
| Aircraft Owner State | NV |
| Aircraft Owner Country | USA |
| Aircraft Owner Zipcode | -- |
| 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) | Instructional |
| Second Pilot on Board | Yes |
| Departure Point Same as Event | Yes |
| Departure Airport Code | FMR |
| Departure City | Yerington |
| Departure State | NV |
| Departure Country | USA |
| Departure Time | 1045 |
| Departure Time Zone | PDT |
| Destination Same as Local Flt | dest & departure same, accident can occur anywhere |
| Destination Airport Code | FMR |
| Destination City | Yerington |
| Destination State | NV |
| Destination Country | USA |
| Specific Phase of Flight | Maneuvering |
| Report sent to ICAO? | -- |
| Evacuation occurred | -- |
| Date of most recent change to record | Aug 14 2007 1:13PM |
| User who most recently changed record | NTSB\HAMG |
| Since inspection or accident | -- |
| Event Location Runway Number and Location | 36 |
| Runway Length | 5700 |
| Runway Width | 100 |
| Sight Seeing flight | No |
| Air Medical Flight | No |
| Medical Flight | -- |