Pilot Debrief

AEROSPATIALE AS350 near Lake Charles, LA — 2010-06-26

Final reportCEN10CA352
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Date
2010-06-26
Location
Lake Charles, LA, USA
Airport
CWF
Aircraft
AEROSPATIALE AS350
Registration
N191EH
Category
Helicopter
Highest injury
None
Fatalities
0
Phase of flight
Hover

Probable cause

The flight instructor’s inadvertent entry into ground resonance when demonstrating a hydraulic failure running landing, which resulted in substantial damage to the helicopter. Contributing to the accident was the pilot's and instructor pilot's failure to control the drift and rate of descent during the practice maneuvers.

NTSB narrative

The flight instructor was preparing the commercial-rated pilot for a check ride in the helicopter equipped with skid-type landing gear. During one of three running landings to a touchdown, the flight instructor was demonstrating a practice hydraulic failure running landing and the helicopter started to get into ground resonance as he initially touched down. The flight instructor increased power to become briefly airborne and continued the maneuver to a normal practice hydraulic failure running landing. After the ground resonance experience, the flight instructor continued the flight training session for an additional 45 minutes and conducted another hydraulic failure running landing, several slope landings, and five hovering autorotations. Two of the hovering autorotations were described as rough, with an undesired drift to the front left. The flight instructor then left the airport where they had been practicing and returned to their home base airport where they conducted two straight-in autorotations and three 180-degree autorotations, all to a power recovery. After shut-down procedures were completed the two pilots were surprised when they discovered substantial damage, with buckling around the full circumference of the forward part of the tail boom and a crack in the skin at the 6 o’clock position. The flight instructor stated that he thought the damage occurred when they were conducting hovering autorotations. The two pilots reported that they were not injured.

Analysis

Primary failure mode
Human factors
First missed decision gate
Instructor should have aborted training after ground resonance incident.

NTSB coding

Evidence available

  • 1 docket document
View NTSB final reportView NTSB docket

Docket documents1

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