Fatal helicopter crash caused by pilot error, report says

[barnstorm2]

Fatal helicopter crash caused by pilot error, report says

http://blog.pennlive.com/patriotnews/2007/04/fatal_helicopter_crash_caused.html

Posted by Monica Von Dobeneck/The Patriot-News April 04, 2007 16:11PM
Categories: Accident, Breaking News, Dauphin County, Lebanon County, Midstate, Sports


The helicopter accident that killed two owners of the state's largest thoroughbred horse farm was caused by a pilot error, according to a report recently issued by the National Transportation Safety Board.

Dennis Madonna, 48, of Grantville, was piloting the helicopter while Brad Jones, 67, of Pottstown was taking aerial photos of their Regal Heir Farms in East Hanover Twp. April 20 last year when their Bell helicopter crashed.



According to the NSTB report, the helicopter was probably carrying a bit too much weight to be hovering where it was with a tailwind.

"A tailwind may have required the use of more tail rotor thrust to maintain directional control, which meant there was less power available to the main rotor for the production of lift," the report said.

The investigation revealed no mechanical problems with the helicopter. Madonna was an experienced pilot, witnesses said at the time. The 232-acre farm was the home of Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner Real Quiet and other top thoroughbred stallions.

[CLS447]

Sounds like my area , Tim !

[barnstorm2]

I did not realize it was near you Chris,

I watch a lot of avaition news feeds and thought this might be a good one to learn from.


.

[Rotornut]

Wow sorry to read this. Always hard to take when it has anything to do with Aviation. We all know to well the Risk and Fun involved in Our Hobbies.
MJ :)

[scott heger]

This is a classic LTE (Loss of Tailrotor Effectiveness)helicopter control crash. High power settings due to hovering and high internal (passenger and fuel) weight in a tailwind situation make this much worse. The torque of the main rotor exceeds the tailrotor's ability to maintain direction. In a Bell helicopter, it will suddenly "snap" into a right spin with full left peddle applied. Adding more power/collective only makes it worse and the rate of spin increases, not a good thing. The solution is to reduce collective, and push the nose over to gain airspeed, given enough altitude. Doing nothing for a two or three seconds, will result in a lot of bad noises, followed by sirens, etc.

I have had it happen to me on two different occasions in a Jet Ranger. The first one was in a few hundred foot circling low speed hover, and I had plenty of altitude to fix it. The last time was a takeoff at 9,500 density altitude at near gross weight for the current DA. The wind direction had changed and I had a right rear quartering tailwind(working against the tailrotor thrust) for takeoff. I knew it was going to be tricky, and had thought about what could happen, and it did. As soon as I got to a 3 foot hover, it started whipping rapidly to the right. Since I did not have enough altitude to push the nose over, I lowered the collective to keep it just above ground level, till the helicopter was facing towards the wind, and flew out of it forward using the existing windspeed. Total time, maybe two seconds. The passengers never even knew,it looked like a fast 180 departure, but if other aircraft were parked right next to me, it could have been ugly. Operations in the "critical wind azmuth", basically winds in the 120 degree to 220 degree tailwind direction are to be avoided at low speeds. Basic helicopter 101.

I have to say here where a little specialized gyro time was very helpful. As some of you have seen , I practice doing 10 to 20 flat decending spins in a row with my SportCopter. That training was very valuable when dealing with a spinning helicopter. Though the recovery/save method is different, the feeling of spinning the first few times can easily exceed a pilot's ability that is not used to a spinning aircraft. No normal training school, is going to go teach low level spin recovery in a helicopter, so the first time it happens to some pilots is their last. I am not recommending that gyro spins are a normal thing to practice for a newbie, but it can also be valuable control lesson to the more experienced pilot.


Scott Heger, Laguna Niguel, Ca N86SH