Robinson R22 N6703S

Summary

On 22 April 2020 at about 23:00 local time, a Robinson R22 registered N6703S was involved in an accident near Caldwell, Idaho, United States. 2 people were on board and nobody was injured. The aircraft was substantially damaged. The NTSB has published a probable cause for this accident; it is quoted in full below.

Date

22 April 2020 at 23:00

Classification

Accident

Location

Caldwell, Idaho, United States

Nearest airport

Caldwell Industrial (EUL)

Coordinates

43.6400, -116.6400

Aircraft

Robinson R22

Registration

N6703S

Category

Helicopter

Year built

2004

Engines

1

Operator

Not recorded

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Instructional

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Caldwell → Caldwell

Aircraft damage

Substantial

Weather

VMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

WPR20CA140

Nobody was injured.

The flight instructor's failure to set the proper rotor rpm during a practice autorotation, which led to his failure to maintain a proper descent rate and resulted in a hard, bounced landing.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record. This site does not paraphrase or interpret it.

Read the full NTSB narrative

The flight instructor reported that, during the instructional flight and while conducting a maximum-glide configuration autorotation, he and the student pilot set the rotor rpm between about 93% and 94%. The instructor began applying aft cyclic to slow the descent rate and to regain rpm; however, the descent rate did not decrease, so he applied more left cyclic to no avail and then increased the throttle. The helicopter landed hard at the most level attitude the instructor could make it, and it then bounced and came to rest. The tailboom was substantially damaged. The Pilot's Operating Manual contained a caution that stated to "increase rotor RPM to 97% minimum when autorotating below 500 ft above ground level." The chief flight instructor reported that there were no preaccident mechanical malfunctions or failures with the helicopter that would have precluded normal operation.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.