Robinson R22 BETA N74778

Summary

On 8 July 2023 at about 19:52 local time, a Robinson R22 BETA registered N74778 was involved in an accident near Emmett, Idaho, United States. 2 people were on board and 2 had minor injuries. The aircraft was substantially damaged. The NTSB has published a probable cause for this accident; it is quoted in full below.

Date

8 July 2023 at 19:52

Classification

Accident

Location

Emmett, Idaho, United States

Coordinates

43.7944, -116.5444

Aircraft

Robinson R22 BETA

Registration

N74778

Category

Helicopter

Year built

2005

Engines

1

Operator

Not recorded

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Instructional

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Caldwell → Unknown

Aircraft damage

Substantial

Weather

VMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

WPR23LA265

2 people had minor injuries.

The instructor’s failure to maintain airspeed during a simulated turning autorotation, which resulted in a hard 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 he was demonstrating a turning autorotation to his student. The instructor entered the glide, turned, and kept the engine and rotor RPM gauges in the green arc, while maintaining an airspeed of about 55 knots. He increased the throttle setting and raised the collective lever as the helicopter descended through 200 ft AGL, however, the rotor RPMs fell below the green arc. The instructor made the decision to continue the autorotation with ground contact and applied aft cyclic to reduce the decent rate. The helicopter landed hard and nosed over onto its right side, resulting in substantial damage to the tailboom and tail rotor assembly. The instructor reported that there were no preaccident mechanical malfunctions or failures that would have precluded normal operation.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.