Low Level Lover

Wasn’t speculating with this incident/accident, pilot is a good friend who sent me a photo same day it happened. He said they were practicing engine failure at the hover and that things ended really bad and that it was all a blur as it all happened so fast. Don’t know that TSB get involved as there were no injuries and they know what the cause was. Just my .02 worth

I flew this helicopter about two weeks prior to this accident and it only had 14 hrs on the hobbs. The pilot in the report at the time was a low time pilot going for a ppc (not sure why in this helicopter) and had no time in a french machine. They were practicing hovering autos and I think that the pilot put in the wrong pedal with the throttle chop and the instructor was too late to catch it. It may have turned out different if they were practicing on pavement and not grass which explains why it flipped over. The instructor was also low time in type as he would not even demo a auto for me at the time. No injurys but some heavily bruised egos I’m sure. Also no video cameras fitted when i took her for a spin.

This $69,000 for the parts kit, do you not get substantial money back for the cores to bring the price down some what?

I was in Duncan just last week doing some circuits in an R 22 and the turkey vultures in the area are terrible, sometimes hard to see against the surrounding terrain. Wonder if this had anything to do with the crash.

Heard that the hovering auto practice was carried out on grass rather than on pavement. Is that correct and if so what are some of your opinions where as if practicing on pavement it may have been a little more foregiving allowing the skid gear to slide a little and possibly avoiding the roll over? Any thoughts?