- Date
- March 16, 1986, 10:02 local (18:02 UTC)
- Place
- Poterville, CA
- Injuries
- 1 uninjured
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Phase of flight
- Enroute
- Aircraft
- N90475Hiller 12E
- Weather
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Status
- Completed
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- FAA report
- 19860316032729A
- Case key
- 25093
From the NTSB’s public API. By law, NTSB reports can’t be used as evidence in lawsuits over the accident.
On this page
Sequence of events
NTSB’s coding before 2008: each occurrence and phase of flight, and the causes and factors under it. The codes are defined in NTSB’s coding manual.
Analysis
A hiller 12E helicopter landed hard after an eng failure. The acft was enroute to another field site at aprx 100 ft AGL and 40 KTS IAS. The eng quit abruptly and the rotor RPM decayed 100 RPM. The acft was about 2,000 pounds gwt at the time of the accident and the autorotational RPM was rigged for the maximum gwt of 3,100 pounds. The eng main case was cracked in the vicinity of cyl #6. During the eng teardown #6 piston, connecting rod and one rodcap bolt came off with the cyl. One rod bolt was broken and the nut was still attached to the broken end. The other rod bolt was unbroken and the nut was missing.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N90475
- Reported as
- Hiller 12E
- Category
- Helicopter
- Serial number
- 2366
- Engine
- Lycoming VO-540-B1A, 305 horsepower, reciprocating
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Flight
- Positioning · Part 91
- Operator
- Mark Shepard, doing business as Shepard Sprayers
- Airworthiness certificate
- Special, Restricted (Special)
Flight crew
As NTSB recorded them. NTSB leaves out names.
- Role
- Pilot
- Age
- 38
- Certificates
- Commercial, Airline transport
- Airplane ratings
- Multi-engine land, Single-engine land
- Instrument ratings
- Airplane, Helicopter
- Medical
- Class 2, Valid Medical--w/ waivers/lim
- Seat
- Center
- Flight hours
- 6,700 total · 600 in this make and model · 6,500 as pilot in command · 100 in the last 90 days · 60 in the last 30 days · 2 in the last 24 hours
Weather
- Conditions
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Wind
- 225° at 5 knots
- Visibility
- 30 statute miles
- Lowest ceiling
- None
- Temperature
- 61 °F
FAA reports on this event · 1
The FAA’s own accident and incident reports, matched to the aircraft by N-number and date.