- Date
- March 18, 1990, 11:00 local (19:00 UTC)
- Place
- Canyon Lake, CA
- Injuries
- 1 uninjured
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Phase of flight
- Landing
- Aircraft
- N554HEnstrom F-28C
- Weather
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Status
- Completed · report September 28, 1992
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- FAA report
- 19900318004679A
- Case key
- 26758
From the NTSB’s public API. By law, NTSB reports can’t be used as evidence in lawsuits over the accident.
On this page
Probable cause
The pilot to maintain proper rotor RPM during a practice autorotation. Contributing to the accident was the uneven terrain selected by the pilot to conduct practice touch maneuvers.
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
The private pilot was flying solo and practicing autorotations to an unevenly sloped open field. The pilot allowed the rotor RPM to bleed off and was unable to recover the RPM before touchdown. The helicopter landed hard collapsing the left skid of the landing gear system. The main rotor then contacted the tailboom.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N554H
- Reported as
- Enstrom F-28C
- Category
- Helicopter
- Serial number
- 1039
- Engine
- Lycoming HIO-360, 210 horsepower, reciprocating
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Flight
- Instructional · Part 91
- Registered owner
- Maurice E. Wood
- Airworthiness certificate
- Standard, Normal
- Last inspection
- Annual · March 1, 1989 · 80 hours before
- Departed
- Wildomar, CA
Matched to the registry by N-number and the event date; the registry’s history has gaps, so older matches can be wrong. Compare the reported make and model.
Flight crew
As NTSB recorded them. NTSB leaves out names.
- Role
- Pilot
- Age
- 51
- Certificate
- Private
- Airplane ratings
- Multi-engine land, Single-engine land
- Instrument ratings
- Airplane
- Medical
- Class 3, Valid Medical--no waivers/lim.
- Seat
- Left
- Flight hours
- 1,296 total · 75 in this make and model · 37 in the last 90 days · 1 in the last 24 hours
Weather
- Conditions
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Wind
- Calm
- Visibility
- 20 statute miles
- Lowest ceiling
- None
- Temperature
- 73 °F, dew point 30 °F
- Altimeter
- 30.00 inHg
- Observed at
- RAL, 22 nm away
FAA reports on this event · 1
The FAA’s own accident and incident reports, matched to the aircraft by N-number and date.
Other investigations on N554H · 1
Matched to the same aircraft by N-number and date.