- Date
- May 9, 1990, 14:50 local (21:50 UTC)
- Place
- Irvine, CA
- Injuries
- 2 uninjured
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Phase of flight
- Emergency descent
- Aircraft
- N9070NRobinson R22
- Weather
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Status
- Completed · report November 9, 1992
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- FAA report
- 19900509015939A
- Case key
- 26798
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 cfi's failure to maintain rotor RPM during the practice autorotation.
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
During an instructional lesson the CFI demonstrated autorotation to his student. The CFI indicated that he planned to land in an established landing zone. However, upon recognizing the helicopter would not reach the desired location the CFI decided to stop the descent. The CFI further reported that he raised the collective which induced a low rotor RPM situation. There was insufficient altitude to recover and the helicopter touched down hard.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N9070N
- Reported as
- Robinson R22
- Category
- Helicopter
- Serial number
- 0186
- Engine
- Lycoming O-320-B2C, 160 horsepower, reciprocating
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Flight
- Instructional · Part 91
- Registered owner
- Helistream, Inc.
- Departed
- SNA · Santa Ana, 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
- 28
- Certificates
- Flight instructor, Commercial
- Airplane ratings
- Single-engine land
- Instrument ratings
- Helicopter
- Medical
- Class 2, Unknown
- Flight hours
- 630 total · 550 in this make and model · 426 as pilot in command · 130 in the last 90 days · 56 in the last 30 days · 3 in the last 24 hours
Weather
- Conditions
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Wind
- 180° at 8 knots
- Lowest ceiling
- None
- Temperature
- -0 °F, dew point -0 °F
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 N9070N · 1
Matched to the same aircraft by N-number and date.