FTW97LA328 · Fingerhut Revolution MINI 500
Fingerhut Revolution MINI 500 · Accident: airframe, component or system failure en route
From TX (no airport) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW97LA328
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- InvestigationHow far the investigation had got when the record was published: preliminary, ongoing, final or completed. Unknown where the source does not say. Glossary
- Completed
- API-reported fatalities
- 0 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- 0
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- General aviation
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Fingerhut Revolution MINI 500
- Aircraft type
- Fingerhut Revolution MINI 500
- Category
- Helicopter
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- N570F
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From TX (no airport)To not recorded
- Aircraft age
- Not recorded
- Flight rulesThe regulations the flight operated under: in the US, Part 91 (general aviation), Part 121 (airlines), Part 135 (air taxi and commuter) and others; for flights abroad, the NTSB's coarser commercial or non-commercial code. Glossary
- Part 91: General Aviation
- Phase of flightThe stage of the flight when things started to go wrong: standing, taxi, takeoff, initial climb, en route, maneuvering, approach or landing. Glossary
- En route · cruise
- First occurrenceThe single coded event the NTSB judges best describes what happened (records from 2008 on). Older records name the first occurrence in the sequence instead. Glossary
- Airframe, component or system failure
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Owner/builder › Maintenance, installation, improper
- Rotorcraft flight control system › Failure
- Rotorcraft flight control, collective control rod › Disengaged
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The student pilot experienced a disconnect of the collective control system which resulted in the main rotor blades going to flat pitch while in cruise flight at 800 feet MSL. When the pilot attempted to cushion the landing by increasing collective pitch, the helicopter yawed to the left prior to touching down and the helicopter rolled over on its side. Examination of the wreckage revealed a disconnect of the collective flight control system between the collective riser block (P/N 0153), and the rod end (P/N 0600) for the collective control tube. Examination of the threaded areas of the collective riser block and the rod end revealed that the threads on the aluminum collective riser block were found to be displaced or pulled out due to inadequate improper penetration. The information supplied by the kit manufacturer was insufficient to properly rig the flight control system.
Probable cause
The disengagement of the helicopter's collective control tube due to improper installation by the builder. Factors were the lack of sufficient information provided by the kit manufacturer and the pilot's inability to cushion the landing.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW97LA328
- Event ID
- 20001208X08639
- Case number
- FTW97LA328
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Source notes (4)
- Unreviewed is an editorial label, not an investigation status. API-sourced is not report-checked or human-reviewed. Explicit event totals are used without summing aircraft injury tables; onboard allocation is withheld. Unknown values remain unknown. The operation category is mapped from the NTSB-reported FAR part and has not been reviewed.
- Filled from the NTSB case API where the bulk record had no value: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 1997-08-27.
- API snapshot SHA-256: bda903cf9b9cce08db6c269f76e2dab4ecefad159841ad7bda3a2c182fd9e5d8; retrieved 2026-09-22T18:45:24.321Z.