CHI98LA334 · Culver-Revolution MINI 500
Culver-Revolution MINI 500 · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) while taxiing
From Flying Cloud Airport (FCM) to Flying Cloud Airport (FCM)
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI98LA334
- 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
Culver-Revolution MINI 500
- Aircraft type
- Culver 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
- N6269R
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Flying Cloud Airport (FCM)To Flying Cloud Airport (FCM)
- 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
- Taxi · aerial
- 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
- Total loss of engine power (non-mechanical)
- Also codedOther events the NTSB coded in the sequence, such as a wire strike after a loss of power. Flight Findings uses them for its kinds of event. Glossary
- Fuel starvation
- 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, design change, performed
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The kit-built helicopter was hover-taxiing for about ten minutes according to the pilot/builder. He said '...the engine stopped unexpectedly [and the helicopter] settled to the runway and rolled over.' The on-scene investigation revealed a silicon-type sealant had completely blocked the supply side of the fuel filter. The builder said he had used this material to seal the fuel tank filler neck's flange to the fuel tank. According to the manufacturer's instruction manual, the builder is to 'Place a 1/8-inch bead of MA300 from the adhesive kit around [the] hole circle through the centerline of [the mounting] holes.' MA300 is an epoxy-type glue/sealant that does not break down when contacted by gasoline. The silicon-type material dissolves when it comes in contact with gasoline, according to the helicopter's kit manufacturer.
Probable cause
a design change to the fuel tank filler neck sealant made by the owner/builder of the helicopter. Factors associated with this accident were an improper sealant material used by the owner/builder and an autorotation was not possible by the pilot due to the hover-taxis low altitude.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI98LA334
- Event ID
- 20001211X11015
- Case number
- CHI98LA334
- 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 1998-09-09.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 7496b8315160e1ecb4d9a5513ddbc59a4e6d6309e846c7e5b5d6d3f9e45b342a; retrieved 2026-09-22T16:51:38.918Z.