SEA82DYA06 · Rotorway SCORPION TOO SCORPION T
Rotorway SCORPION TOO SCORPION T · Accident: loss of control in flight while taxiing
From HALF WAY RANCH, ID to HALF WAY RANCH, ID
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA82DYA06
- 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
Rotorway SCORPION TOO SCORPION T
- Aircraft type
- Rotorway SCORPION TOO
- 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
- N222RP
- Operator
- Douglas J. Mcfall · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From HALF WAY RANCH, IDTo HALF WAY RANCH, ID
- 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
- Loss of control in flight
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Reason for occurrence undetermined
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT WAS FAMILIARIZING HIMSELF WITH THE HOME BUILT HELICOPTER. AFTER HOVERING IN ONE GENERAL AREA FOR ABOUT 45 MINUTES, HE DECIDED TO HOVER TO AN OPEN AREA BY CROSSING A FENCE. HE STATED THAT HE ENTERED TRANSLATIONAL LIFT AT ABOUT 20 KNOTS WHILE HOVERING FORWARD. AT THIS TIME, THE HELICOPTER BEGAN ROLLING TO THE LEFT. FULL RIGHT CYCLIC FAILED TO CORRECT THE ROLL. THE HELICOPTER CONTINUED TO ROLL LEFT AND STRUCK THE GROUND WITH THE MAIN ROTOR BLADE AND LEFT SKID. FOR SOLO FLIGHT, THE SHIPS BATTERY MUST BE REPOSITIONED IN THE NOSE, AND LEAD WEIGHTS MUST BE ATTACHED TO THE RIGHT SKID FOR PROPER WEIGHT AND BALANCE CONTROL. THE PILOT STATED THAT HE HAD MADE THOSE ALTERATIONS PRIOR TO FLIGHT. AN ON-SITE INVESTIGATION INDICATED THAT THE BATTERY AND LEAD WEIGHTS WERE THROWN FREE OF THE HELICOPTER. INSUFFICIENT DATA WAS AVAILABLE TO ASCERTAIN THE AIRCRAFT'S CENTER-OF-GRAVITY AT THE TIME OF THE ACCIDENT. THE FLIGHT CONTROLS HAD RETAINED THEIR CONTINUITY. THE ELEVATION WAS ABOUT 3700 FT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA82DYA06
- Event ID
- 20020917X02614
- Case number
- SEA82DYA06
- 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: investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date, which is the same as the UTC date the NTSB stores.
- API snapshot SHA-256: d6f2d87cbde2606e1bc5026be29c47224acc4cbee6cf75f825221204dc59f6a2; retrieved 2026-09-21T18:17:46.022Z.