MIA03CA129 · Robinson R22 BETA
Orlando Flight Training Robinson R22 BETA · Accident: loss of control in flight en route
From Kissimmee Gateway Airport (KISM) to Kissimmee Gateway Airport (KISM)
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA03CA129
- 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
- Unknown
- 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
Robinson R22 BETA
- Aircraft type
- Robinson R22
- 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
- N7185K
- Operator
- Orlando Flight Training
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Kissimmee Gateway Airport (KISM)To Kissimmee Gateway Airport (KISM)
- 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 · descent
- 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
- 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
- Stall/spin
- 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
- Pilot in command(cfi) › Supervision, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The CFI stated that his student was having difficulty performing hovering auto-rotations, and they were practicing the maneuver. After about 4 executions of the maneuver, while hovering about 2 feet above the ground at the practice area, the student applied left anti-torque pedal instead of right input when he reduced engine power to begin the maneuver. The CFI later reported he had his right foot over the right anti-torque pedal to confirm correct input by the student, but he was unable to prevent or correct the incorrect input from the student as quickly as he should have done. The helicopter started to spin to the left and while descending, the aft portion of the left skid dug in to the soft soil and the helicopter stopped spinning immediately. A vibration followed the landing; he disengaged the clutch and secured the engine then exited the helicopter. Post accident inspection of the helicopter by him revealed the tail boom was substantially damaged. The student pilot stated that he was practicing the autorotation maneuver at the practice area with his flight instructor. On his third or fourth attempt of performing the maneuver, the helicopter spun to the left and contacted the ground. His instructor later told him that he applied left anti-torque pedal instead of right pedal causing the helicopter to spin to the left at an unusual rate in autorotation.
Probable cause
The inadequate supervision by flight instructor for his failure to prevent incorrect anti-torque pedal input by the student resulting in the helicopter yawing at touchdown. A factor in the accident was the incorrect anti-torque pedal input by the student pilot while performing a practice auto-rotative landing procedure from a hover.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA03CA129
- Event ID
- 20030808X01292
- Case number
- MIA03CA129
- 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, coordinates. 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: 88585a99c51f38e2b49c37be202979ec77d02fc31c614bd8cc7152a3b3f25b76; retrieved 2026-09-22T09:08:20.499Z.