SEA07CA084 · Boykin Rotorway Exec 162F
Boykin Rotorway Exec 162F · Accident: loss of control in flight while maneuvering
From Camarillo International Airport (CMA) to Cunnamulla Airport (CMA)
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA07CA084
- 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
Boykin Rotorway Exec 162F
- Aircraft type
- Boykin ROTORWAY EXEC 162F
- 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
- N496SB
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Camarillo International Airport (CMA), Camarillo, CATo Cunnamulla Airport (CMA)
- 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
- Maneuvering · hover in ground effect
- 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
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Descent, uncontrolled
- Pilot in command › Rotor RPM, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot said that this was his first solo flight in this make and model helicopter. He said he did weight and balance calculations before performing a preflight inspection of the aircraft. The pilot said that he performed a ground taxi, and hovered for 5 to 10 minutes, with pedal turns, to check the control capability. He flew to an open field and noted a slight drift to the left. He returned to the airport and made a normal approach to the helipad followed by a normal flare. The aircraft then started to drift to the left and would not correct with right cyclic; while trying to correct the left drift with right cyclic, the cyclic became limited by his leg and the confines of the cockpit. During an attempted go around, the pilot said that his airspeed had decreased to zero, and his rotor RPM had dropped. He said the helicopter began to descend and landed hard on the left forward skid. Subsequently the helicopter rolled onto its left side.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to maintain main rotor RPM resulting in an uncontrolled descent to a hard landing. A contributing factor was his lack of experience in make and model of aircraft.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA07CA084
- Event ID
- 20070409X00382
- Case number
- SEA07CA084
- 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: 0dee5f3ac6d9e7c1ac2966ac90c66cae0a377a1be4d02868f4426eaceda16a5b; retrieved 2026-09-22T03:57:04.046Z.