GAA15CA224 · Robinson Helicopter R22 BETA
Silverhawk Aviation Academy Robinson Helicopter R22 BETA · Accident: abrupt maneuver during landing
From Caldwell Executive Airport (EUL) to Caldwell Executive Airport (EUL)
Event
- NTSB case
- GAA15CA224
- 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 Helicopter 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
- N3103Q
- Operator
- Silverhawk Aviation Academy
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Caldwell Executive Airport (EUL), Caldwell, IDTo Caldwell Executive Airport (EUL), Caldwell, ID
- Aircraft age
- About 9 years (built 2006)
- 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
- Landing · flare/touchdown
- Defining eventThe 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
- Abrupt maneuver
- 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
- Aircraft › Aircraft oper/perf/capability
- Personnel issues › Action/decision
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
According to the flight instructor, while performing a simulated, right turn, 180 degree autorotation the helicopter impacted the ground and rolled over. The flight instructor stated that at 200 feet AGL, the low rotor RPM horn sounded, and he and the student pilot "attempted a recovery." The flight instructor reported that after hearing the low rotor RPM horn, but prior to impact, "a loud thumping noise could be heard and a violent shake in the cyclic could be felt." He stated that he chose to level the helicopter before it impacted the terrain and rolled. The helicopter sustained substantial damage to the main rotor system, fuselage and tail boom.
The pilot reported that there were no mechanical failures or anomalies prior to flight that would have prevented normal operation.
Probable cause
The helicopter flight instructor's delayed remedial action during an autorotation resulting in a loss of control and impact with terrain.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record GAA15CA224
- Event ID
- 20150817X35859
- Case number
- GAA15CA224
- Dataset
- full-current
- Source SHA-256
- 5cf380f0061817c0331a6b2d8cc7e0ee3a79bea469a1001dc5c10e56f35f5ab3
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: e3d527c2c9aa0d07862f98ac1c1a92f14646cfade6d5132aaaf4aa3c4c4666c3; retrieved 2026-09-16T02:40:44.815Z.