GAA18CA210 · Robinson Helicopter R22 BETA
Capitol Helicopters Robinson Helicopter R22 BETA · Accident: loss of control on ground during landing
From Franklin Field (F72) to Franklin Field (F72)
Event
- NTSB case
- GAA18CA210
- 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
- N622MP
- Operator
- Capitol Helicopters
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Franklin Field (F72), Franklin, CATo Franklin Field (F72), Franklin, CA
- Aircraft age
- About 12 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
- 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
- Loss of control on ground
- 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
- Aircraft › Aircraft systems
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The flight instructor in the helicopter reported that, while demonstrating a touchdown autorotation to the pilot receiving instruction, the helicopter landed in a "normal run-on landing configuration." He added that the pilot receiving instruction applied aft cyclic about 15 ft into the forward ground run. The flight instructor moved the cyclic into the neutral position and lowered the collective as quickly as possible to slow the groundspeed. The helicopter "jumped" up and yawed to the left and spun about 150° before coming to rest. The flight instructor felt abnormal vibration in the cyclic and collective. He opened the door to inspect the helicopter and saw that the main rotor had struck the tailboom.
The helicopter sustained substantial damage to the tailboom.
The flight instructor reported that there were no preaccident mechanical failures or malfunctions with the helicopter that would have precluded normal operation.
Federal Aviation Administration's Helicopter Flying Handbook, FAA-H-8083-21A, contains a section titled "Autorotation " which states:
After the helicopter has come to a complete stop after touchdown, lower the collective pitch to the full-down position. Do not try to stop the forward ground run with aft cyclic, as the main rotor blades can strike the tail boom. Rather, by lowering the collective slightly during the ground run, more weight is placed on the undercarriage, slowing the helicopter.
Probable cause
The pilot receiving instruction’s abrupt cyclic control input during the touch-down autorotation.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record GAA18CA210
- Event ID
- 20180412X25950
- Case number
- GAA18CA210
- 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: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 2018-04-11.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 0788c2cd6855dde8529de7a8ef11d7bb78cf273db0c8e89c9f9035a27c00ff0d; retrieved 2026-09-16T06:49:09.711Z.