Hughes 269A N488MC

Summary

On 12 August 2005 at about 01:00 local time, a Hughes 269A registered N488MC was involved in an accident near Ashland, Oregon, United States. 2 people were on board and nobody was injured. The aircraft was substantially damaged. The NTSB has published a probable cause for this accident; it is quoted in full below.

Date

12 August 2005 at 01:00

Classification

Accident

Location

Ashland, Oregon, United States

Nearest airport

Ashland Municipal (S03)

Coordinates

42.1917, -122.6611

Aircraft

Hughes 269A

Registration

N488MC

Category

Helicopter

Engines

1

Operator

Not recorded

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Instructional

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Medford → Ashland

Aircraft damage

Substantial

Weather

VMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

SEA05CA168

Nobody was injured.

The inability of the dual student to maintain directional control of the helicopter during the landing roll when the left skid sank into an area of thick, soft, sticky tar, and the instructor pilot's improper decision to perform a full-down autorotational landing to a surface which had already shown itself to be soft. Factors include a soft, sticky landing surface, and high temperature that contributed to the softening of the landing surface.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record. This site does not paraphrase or interpret it.

Read the full NTSB narrative

After arriving at Ashland Airport, the dual-student and the instructor performed hovering exercises, hovering autorotations, and hovering loss of tail rotor effectiveness (LTE) maneuvers. They next performed some stuck-pedal exercises on a parallel taxiway, and then performed a series of run-on landings to runway 30. The last maneuver was a full-down autorotation to runway 30. The maneuver was initiated about 300 feet above ground level (agl), and the flare was started about 50 feet agl. According to both the student and the instructor, the flare and touchdown were performed correctly, and were uneventful. The helicopter then slid directly down the runway for about 150 feet, but just prior to coming to a normal stop (at about five knots), the left skid sank into some soft tar on the runway surface. The helicopter then veered abruptly to the left, and rolled over onto its right side. When the occupants got out of the helicopter, they found that the tar in the area where the aircraft rolled over was thick, soft, and sticky. In a post accident interview, both the student and the instructor said that when they departed Medford for Ashland, they were not aware that the Ashland Airport runway surface was made of chip-seal (a combination of tar and crushed rock). According to the instructor, although the runway surface did not seem to present any problem during the run-on landings, he did notice that when they came around the pattern for subsequent maneuvers that he could see imprints in the surface from the previous skid contacts. The instructor further noted that the temperature at the time of the accident was just over 90 degrees, and that on the previous two days the temperature had reached about 100 degrees. He also stated that the runway surface was inconsistent, in that some areas contained more rock in the composite, and some areas contained more tar in the composite.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.