N86238

On May 14, 1998, at 1535 central daylight time an Enstrom F28 helicopter, N86238, piloted by a student pilot on a solo flight, was substantially damaged during a hard landing and subsequently rolled over at the DuPage Airport, West Chicago, Illinois. The 14 CFR Part 91 training flight was not operating under a flight plan. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed at the time of the accident. The student reported no injuries. The flight was positioning from runway 19L to near a FBO and was executing a downwind approach when the accident occurred.

Weather reported 8 minutes after the accident on field were: winds 140 degrees magnetic at 9 knots; visibility 10 statute miles; sky clear; temperature 29 degrees C; dew point 19 degrees C; altimeter 29.99 inches of mercury.

According to a written statement, the pilot flew to DuPage to practice touch-and-goes. After completing a touch-and-goes the pilot requested to re-position to the fixed base operator (FBO) on the north side of the airport. "I then asked permission to go to the [FBO]. He gave me permission and told me to go to runway 33. As I made my way over to runway 33, I thought to myself, why is he having me land here with such a strong tailwind? But I made my approach anyway. As I started to land I knew that I had gotten myself into a bad situation when I realized my rate of descent was just over 500 FPM (feet a minute) with slow forward airspeed. That's when the controls felt sluggish with some vibrations and the cyclic had a little shake to it. I thought to myself, I need to get out of this. But to do that, I would have had to increase my forward airspeed and that, I felt, could have put myself and others at great risk because there was traffic landing on both runways in front of me, 19-Left and 19-Right. I then felt the loss of control becoming greater so I made the decision to move north, away from runway 33 to a large soft grassy area to ensure that there was no risk of any person or object being put in danger except for myself and my helicopter. After I made that decision, things happened very quickly. I put a lot of left pedal in, hoping to swing the front end of my ship around into the wind while, at the same time, increasing left cyclic. The result was hitting the ground hard pointed in a W-SW direction with the right landing gear and the right side of the ship taking on the brunt of the contact."