N7490F

On March 24, 2002, about 1725 central standard time, a Hughes HU-269C, N7490F, registered to a private individual, operating as a Title 14 CFR Part 91 instructional flight, crashed on the Bessemer Airport, Bessemer, Alabama. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed and no flight plan was filed. The rotorcraft sustained substantial damage, and the flight instructor and student were not injured. The flight originated about 25 minutes before the accident.

According to the instructor, the student was practicing power off autorotations to a power on recovery, terminating in a 3-foot hover over a grassy area between runway 23 and the taxiway. On this particular autorotation, the student did not apply power to accomplish the recovery, and the CFI brought in the power to salvage the maneuver. The student applied abrupt back cyclic, and the tail rotor struck the ground, even though the CFI was riding the cyclic controls with the student. Following the tail rotor strike, the rotorcraft started spinning to the right, the right landing skid dug into the terrain, and the rotorcraft rolled over on its right side. There were no malfunctions of the rotorcraft or its components involved.

According to an FAA inspector, the student induced the tail rotor strike by over controlling the cyclic control in the aft direction. The responsibility for the maintenance of control rests with the CFI, who allowed the maneuver to progress to a point that possibly exceeded his ability to identify and safely recover.