Engineer killed by tail rotor.

[helisdw]

Not to excuse any behavioural issues that have already been highlighted, but a few additional things that came to mind:

(1) The B3 has a larger tail rotor than the B2 - this means even small pedal movements generate noticeably more powerful forces. Additionally, the starting position for the B3 is defined by Airbus as having the left tail rotor pedal 2cm forward; the B2 does not have this stipulation and the POH simply refers to 'neutral' (which I suspect most pilots would take to mean having the pedals level with one another). Interestingly, outwith the start list, the B3 POH also refers to the tail rotor pedal positions in varying different ways ("mid position", "re-centralize", "pedals centred") and all seem to be referring to a 'neutral' position.

(2) Pilot had limited experience on the type variant (6.5hr on AS350B3) - as the B3 is FADEC controlled, it equates to the 'throttle' (collective twist grip) effectively being a binary switch from ground idle to flight idle with a computer controlling the rate of acceleration between these two points. In contrast, the B2 has a manual 'throttle' (fuel flow lever) - although it is entirely possible to move this rapidly, it takes the conscious action of the pilot and a swift movement would feel unnatural / unusual (POH: "Gradually increase the fuel flow, maintaining a constant rate of rotor acceleration"). Although the acceleration of the B3 is not what could be considered as overly 'harsh', it could catch out a pilot who is lacking focus and / or is new to a FADEC system.

(3) The pilot had spotted an abnormal position of one of the skid gear springs on the pre-flight - the report doesn't seem to offer any additional information, but if the spring was not adequately making contact with the ground then it could reduce friction between the skids and the tarmac. Alternatively, if it was pushing the skid up at the rear, there could be a similar loss of friction. The single photo of the aircraft in the accident report doesn't offer any appreciable indication of which spring was at fault, but the circular score marks appear concentrated around the left-hand skid.

From experience, I've had the B3 rotate unintentionally during spool up from ground to flight idle due to one of the skids being on a loose rock / gravel surface - admittedly the rotation was of a limited degree but still occurred even though the pedal position was as per the POH and my feet were on the pedals.