A similar thing happend to me - But I was the instructor.
I took on a student from another school for his commercial course. The low RPM horn came on (I think in a RPM recovery drill.) Super fast panick action by my student, a strong throttle hand, a really aggressive flare and the collective dumped to the bottom...Whizzz! That RPM flew up before I could stop it. Redline - Yes. How long - Not sure, but 1-3 seconds.
So what did I do?
I landed back straight away. Told the student it was not his fault - "These things happen". Went straight to the maintenance board and grounded the aircraft. Went straight to the hangar and explained what I saw. Went straight to the boss and explained what happened.
The result...
The aircraft was grounded for 3 weeks while they sent a part away to be inspected. It came back with no damage reported. Maintenance guys, found no evidence of rotor overspeed. The boss thanked me for the honesty. The boss had a 'no-blame' culture in order to encourage this kind of honesty.
The student and I discussed the event and I flew with this student the next day in another aircraft, me, a better instructor more vigilent for such an event in the future and the student less panicky and more controlled when the horn comes on.
(From an instruction point of view, what did I learn? I learnt to treat every student I have not flown with as a new pilot.)
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As an instructor and PIC the responsibilty was all mine. However, more importantly, I have a responsibility to every pilot who would fly that aircraft afterwards. If I had not reported this, and someone had flown that aircraft 3 days / weeks / months / years later, and had a fatal accident, it would be on my concience forever, whether or not their accident was attributed to my earlier overspeed or not.
To the original poster - Set your personal standards for the rest of your career right now.
There are ways to handle the situation with the instructor. You need to find a fair way. The bottom line is though is that the aircraft gets inspected.
Good luck.
cl12pv2s
Last edited by cl12pv2s; 27th Mar 2011 at 19:51.