UK AAIB(H) 2022 and Record-Only Investigations

[Luther Sebastian]

Apologies for falling down on the job, but for the last year or so I thought the Record Only investigations presented at the bottom of the monthly bulletin only concerned UAVs. Some of the titles include the acronym UAV, and consist of lists of Scroggins Superscorcher Mk 7s crashing into garden gnomes. Others don't include 'UAV' in the title, but still only have drone reports.

However - I have now found out that a few of the Record Only Correspondence Investigations actually do include real aircraft accidents. Hence this entry is going to be a bit larger than usual, as a catch-up. It goes back to the start of 2022 though I am aware of some others before then. Congratulations to those diligent pilots who found them by looking round the AAIB's site more thoroughly than I did.

October 2022 - Record Only Link to October 2022 Record Only

Left engine cowl opens in flight on a Cabri and is severed by the MR. No handling difficulties reported, precautionary landing goes OK.

R-44 dynamic rollover, drifted to right on lift.

EC155 hover taxis to pre-agreed spot, lifts a parked 172 and creases its left leading edge.

G2 student on second solo flight loses control in a left pedal turn, strikes ground on its right side.

August 2022 - Record Only Link to August 2022 Record Only

Cabri 4th EOL with more nose up than first three, pitch-forward onto skids leads to MR striking tailboom (so there's another way it can happen).

EC120B pilot lifts with rear-seat passengers for the first time, dynamic rollovers onto its right side

June 2022 - Record Only Link to June 2022 Record Only

R-22 on second solo gets excessive yaw on lift, MR contacts tailboom

Next week I will be practising coping with instrument failures and hopefully will not be appearing here as a result.

[hargreaves99]

>G2 student on second solo flight loses control in a left pedal turn, strikes ground on its right side.

who is teaching students to left pedal turn in a Cabri?

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Nothing wrong with spot turns to the left - a pedal turn is obviously an aerobatic manoeuvre - as long as you are aware of the wind, which he should have done having just completed circuits with his instructor.

[hargreaves99]

True, but we are talking about a student that has only just gone solo. Any Cabri instructor should be drilling into their students that they should always pedal turn to the right unless there is a good reason not to, especially when solo.

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Originally Posted by hargreaves99

True, but we are talking about a student that has only just gone solo. Any Cabri instructor should be drilling into their students that they should always pedal turn to the right unless there is a good reason not to, especially when solo.

Fair comment - I expect the debrief was interesting though..

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R-44 dynamic rollover, drifted to right on lift.

such an easy thing to avoid if you teach your students to consciously aim to lift the right skid first (on level ground)

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The number of GA and microlight accidents is quite staggering - I've recently qualified on 3-axis microlights and added SSEA in a PA 28 so very relevant to me but might highlight issues with post licence supervision of flying.

Many owners of helicopters and FW fly sporadically due to work and weather and low time pilots suffer skill-fade far quicker than experienced ones.

[212man]

I've recently qualified on 3-axis microlights

I was walking around the AAIB hangar once, with one of the inspectors I knew, and he said that microlight pilots had an equivalent safety level to motorcycle riders!

[SASless]

Right pedal turns only???

How did that aircraft pass certification requirements?

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Right pedal turns only???

How did that aircraft pass certification requirements?

it's not that it can't turn left - ie a Zoolander helicopter - but it has a small fenestron which with inexperienced pilots can lead to being weather-cocked in a spot turn to the left with the wind in an awkward direction. Again it will stop with full right pedal but you are likely to exceed Tq limits doing so.

It will have demonstrated up to 17Kts crosswind for certification but as I understand it that is in steady state rather than trying to stop a turn crosswind.

it is good practice to make the first spot turn or lookout turn in the direction of power pedal on many helicopters since you would use non-power pedal to stop any unwanted rotation and avoid Tq spikes.

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Originally Posted by 212man

I was walking around the AAIB hangar once, with one of the inspectors I knew, and he said that microlight pilots had an equivalent safety level to motorcycle riders!

No-one more aware of that than me - I passed my GST with only 10 hours experience and I make sure I stay current and fly enough circuits to maintain landing confidence and competence.

The landing is really the most difficult bit since a helicopter pilot making a running landing wants to push the nose forward just before touchdown - not recommended for FW if you want the nose wheel and prop to survive.

Most of the FW accidents are related to landing in the AAIB list.

[Mutley1013]

I have a bit of time in G-SDTL myself and sad to see that happen to it. When I did the G2 type rating some years ago, it was drilled into me about the left pedal and being quick on my feet to respond to any yaw faster than anticipated. I found it was more a relaxing of the right pedal for a slow turn rather than a lot of pressure on the left. Sounds to me the student went solo a bit early or wasn't trained accordingly.