Rotorway Forums

(Skip to the 10 minute mark) This one is an interesting accident involving the downwash of a nearby hovering R22 from the aft side. It's likely this created enough of a tailwind (probably combined with a fwd CG) that our rotorways simply cannot handle due to our limited cyclic authority and horizontal stabilizer angle. Tail winds of 15 knots or greater (depending on CG) like to pick up our tail even with full aft cyclic... A good reminder for us to always pick the helicopter up slowly enough to feel any control limitations before the hover—there's always time to set it back down. Feel free to discuss.

That takeoff looks to be way too agressive as the pilot just pulled the helicopter off the ground. He did not appear to use the two step lift off procedure that we should all use. Step one: get light on the skids and verify your weight/balance and RPM, step 2. gently lift into the hover. Had he gotten light on the skids initially he would have felt the helicopter begin to tip forward and could have simply lowered the collective and reassessed the situation.