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CEN10CA156

2010-03-13 · Houston, Texas, United States · None · 1 aircraft · Status: Completed

Airport KEFD

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

The student pilot's loss of directional control during takeoff, resulting in a dynamic rollover of the helicopter.

Factual narrative

The student helicopter pilot was preparing for his fourth scheduled solo flight, intending to depart on a local flight. The student reported that as he started to raise the helicopter’s collective, the helicopter started to slide to the right. He added that he stopped moving the collective and applied left cyclic, and the helicopter stopped moving. He then continued to raise the collective to begin his hover. The helicopter rolled-over to the right, and impacted the ground. The flight instructor who was watching the student, reported that he saw the helicopter move to the right about a foot, stop, and then as the helicopter started to lift, it “instantaneously, rolled to the right and struck the ground." After the accident, both the instructor and student stated that it appeared the helicopter’s skid may have gotten caught in a crack on the ramp’s cement surface. The student helicopter pilot was preparing for his fourth scheduled solo flight, intending to depart on a local flight. The student reported that as he started to raise the helicopter’s collective, the helicopter started to slide to the right. He added that he stopped moving the collective and applied left cyclic, and the helicopter stopped moving. He then continued to raise the collective to begin his hover. The helicopter rolled-over to the right, and impacted the ground. The flight instructor who was watching the student reported that he saw the helicopter move to the right about a foot, stop, and then, as the helicopter started to lift, it instantaneously rolled to the right and struck the ground. After the accident, both the instructor and student stated that it appeared the helicopter’s skid may have gotten caught in a crack on the ramp’s cement surface. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database Retrieved: 2026-02-12

NTSB Findings

FAA avdata. C = Cause, F = Factor.

  • C Personnel issues-Task performance-(general)-(general)-Student pilot - C
  • — Environmental issues-Physical environment-Runway/land/takeoff/taxi surfa-(general)-Contributed to outcome

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_2010_CEN10CA156.txt. Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb. Full investigation docket on data.ntsb.gov ↗.

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