Incident Overview
A helicopter was conducting an approach at 300 feet above ground level (AGL) following a maintenance test flight when the engine overheated and lost power. The engine temperature rose to 1000 degrees, and the aircraft began to decelerate before the pilot initiated an autorotation.
Autorotation and Landing
During the autorotation, the pilot performed a flare to reduce forward speed and applied collective pitch to cushion the touchdown. Despite these actions, the helicopter touched down hard.
Sequence of Events
The source indicates that the engine overtemperature and subsequent power loss occurred while the helicopter was on approach. The engine began to decelerate prior to the autorotation as the temperature peaked. The pilot’s flare and collective pitch application were standard autorotation techniques, but the landing was nonetheless hard.