Incident Overview
According to the pilot, he began the day with approximately 50 gallons of fuel on board. After a 10-minute flight to pick up passengers, he conducted multiple 5- to 10-minute photo flights, totaling about 80 to 90 minutes of mission time. After dropping off the last group, he returned to his home base. The fuel gauge indicated 12 to 13 gallons remaining when he departed for the 10-minute repositioning flight. Based on a fuel burn rate of about 25 gallons per hour, he calculated 30 minutes of fuel remaining.
Approach and Descent
The pilot stated that due to noise abatement, he always approached his helipad at a high airspeed with a fast rate of descent, then at about 100 feet, he would power up to make a high-power, steep landing. Being low on fuel, he performed the same technique on this approach, starting his descent at approximately 80 to 100 knots. At 50 to 75 feet above ground level (AGL), he initiated a 10- to 20-degree flare and began descending to land.
Engine and Fuel Indications
During the descent, the fuel boost pump light illuminated, followed by the auto-relight light and the engine out light. The pilot's first thought was that he had run the aircraft out of fuel. Recognizing he was going too fast to land at his helipad, he adjusted his approach and attempted to land in a parking lot just beyond the pad. He applied forward cyclic control to level the helicopter, hoping the boost pump light would extinguish and that the auto-relight would reignite the fuel if it started pumping.
Impact and Damage
The helicopter struck the ground hard with its right landing gear skid, bounced, slid forward approximately 15 feet, turned left about 90 degrees, and slowly rolled over onto its right side. The aircraft continued turning left another 90 degrees and came to rest on its right side, facing 180 degrees from the direction of the approach. During the hard landing, the main rotor blades struck the tail boom, separating the vertical stabilizer, tail rotor, and tail rotor gearbox. The main rotor hub and blade assembly remained intact and attached to the main rotor mast.