Incident Overview
A helicopter on a local instructional flight experienced a rollover during the second landing of the flight, according to the flight instructor. The student pilot was at the flight controls at the time. The instructor reported that he began correcting the yaw rate during the landing flare. As the helicopter entered ground effect, the instructor was able to align the skids with the direction of travel, but the helicopter touched down with considerable forward momentum.
Flight Details
During the running landing, the left skid caught rough terrain, causing the helicopter to roll to the left. The main rotor blades then impacted the terrain, which stopped the helicopter from rolling over completely. The instructor stated that no mechanical malfunctions or failures were present that would have precluded normal operation.
Damage Assessment
The helicopter's pitch control linkages were substantially damaged as a result of the incident. No other damage items were specified in the report.
Instructor Statement
The flight instructor confirmed that the helicopter was operating normally before the event and that the rolling motion was caused by the left skid encountering uneven ground during the forward momentum of the landing.