Incident Details
A solo student helicopter pilot was conducting flight in the traffic pattern when her noise canceling headset malfunctioned. She landed on the grass adjacent to the runway to troubleshoot the issue. After landing, she locked the collective down and applied some tension to the cyclic. Subsequently, the headset began to function normally. She then removed the friction on the collective and applied power for hover flight, forgetting that there was still tension applied to the cyclic. When power was applied, the student pilot reported that she did not have enough cyclic control, and the helicopter hovered backwards. The tail rotor struck the ground, resulting in substantial damage to the tail rotor drive shaft.
Pilot Report
The student pilot reported that there were no mechanical malfunctions or failures with the helicopter that would have precluded normal operation. The incident was attributed to the pilot forgetting to release the cyclic tension before applying power for hover.