History of the Flight
The helicopter, an Enstrom 280C Shark registered G-COLL, had been parked overnight at a private landing site. The weather conditions were fine with a surface wind from 160° at 9 kt, clear skies, good visibility, and no significant cloud. The pilot, a 68-year-old private pilot with 120 total flying hours (114 on type), intended to fly a two-day tour around the Isle of Man. His initial planned route was north to Laxey and then to the Point of Ayre.
After carrying out normal pre-flight and pre-takeoff checks, the pilot lifted into a hover. It was his usual practice to wind out the mixture control knob to a pre-set position before lifting off, which he did. While in the hover, he made a blind transmission radio call to ATC to advise that he was departing and set the transponder to ON. The takeoff was normal, but at approximately 200 ft agl the pilot noticed that “it all went quiet” and recalled that the helicopter had yawed to the left. He responded by rapidly lowering the collective and opening the throttle.
The helicopter entered autorotation, and the pilot aimed for a field ahead and to his left. As the far edge of the field approached, he flared to stop forward motion. The helicopter levelled off and then dropped to the ground from a height he estimated as about 10 to 12 ft. It dropped nearly vertically, bounced forward about a metre, and stopped in an upright position but rolled to the left with the left skid collapsed. Although the helicopter sustained substantial damage, the pilot was not injured and evacuated unassisted. Several people in the area assisted, and emergency services attended.
Discussion
After the accident, the pilot noted that the condition of the rotor blades suggested little energy remained, although they were damaged beyond economic repair. The next day, he started the engine and ran it for 12 minutes at 1,500 rpm; no problem was apparent. The pilot considered that the loss of power could have resulted from a fuel supply problem. However, the engine ran normally when restarted, so why a loss of power occurred in the climb remains unclear. No conclusive evidence was found to explain the loss of power.