Agreement and Training Setup
On 20 January 2016, Ural Helicopter Company LLC entered into an agreement with a Russian citizen, referred to as the pilot-student, to provide training services under the "Private Pilot on Robinson R-66" program. Under the contract, flight training was conducted at the student's place of residence, and the student supplied the Robinson R-66 helicopter. Ural Helicopter Company provided an instructor pilot for the training.
Flight Planning
On 14 March 2016, the instructor pilot, acting as the aircraft commander, planned a training flight for exercise 1.6, titled "Familiarization Flights to Zone for Practicing Landings on Limited-Size Sites." The flight was to be conducted from the registered landing site Barantal, where the helicopter was permanently based. The planned route involved departing Barantal, flying within a 5-kilometer radius to practice landings on limited-size sites, and returning to Barantal. The flight was intended to be conducted under visual flight rules (VFR) in Class G airspace.
Pre-flight Actions
On the day of the flight, the instructor and student jointly inspected the helicopter at the landing site. According to the instructor, no issues with the helicopter's technical condition were noted; however, no entry was made in the onboard logbook. The helicopter was not refueled, as the remaining 210 liters of TS-1 fuel from the previous flight were considered sufficient for the planned exercise. The takeoff mass was calculated to be 945 kilograms, which did not exceed the Robinson R-66 flight manual's maximum takeoff mass of 1,225 kilograms. The center of gravity was 2,465 millimeters, within the permissible range of 2,310 to 2,600 millimeters. Weather information was obtained by the instructor from the Barnaul approach control center.