Circumstances:

During a flight from Orange to Camden, the pilot was unable to proceed beyond the Hartley Valley due to low cloud on the ranges. He attempted to return to Orange but found that route was also blocked by deteriorating weather conditions. In decreasing light, the pilot began a search and located a paddock where he conducted a precautionary landing, during which the main landing gear and wing struck a fence, causing substantial damage. The area forecast had indicated extensive areas of low cloud, with reduced visibility associated with drizzle, over the mountain ranges.

The pilot reported that, shortly after commencing to cruise at about 750 feet agl, the helicopter encountered a willy willy and was thrown almost upside down. During the recovery actions, right pedal was applied rapidly and the operating cable broke. An auto-rotational landing was initiated but, just prior to touchdown, another willy willy struck the helicopter and it landed while spinning under the influence of this disturbance.

Following an hour of dual assessment flying, the instructor authorised the student to perform his first solo flight. As soon as the helicopter was lifted into the hover, it began to move to the right. The right skid contacted the ground, the aircraft rolled to the right and came to rest on its side. Although he had been briefed on the different handling characteristics of the aircraft when only one person was on board, the student had evidently not anticipated the degree of change which would occur.

Circumstances:

Because the performance charts indicated that the strip length available could be marginal, for the take-off, the pilot carried out a physical check using the odometer of a car. This confirmed a usable length of seven hundred metres. The pilot reported that during the take-off roll the aircraft was accelerating normally until approximately mid-way down the strip, at which point the acceleration rate of appeared to slow considerably. He then elected to abandon the take-off, as the speed was still below that required to safely become airborne. He applied brakes and full flap but was unable to prevent the aircraft overrunning the end of the airstrip and colliding with a wire fence.

Circumstances:

The pilot reported that as the aircraft decelerated through 60 knots on the landing roll, braking efficiency was reduced. His attempts to ground loop the aircraft were to no avail, and it overran the strip, while travelling at about 15 knots, and collided with a ditch. The strip is 750 metres in length with a dirt centre section and grassed outer sections. It was reported that rain had been falling all the previous night and had only ceased a short time before the attempted landing. The centre section had had puddles of water on it and the outer section was apparently covered in standing water. This report was compiled from information provided by the pilot of VH-DTV.

The two parachutists were preparing for a jump in which one pulled the other from the aircraft. During the final stages of the preparation, the reserve parachute of the front jumper prematurely deployed. Both persons were ejected from the aircraft, and the leading jumper struck the tailplane. A portion of the horizontal stabiliser was torn off and the aircraft pitched down beyond the vertical. The pilot was unable to regain any control, and, with some difficulty, abandoned the aircraft. He deployed his parachute at about 500 feet above the ground, and landed safely. The parachutist who had struck the tailplane was initially rendered unconscious, and had suffered a broken right arm. She recovered sufficiently to deploy her main parachute and control her descent when close to the ground. The aircraft was destroyed when it impacted the ground in a steep nose-down attitude at high speed. The inadvertent deployment of the reserve parachute was probably caused by the body movements of the parachutist as she moved to her jump position outside the aircraft. The most likely explanation for the inadvertent deployment was that either the securing pins were not engaged correctly or that the rip chord was too short. The rip chord was not recovered. _

During a sheep mustering operation the aircraft was being orbited at about 200 feet agl and with 15 to 20 degrees of bank applied. During the orbiting the left wing struck the ground, the aircraft nosed-over and the engine was torn from its mountings. In the previous week the pilots normal sleep pattern had been broken. On the morning of the accident, he arose before dawn after having about five and a half hours rest. He had moved two large mobs of sheep into another paddock, which requires a high degree of concentration, and was orbiting whilst waiting for the last small mob to pass through the gate. It was at this stage, when the task required less concentration, that the pilot said, that he relaxed and fell asleep.

The student made a normal approach for landing in calm wind conditions. As the aircraft touched down on the airstrip it bounced and ballooned to about three feet above the ground. The student unexpectedly pushed the control stick forward. Before the instructor could completely counteract the student's control input the aircraft impacted the ground with the nose cone and the mainwheels simultaneously.

The pilot had been conducting a series of joy flights, as part of a school fund raising program. Refuelling equipment was positioned some 100 metres from the passenger loading area. The pilot had offered to take two boys with him as he air-taxied the aircraft prior to refuelling. After take-off from the passenger area, the pilot decided to carry out a short local flight, but as he turned back towards the fuel dump, the engine lost power. The pilot was unable to reach a cleared area and attempted to land in a street. The helicopter collided with trees, then struck the roof of a house before coming to rest on its side in the driveway of the house. During joy flight operations, the pilot did not rely on the fuel gauge inside the aircraft. He briefed an assistant, who relayed information relating to the fuel remaining by reference to sight gauges on the fuel tanks. There had evidently been a communication breakdown between the assistant and the pilot as to the amount of fuel remaining prior to the last joyflight. The subject flight had been made on the spur of the moment, in order to give two handicapped children an opportunity to see their school from the air. The engine had failed from fuel exhaustion while the aircraft was over an area which was unsuitable for a forced landing.

The helicopter took off and entered a hover in ground effect before a climbing turn to the left was initiated from approximately 10 feet above ground level(agl). Immediately the turn was commenced the helicopter started to lose mainrotor rpm. The terrain drops away from the heli-pad and the helicopter was now 35 to 40 feet agl. The pilot attempted to regain rotor rpm by lowering the collective and increasing throttle, however, RPM was not regained and the helicopter continued in the descent until ground impact. The pilot was interviewed by an Examiner of Airmen who was of the opinion that the symptoms described by the pilot indicated that the mainrotor was overpitched during the climbing turn.