Robinson Helicopter Company R44 II accident near Carlos, Texas, August 22, 2015

The NTSB's narrative final · quoted from the NTSB record

The commercial pilot was conducting the flight behind another helicopter in order to film the passengers on board the lead helicopter hunting wild hog. At the filming location, the accident pilot initially established a hover about 400 ft above ground level (agl). After the lead pilot radioed to the accident pilot that he was flying too high, the accident pilot descended to about 200 ft agl, which was 100 ft above the lead helicopter. The accident pilot made a right pedal turn away from a headwind of 20 knots in an attempt to keep the lead helicopter in sight. The accident helicopter subsequently entered a right descending spin, which the pilot was unable to arrest. The helicopter subsequently impacted trees, which damaged the main rotor, tail rotor, and fuselage. Examination of the helicopter revealed no evidence of mechanical malfunctions or failures that would have precluded normal operation. The helicopter was operating in a high-power, low-airspeed condition that required the pilot to be especially aware of wind direction to avoid tailwinds, which can result in a loss of control due to a loss of tail rotor effectiveness. The combination of an out-of-ground-effect hover and the pilot's subsequent turn away from the headwind toward a tailwind of about 20 knots resulted in the loss of tail rotor effectiveness. The flight was the accident pilot's first commercial operation and also the first flight that required him to maintain a hover while close to another helicopter. Neither the accident pilot nor the lead pilot was aware of the helicopter manufacturer's safety notice regarding photo flights, which recommended that pilots flying such operations should have a higher level of experience than the accident pilot had. The lead pilot, who was more experienced, reported that he was concerned about the accident pilot's inexperience relative to the challenging flight but chose to continue with the flight because he wanted to capture the film footage.

The complete narrative as the NTSB published it. The NTSB's docket holds the report as a PDF and any photographs, statements and other documents from the investigation.