helicopter.” A series of 30-minute flights was offered between 08:30 and 17:30 each day, subject to weather and maintenance constraints. Participants were offered the
opportunity to fly the helicopter from the right seat for a $250 “donation to pay for fuel” or to ride in the cabin for “a small donation.” Prior aviation experience wasn’t required; the event’s website stressed that “You DO NOT need to be a pilot to make a reserva- tion to fly!” A volunteer “safety pilot” in the left seat would serve as pilot in command (PIC) throughout. Different volunteers served in that role during the event. One of those volunteers conducted
a preflight inspection at about 08:00 on Jun. 22. After the engine was started for the morning’s first flight, it continued to run all day, including during passenger embarkation and disembarkation and while the helicop- ter was refueled.
The Aircraft The aircraft, N98F, was a UH-1B man- ufactured by Bell for the US military in 1962. It was flown in Vietnam from 1962 to 1971 before being sold to a civilian operator. Its two-bladed main-rotor system and two-bladed tail rotor were powered by an Ozark Aeroworks T53-L-11D turboshaft engine rated for 1,100 shaft horsepower. (The engine’s type certificate, originally issued to Honeywell, was subsequently registered in the names of AlliedSignal and then Textron Lycoming before being transferred to Ozark on May 6, 2022.) As of Jun. 22, 2022, the engine had been operated for 5,583 hours since new and 583 hours since overhaul. The aircraft’s last annual inspection
was completed on Mar. 29, 2022, at an aircraft total time of 9,029 hours
and signed off in accordance with the 14 CFR Part 43, Appendix D, annual inspection. It was flown another 14 hours before the 7th Annual Huey Reunion. Both tail-rotor blades had been replaced on Apr. 9, 2013; the replacement components had doc- umented service times of 1,017 and 1,025 hours, respectively. Between the
Table 1. Recent certificate history for accident helicopter
Date
Nov. 20, 2003 May 21, 2010 Sep. 24, 2010 May 15, 2012 Apr. 10, 2013 May 17, 2013 Oct. 29, 2013 Dec. 5, 2014
Certificate Type
Restricted
Experimental Restricted
Experimental Restricted
Experimental Restricted
Experimental
blade replacement and its last annual inspection, the helicopter flew an esti- mated 237 hours, pushing the compo- nents’ service times to 1,254 and 1,262 hours, respectively. The manufac- turer’s established life limit for those blades, however, was 1,200 hours. MARPAT Aviation didn’t own the
Huey; in April 2003, the helicopter was acquired by “a friend of the owner of MARPAT … not affiliated with the oper- ator.” He registered the aircraft under a special airworthiness certificate in the restricted category for agricultural, forest conservation, and external-load operations. MARPAT held a contract with the State of West Virginia to fly N98F as a firefighting aircraft during wildfire season. Beginning in May 2010, its registration was repeatedly
switched between the restricted and experimental exhibition categories, with seven changes in a little over four and a half years (see Table 1). Each registration was accompanied by an FAA statement of special operating limitations acknowledged in writing by the operator. The 2014 registration in the experimental exhibition category remained in effect through June 2022.
The Pilots The 53-year-old PIC held a private pilot certificate with helicopter, gyroplane, and single-engine airplane ratings. His logbook showed only 493 hours of flight time, but his son-in-law (a flight instructor) said the PIC didn’t log all his flights, so a “big chunk of time” wasn’t shown. His most recent application for a medical certificate, filed just over a year earlier, listed 1,400 hours of flight experience with 20 in the previous six months. He had documented 21 hours in the UH-1B since 2020, though other volunteer pilots suggested he’d been flying it for four to five years. The PIC had no prior UH-1 experience when he began flying N98F. Another pilot sug- gested that the PIC’s previous helicop- ter experience had been in a Robinson R22. Prior to beginning passenger flights,
the volunteer pilots made informal refresher flights to “get to know the aircraft again.” The maneuvers prac- ticed included approaches, pedal turns, and hovers; no autorotations, other emergency procedures, or transfers of control from the right-seat passenger were reviewed. The 69-year-old passenger in the
right seat held a commercial certificate issued Feb. 15, 1995, with rotorcraft helicopter and instrument helicopter ratings. His last medical certificate was issued in April 1996. Further details of his piloting experience
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