<< >> NASA ASRS Report 1155824, March 2014

A piper 140 pilot encountered violent rotor wash from military helicopters maneuvering in close proximity to the active runway.

Attributes
ACN	1155824
Time
Date	201403
Local Time Of Day	0601-1200
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Piper Aircraft Corp Undifferentiated or Other Model
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 91
Flight Phase	Landing
Route In Use	Visual Approach
Flight Plan	None
Person 1
Function	Pilot Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Commercial Flight Crew Flight Instructor Flight Crew Multiengine Flight Crew Instrument
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 180 Flight Crew Total 1350 Flight Crew Type 200
Events
Anomaly	Inflight Event / Encounter Loss Of Aircraft Control

Narrative:

While on short final to the runway; our piper 140 encountered violent rotor wash due to national guard military helicopters maneuvering in close proximity to the active runway. As our aircraft was on short final over the threshold end of the runway; a black hawk helicopter began to lift to a high hover. His call to maneuver was last minute. As a result of the rotor wash; the aircraft became uncontrollable; rolling into an approximate 180 [90] degree bank attitude with near vertical downward descent. Once the plane encountered the rotor wash; there was absolutely no aileron effectiveness to control the aircraft. Cooperating procedures between military and general aviation aircraft would have contributed to the avoidance of such rotor wash encounters.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A Piper 140 pilot encountered violent rotor wash from military helicopters maneuvering in close proximity to the active runway.

Narrative: While on short final to the runway; our Piper 140 encountered violent rotor wash due to National Guard military helicopters maneuvering in close proximity to the active runway. As our aircraft was on short final over the threshold end of the runway; a Black Hawk helicopter began to lift to a high hover. His call to maneuver was last minute. As a result of the rotor wash; the aircraft became uncontrollable; rolling into an approximate 180 [90] degree bank attitude with near vertical downward descent. Once the plane encountered the rotor wash; there was absolutely no aileron effectiveness to control the aircraft. Cooperating procedures between military and general aviation aircraft would have contributed to the avoidance of such rotor wash encounters.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.