Narrative:

A CFI and I were practicing power recovery autorotations starting at 500 ft AGL. We were making radio calls on the CTAF to notify traffic of our intentions after each autorotation. All of a sudden as I was entering a 90 degrees autorotation to the right at about 500 ft AGL a robinson 44 helicopter flew right over us at no more than 25-30 ft; left to right. We did not see the aircraft approaching; and no radio calls were made from that pilot on the common frequency. We aborted the practice autorotation and tried to establish radio contact with him on the common frequency. No reply. The CFI then contacted tower as the aircraft was heading toward that airport. The tower controller said he had radio contact with him and; after the CFI explained the incident; instructed the CFI to call the tower via telephone after landing. A phone call was made by the CFI and apparently the controller stated the helicopter was flown by a recently certified pilot with minimal experience. He probably was on the tower frequency too soon instead of monitoring the common frequency. We had no time to react during this incident. We realized what had happened only after it had happened. We think we did not see the aircraft approaching because he was probably blended with the ocean's background coming straight at us. Furthermore the aircraft was painted blue as the background itself. The mid afternoon sunlight could have also been a contributing factor. I think we were doing everything we were supposed to; making the appropriate radio calls and stating to each other (the CFI and myself) clear left; clear right; etc. If the other pilot would have been broadcasting position reports on the common frequency we would have probably waited to enter autorotations until visual and radio contact would have been established. What I've learned from this experience is that it is better to do as much training as possible at airports with control towers instead of utilizing uncontrolled practice areas.

Google
 

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Two helicopters experienced an NMAC in a common practice area.

Narrative: A CFI and I were practicing power recovery autorotations starting at 500 FT AGL. We were making radio calls on the CTAF to notify traffic of our intentions after each autorotation. All of a sudden as I was entering a 90 degrees autorotation to the right at about 500 FT AGL a Robinson 44 helicopter flew right over us at no more than 25-30 FT; left to right. We did not see the aircraft approaching; and no radio calls were made from that pilot on the common frequency. We aborted the practice autorotation and tried to establish radio contact with him on the common frequency. No reply. The CFI then contacted Tower as the aircraft was heading toward that airport. The Tower Controller said he had radio contact with him and; after the CFI explained the incident; instructed the CFI to call the Tower via telephone after landing. A phone call was made by the CFI and apparently the Controller stated the helicopter was flown by a recently certified pilot with minimal experience. He probably was on the Tower frequency too soon instead of monitoring the common frequency. We had no time to react during this incident. We realized what had happened only after it had happened. We think we did not see the aircraft approaching because he was probably blended with the ocean's background coming straight at us. Furthermore the aircraft was painted blue as the background itself. The mid afternoon sunlight could have also been a contributing factor. I think we were doing everything we were supposed to; making the appropriate radio calls and stating to each other (the CFI and myself) clear left; clear right; etc. If the other pilot would have been broadcasting position reports on the common frequency we would have probably waited to enter autorotations until visual and radio contact would have been established. What I've learned from this experience is that it is better to do as much training as possible at airports with control towers instead of utilizing uncontrolled practice areas.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 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.