S76 first officer notes rotor RPM decay and loss of altitude shortly after lift off and deploys the ...

Narrative:

Once we arrived at the heliport; we were cleared to land on helipad #2. The captain was flying the aircraft. Upon approaching the helipad; the aircraft touched-down slightly forward from the established landing marks. The #2 parking spot is generally assigned to smaller helicopters because of a limited clearance with a mobile home (trailer) that has been stationed in front of the parking spot. Once landed; I was told by the captain to 'hold the controls' so he could exit the helicopter and greet our customers. While I was monitoring the radio frequency I was told to call our company dispatcher for an important message. I made a phone call to our dispatcher and I was advised that we were going to have an additional passenger. While our customers were boarding the aircraft; I was preparing the weight and balance as required. The weight and balance indicated that the aircraft was within safe limits to operate the flight. (Unfortunately that wasn't the case because there was additional luggage in the baggage compartment and I was not aware of it.) a performance chart was also not completed. I was instructed by the captain to fly this segment. To complete a safe takeoff; I had to lift the aircraft and fly back simultaneously to clear the mobile home as well as the freeway bridge located above the heliport. While airborne; I performed a pedal turn to position the aircraft into the wind for a safe takeoff. (Metar reported at time was winds 310@15 KTS). While I turned; I noticed a decay in rotor RPM and a loss of ground effect. This event is unusual because the aircraft was faced into the wind. I continued to accelerate and experienced a loss of altitude. At that moment I elected to inflate emergency floats because we were near the water and could not have returned safely to the heliport. We were able to avoid water contact and fly away as the aircraft initiated a climb. The crew agreed to make a precautionary landing to a different heliport nearby and provided further accommodation to our customers. The contributing factors were poor planning; lack of communication between the crew and dispatcher contributed to the event. No one was injured and an accident was avoided. Baggage should be weighed accurately and communication needs improvement.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: S76 First Officer notes rotor RPM decay and loss of altitude shortly after lift off and deploys the emergency floats. Water contact does not occur and crew is able to divert to a nearby heliport.

Narrative: Once we arrived at the heliport; we were cleared to land on helipad #2. The Captain was flying the aircraft. Upon approaching the helipad; the aircraft touched-down slightly forward from the established landing marks. The #2 parking spot is generally assigned to smaller helicopters because of a limited clearance with a mobile home (trailer) that has been stationed in front of the parking spot. Once landed; I was told by the Captain to 'hold the controls' so he could exit the helicopter and greet our customers. While I was monitoring the radio frequency I was told to call our Company Dispatcher for an important message. I made a phone call to our Dispatcher and I was advised that we were going to have an additional passenger. While our customers were boarding the aircraft; I was preparing the weight and balance as required. The weight and balance indicated that the aircraft was within safe limits to operate the flight. (Unfortunately that wasn't the case because there was additional luggage in the baggage compartment and I was not aware of it.) A performance chart was also not completed. I was instructed by the Captain to fly this segment. To complete a safe takeoff; I had to lift the aircraft and fly back simultaneously to clear the mobile home as well as the freeway bridge located above the heliport. While airborne; I performed a pedal turn to position the aircraft into the wind for a safe takeoff. (METAR reported at time was winds 310@15 KTS). While I turned; I noticed a decay in rotor RPM and a loss of ground effect. This event is unusual because the aircraft was faced into the wind. I continued to accelerate and experienced a loss of altitude. At that moment I elected to inflate emergency floats because we were near the water and could not have returned safely to the heliport. We were able to avoid water contact and fly away as the aircraft initiated a climb. The crew agreed to make a precautionary landing to a different heliport nearby and provided further accommodation to our customers. The contributing factors were poor planning; lack of communication between the crew and dispatcher contributed to the event. No one was injured and an accident was avoided. Baggage should be weighed accurately and communication needs improvement.

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.

Attributes
ACN	888678
Time
Date	201005
Local Time Of Day	1201-1800
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.Airport
State Reference	US
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	S-76/S-76 Mark II
Flight Phase	Takeoff
Route In Use	None
Person 1
Function	First Officer Pilot Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 140 Flight Crew Total 5100 Flight Crew Type 1500
Events
Anomaly	Deviation - Procedural Weight And Balance Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy

S76 first officer notes rotor RPM decay and loss of altitude shortly after lift off and deploys the emergency floats. Water contact does not occur and crew is able to divert to a nearby heliport.