The R22 is a great helicopter in many ways, but it does have some flaws. In my opinion, one of them is the design and placement of the fuel shutoff/mixture control. It is placed between the pilots, below knee level, next to two other controls that also require to be pulled up to activate. In Robinson’s defense, they have added a collar and push button to protect against inadvertent use of the control. Yet somehow pilots have meant to pull up carb heat or cruise trim and instead shut off the engine! So this tip (Helicopter Tips 002 -Identify Before Pulling) is a good habit for flying any helicopter when activating a control out of sight and near safety-sensitive controls:
Robinson cover this very issue in Safety Notice #1 originally issued in 1981 – SN-1 Inadvertent Activation of Mixture Control in Flight:
A recent comment on Helicopter Training Videos:
polkovniknades:
Comment by polkovniknades on this YouTube video: Helicopter Tips 001 – Checklist Distraction
The flight school I went to a few years back had this happen to them. When I flew with them a few years after they were really really adamant about identifying carby heat and mixture before pulling
That pointed us to this accident report on Australia. Looks the like the student pilot, removed the collar/guard and pulled up the mixture instead of carb heat…
Resources
- Robinson Safety Notice #1 (SN-1) – Inadvertent Activation of Mixture Control in Flight
- Australian Accident Report AO-2013-152 – inadvertent pulling of mixture control
Other Posts
Check out this post about an accident where a pilot reached down to pull cruise trim but instead pulled the fuel shutoff…
Feedback
Do you have a similar safety tip? Let us know in the comments below.
