I'm the student pilot that was flying that day. The way Kenny described it was exactly how it happened. The engine/rotor sounded the exact same as the day before after the incident. He grounded the plane BEFORE he even spoke with the mechanics. Kenny could have easily dismissed it and I would not have known the difference. I was still unsure of what had happened. When I flew a fixed wing, I would push the aircraft to the limit with 0g rollovers. I was young and stupid. This is the reason I want to do my training with Kenny. I could fly an R44 in my hometown with a hot-shot CFI instead, I chose to drive 4 hours to fly with Kenny, because he is the best and the safest. I AM NOW THE BIGGEST ADVOCATE OF THE PRECISE CHECKLIST, I DON'T CARE IF IT TAKES 1 HOUR TO COMPLETE BECAUSE I HAVE TO KEEP STARTING OVER, I WILL DO IT LINE-BY-LINE!!!

Dude. Things happen. Plain and simple. You make a difference. You stepped up when others would step off. Instead of letting it rest, you turned it into a learning moment for all of us. I appreciate your honesty and integrity.

Kudos to you for admitting the error and also sharing it in a video so that others can learn. You did the right thing! So easy to do as a helicopter instructor...always seconds away from disaster!

The fact that you're not only making a video explaining all of this, but also taking full responsibility is fantastic because it teaches new and young pilots like me to fess up and take responsibility for our mistakes. Mistakes, as unfortunate as they are, happen. When they do happen, the most important thing to ask oneself is "what did I learn from this, and how can I keep it from ever happening again?" Something I've found out of flying helicopters is that we are all, no matter our experience level or how many hours we have in the helicopter, in a perpetual state of learning. We are always learning new tricks, new techniques, new safety skills, new mistakes are made and new lessons learned from them. Thanks for all you do Kenny! I'm sorry this happened to you guys.

Kenny, mistakes happen, we’re only human. I’m impressed you fessed up, it shows your character. I think it would be a great idea if you could film any of the repairs..it would be interesting to see and learn more about the engine, transmission, hydraulic system or rotor system. A good pilot is always learning!! Kenny, the sun will rise tomorrow!! I can tell you that I’ve got talking with my instructor during the checklist and forgotten several times where I was at..so I tell him I’m going back to the beginning! It’s just personal comfort. And he’s told me on several occasions to tell me to say “enough, sterile cockpit!’ if he’s talking too much.

Fessing up is a sign of a true professional.

Immediately grounding the helicopter and then notifying mechanics shows the pilot maturity we all know Kenny has and how he constantly speaks about always doing the right thing. No human is perfect and if you fly long enough you will make a mistake somewhere along the line. Just never try to hide a mistake in aviation. Learn from this and work hard to always do the right thing no matter how painful it may seem.

There are a lot of instructors in the USA, but if I ever get Stateside Kenny, I want to fly with you. You just proved you know what you’re doing.

What a great example you set for your student Kenny. Some lessons come easy, some lessons come hard. Fess up, and move on. Well done man.

After watching, I am confused as to what happened. Having the hydraulics off will make the controls heavy, but not cause an overspeed, although it is a bit dangerous sitting on the ground with full power in and no hydraulics. It almost sounds like the governor was off, which would cause a dash warning light to be on, which is pretty hard to miss. The other thing that could cause this would be the student twisting and holding the throttle all the way up, but he would have to be continuously holding the throttle up to override the governor. @KennyKeller, can you clarify this? Since you say you looked up and both the rotor RPM and engine RPM where high, it seems the only way to get this would be either the governor was off, the student was overriding it, or I guess a third option would be a faulty governor.

There was only ONE perfect man that walked this Earth, Kenny ... and we'll be celebrating His birthday in 5 weeks. Chalk that up to a learning experience for everyone. You'll recover, and you'll move on. Thanks for having the courage to share this! 👍

Those "OH sh*t" moments can be hard to take, but you did the right thing, and it makes for an excellent lesson. This is why you get the respect you deserve

You Are Awesome! Dont beat up on yourself...accidents happen...atleast you were on the ground when the accident happened.

Thanks for sharing Kenny. It sets a great example to others that a. Everyone makes mistakes and b. Fessing up to a mistake and sharing lessons learned is part of what it means to be a good, safe pilot.

Huge Kuddos to you Sir! As noted by others there are so few that are willing to discuss about these events. I always learn so much from you and your videos. I hugely appreciate all the insights and the honesty and the heads up on it.

The only people that don't make mistakes are the people that don't do anything. Life goes on we all learn by our mistakes.

Amazing job Kenny. This is leadership by example. Paying the cost hurts now, but paying the price later is unbearable. It’s so easy to try to minimize to try to reduce the fallout, but you’re doing the right thing- even though it’s the hard thing. That will pay off in droves. Thank you for being honest and doing things right. That student will always have your example as a massive primary memory to draw encouragement from when it’s their turn to make the right call in the face of emotional, financial, and even sadly professional pressure not to. Well done.

Kenny: You did the right thing by fessing up and getting the aircraft inspected as needed. As you stated, down the road, it might turn up and be something fatal, which would be a bad deal for all. I was always taught to go back at least three steps from the point that I missed an item on the checklist. For what it is worth, we always roll the throttle back off if something happens before the pickup that we need to investigate. It only takes a second, but as you say, distraction is a reality that we have to deal with in aviation. Thanks for sharing with us and using it as a teaching moment. By doing so, you might save someone's life someday.

In the video, you mentioned the use of checklists including "do a few things and then check them". I wanted to elaborate for people on this point. Checklists are great for... checking! They work well in a two person crew where one person is throwing switches and the other is verifying that they've been put in the right place. They aren't nearly as good as a "to do" list. For one, when you get interrupted your finger tends to keep moving down the checklist, so something ends up not getting done. Still, when you're not familiar with an aircraft type, you don't have much of a choice except to use the checklist that way. People can talk to their instructor, and also do a little internet research, looking for ways such as a "flow check" to double check that you've done the required steps before you perform the step that might go terribly wrong... For instance, checking that the throttle is closed, mixture is in, and rotor brake is off, before hitting the starter button. For instance, in the Robinson I have a flow that starts back at the collective friction, forward to the throttle, governor, mixture, center console switches, and up to the rotor brake... Takes 2 or 3 seconds. It's a geometric pattern that you quickly learn so you won't omit any item. In my case, I do it just before the student turns the key so I don't have to explain to the boss how I just let someone fry the engine... If you come away with anything from this, I hope it will be: just using the checklist alone is pretty error prone. Find a method that works for you to double check you didn't skip anything important.

I help sell HUMS and FDM equipment and while neither of these would stop the issue from happening in the cockpit, it would have documented how long and how bad. This can be a huge savings for our customers for events like these. But R44s don't typically have these systems... you did the RIGHT THING. It's better to be safe than sorry down the road in the interest of saving some $$$

While watching the video, I was a bit confused about why having the governor off made the collective difficult to raise, and what that had to do with an over-speed. After reading the comments here and looking at an R44 P.O.H., I think I have a better understand of the situation. 1. In the comments, Kenny confirmed that the governor was on. 2. From the P.O.H., Section 7 (Systems Description): a. “The governor maintains engine RPM by sensing changes and applying corrective throttle inputs through a friction clutch which can be easily overridden by the pilot.” (page 7-6) b. “Without hydraulic pressure, a large pilot input force is required to increase collective.” (page 7-7) I’m only posting to share what I learned from digging into the P.O.H. Hopefully this helps others to understand helicopter systems. Sounds like there was two separated things going on at the same time and neither was directly related (system-wise) to the other. Indirectly, one may have been drawing attention away from the other.

Thanks for sharing! I admire your honesty...it's an example for all of us in this helicopter business.

Good job for admitting the mistake. Hopefully it’s not as costly as it sounds. Was the governor definitely on? I saw someone takeoff with the gov off and max out both RRPMs. That’s why I never turn the gov off as it’s just another thing to remember.

Thank you for adding this. We have all made mistakes, some more costly than others. You have saved someone's life down the road. I have made several mistakes that included letters of apology, fessing up, and paying for the mistake. Learning from our mistakes is the process that saves lives. Not sure you have touched on this, it would be great to hear from maintenance to see why it needs to be inspected, what can happen to the parts, and how to do the inspections/replacements. Thanks again for sharing!

Thank you for sharing. This is so helpful. Despite the cost associated with this mistake, everyone is safe and it is a great learning experience.

One late afternoon while working on my FW PP, I closed up the aircraft, gave the keys back to my CFI, and went home. The next morning, the school had to swap out batteries to get the next client flying. Why? Well, I left one of the power switches on. I didn't catch it. My CFI didn't catch it. A mistake that caused the next flight to be delayed while they swapped out to a good battery. And, I know I wasn't the first one to do this because the school has battery charger. And yes, there is a shutdown checklist too. You really do need to follow all the checklists. Great video on the importance of checklists.

Hi Kenny, thank you for the video. I’m a member of HOGS and enjoy the content. I’m a CFI and would like to better understand the root cause of the over speed and potential preventative action. It seems as if the out of sequence check may have contributed to the situation. However, if the student rolled on throttle, then this may still have happened even if you were in sequence with the checklist. I’m trying to connect the dots and learn from your experience. This event reenforces the importance of focusing 100% on the engine/rotor RPM during engine spool up until the RPMs are stabilized at 101%. I have no doubt that we are all susceptible to the same mistake. Thank you very much for sharing this valuable lesson with your community.

You should do a video on Type II diabetics and the extra hoops they have to jump through in order to fly. I'm one of them and I'm trying my hardest to get my A1C in compliance with the FAA... and I'm almost there 😃

Much respect Kenny

Wow thanks for sharing this experience, sorry to hear it happened..

Thanks for sharing, Kenny, and kudos to your honest and upfront telling the story which certainly cost you lots of worries, bad feelings and last, but not least, some 💵, but … this type of open confession will certainly save others tons of money and most likely even their lives, mostly because your online presence in the helicopter community. So, even though this is a big one to swallow for you personally, the learning effect it has on us other helo pilots cannot be overrated. Great job and all the best going forward 💪, you are a great role model for all of us!!

Good call Kenny, I have watched many of your videos and learnt a lot from you, you are truly a great instructor. Thanks to you many of us have flown many hours safely. Can I ask, did the overspeed nut at the back move?

I really appreciate your telling this! Im a new HOGS student, and a r22 student. This is something I struggle with too.

You did the right thing 👍🏼

Sorry to hear this happened Kenny. Good on you for doing the right thing.

Excellent morals, you provide first class in the training industry..Thank you for all that you do.

Thanks for your honesty Kenny, I can't believe there isn't some safeguard in place besides the checklist to prevent this from happening? Also does the collective not work if the hydraulics quit? if so there's no way I would set foot in one of these. Like how would you do an Auto?

Blessings Kenny. MIstakes happen. THanks for sharing your story, likely your story will save someone's life after "Life happens"

Great job Maning up that’s what makes a great pilot and CFI 💪🏼🙏🏽

So for me: if a human is not screwing up, you must not be doing anything. Being humans are animals. We are extremely prone to messing up stuff, even if it’s on a list in our lap! ( But you became a legit RWCFI in my mind when you told your ground resonance mishap story.) so this just increases the respect meter. No matter what, I believe your duty is to instruct the Good, Bad, Ugly. (AS LONG AS YOU DO THAT, YOU ARE SUCCEEDING as a CFI!) seriously I will never climb in a bird again without having this in my forward memory bank. -- I say this because I know a lot of Crackerjack box licensed Cfis that literally cover up every incident they have, not realizing they could save someone’s life. -- The main reason I feel the need to praise you; most cfis will hide it. Genuinely out of fear of being crucified! So I think it’s important from a psychology perspective, ALWAYS REWARD CONFESSIONS! If we could program people’s brain they will be rewarded for confessing mistakes. They will be far more open. Humans or primates are hardwired to avoid anything that causes physical, emotional, or mental pain.

So, overspeeds happen on Robinsons. It's sort of the "gear up landing" of Robinsons. One could argue it's obviously a design issue because it happens with regularity (we probably averaged one every 2-3 years). Most of the overspeeds we've had occur when a student is solo, because generally the instructor prevents stupid student antics. We train our students to always roll into the override as part of checking the throttle is closed, because people do mix up the "off" and "full on" ends of the throttle travel (and then start it up with the throttle wide open). Yeah, there's a placard, but I don't think it's all that helpful. The other thing is to train students to always move the throttle very slowly, and to be looking at the tachometer when they do. If they roll it the wrong way (like, after landing) if they do it slowly, they can catch it in just a couple percent on the guage. And as an instructor, keep your hand on the throttle 99% of the time... You can feel them rolling the throttle well before you hear it. Some good news is that the rotor is rarely affected... it's usually just the engine. (the rotor overspeeds are from autos). Even if the RPM gets high enough that you have to pull the blades and check the feather bearings, it's just a few hours. The engine though. woof. We had an R44 down for six months waiting for Lycoming to finish checking it.

I changed the front pads on my Ducati and had to much break fluid in the revisor. The caliper started locking up as I was going up 611 north in the rain. I was trying to get to the shoulder and front end went down tire first bike slid I slid 40 ft at 60 mph and thank god people behind me were paying attention.

That really s*cks Kenny You do great work there Kenny I was Indiana a couple of weeks ago flying with Kenny in the R44. Learned alot from Kenny in those 2 hours I hope you continue with the R44 when it gets back

So what was the specific hiccup Kenny? Did you forget to switch on the governor before you rolled up or were you already at flight RPM when you got distracted and just absent mindedly rolled up?

Give you credit. Sign of Professional..

Hi y’all. Bummer. Too bad no GoPro or vid was recording 🚁 Love the new package/kit. Cool hat and liking the new logo 👍

Great video and I respect your honesty!

I will never armchair QB someone’s mistakes. I don’t think that’s fair. I take it as a learning tool. For someone to admit their mistake ranks high on my respect list. Well done Kenny. 😊

I just bought a used Raven 1 and have a grand total of 11 hrs dual in it. I'm super green in R44s. I'm not sure how leaving the hydro off would cause the overspeed. Seems like someone had to twist the throttle with the governor off too? You can ignore my post if its out of line. Sorry to hear this regardless.

Thanks Kenny!

There is an audible warning for low RPM. Is there some reason for not having a similar warning for high RPM?

I hope your insurance covers accident closure (helicopter disabled)

Thanks

Hey Kenny did you have the governor on? Then it should not overspeed the Rotor….

Where you wearing noise canceling head sets? The downside of those is you won't notice noise variances like an overspeed.

How much is the hogs backpack with all of the of this content and products

You would think there would be some kind of tell tale device to make it absolutely clear if the limitations of the RPM have exceeded the manufacturer’s guidance. It wouldn’t be difficult to incorporate such a device. Also: Foreflight is fantastic for checklists. You can check off each item.

Kinda surprising there's no data logging for RPM on engine and rotor.

Is there not an automatic engine speed governor? With ages old, hard earned experience of how to design and build redundancy into aviation safety, it should not be possible to overspeed the engine. The last person to blame should be the pilot. Good call to make the video though, you have to be honest if you have overstressed any aircraft, maybe a hard landing or pulled too many g's, for the sake of the next person who is going to fly the craft. 😎

Well done. Tough lesson but the opposite side of the coin would be much more expensive and permanent.

Been trying to spread this mantra for years now, AUTOMATION BREEDS COMPLACENCY! This is a prime reason we now live in 'clown world'. Your attorney suffers no consequence for his opinion, and like a common birch, has a habit of denial. Most arts degree holders, such as attorneys, resort to becoming professional sophist. And like government agents (who lie as well), rely on real men for their resources. We know what the consequences are, yet those who rely on us do not have a real clue to the LAWS of PHYSICS. The world has an imbalance of Y chromosomes, thank you for proving why true men take responsibility. It's the reason governments should not have access to such resources, and the private sector should be allowed to outright deny them said resources. Dunning/Kruger effect is a real thing.

I don't get it, what exactly caused the overspeed?

I'm dumb to all of this so I apologize in advance, but with an aircraft this expensive, why isn't there something that would prevent this, especially since it's on the ground? Seems like this could never happen with modern avionics & software-controlled hardware. It sure doesn't seem like you should have to be going through all of this mental anguish and a complete or partial engine tear-down. WOW, just amazed. I would hope some prevention mechanisms are developed by Robinson as a result of this or other similar incidents. The reason I'm so baffled is that you mentioned that you saw the two indicators both above or well above halfway up together.....if those indicators get to a certain level in Tandam, I would think there would be a simple mechanism that would just cut-off fuel supply or override the mechanical throttle inputs.

Sounds like a design flaw to me. Them air blenders are far too delicate.

You can’t go out of business yet I have not received my license from you. There’s nowhere near Philadelphia Pennsylvania where I can learn and test.

Hey a squirt of WD40 and your good to go!

I love flying rotorcraft.... but I HATE the Robinson. I'm looking forward to schools moving away from them. I dislike anything that has the potential for easy mast bumps.

My instructor crash the helicopter