A comprehensive book that covers the most imaginable aspects of helicopter accidents. It starts off with an educational introduction chapter in which the basic principles of helicopter flight are explained. After 16 pages of flight school the reader is thrown right into a chapter about the vortex ring state. You get introduced to the problem, its characteristics and how it affects your helicopter. The introduction is followed by a few case studies from actual helicopter accidents. It continues with an explanation of the main rotor vortex ring state, how to avoid the problem and how to recover from it. The book then goes on with 20 other accident categories (everything from wire strikes to center of gravity issues), presented in the same structure as in the chapter about the vortex ring state.
The book covers a wide range of detailed explanations: everything from engineering to meteorology and human factors. This is the kind of book that you can’t stop reading once you’ve opened it. After each case study you’ll tell yourself “just one more”, and finally you detect that you’ve finished reading half of the book.

The majority of the 70 accidents mentioned in the book have occurred within the last 20 years, mostly with ordinary every-day-helicopters like the Bell 206 and the Ecureuil. The case studies are carefully selected so that even the most experienced person could learn something from them. In fact most of the examples involve pilots with a high number of flying hours. Every single pilot, crewman, and engineer should study “Fatal Traps for Helicopter Pilots”. Weather you’ve read it or not might become a question of surviving. No matter if you’re a business professional, a student pilot or an amateur enthusiast this book will certainly catch your attention. It sure caught mine!