Narrative:

On start up I noticed some fogging of the windshield. I turned on the demister and heater to rid the moisture on the wind shield. As it was 3/4 of the way cleared; I rotated the twist grip to fly and completed the before takeoff checks. I turned the demister and heater clockwise; (off) and made a call to tower for departure. Got clearance; and noted the windshield was clear to depart. After departure I noticed that it was getting warmer and I could actually hear the fan for the demister or heater. As soon as possible; I checked the heater and demister to see if they were in fact off. I tried this several times (rotating the knobs on and off again) and turned the AC fan on to dissipate some of the heat. About two minutes into the flight the crew stated that there was smoke in the cabin. I opened my window and had the paramedic open the window across the cockpit. I flew a little out of trim to get better air flow and clear the smoke. Smoke and fumes still continued. I then called approach and told him that I was returning to helipad to land the helicopter. He switched me to tower frequency and I stated our issue and asked for clearance to the helipad. We landed without incident and shut the helicopter down.helicopter only had 50 total hours. Suspect it was the first time that the heater had been used. I will make sure to turn the knobs until they are in fact closed. I was warned that if you tighten these too tightly; when the switch cooled they would 'be welded together'. Maybe the switch was stuck to the open position.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: EC130 pilot experiences smoke in the cabin after using the heater control to de-mist the windshield. This was the first time the heater control had been used as the helicopter was almost new.

Narrative: On start up I noticed some fogging of the windshield. I turned on the demister and heater to rid the moisture on the wind shield. As it was 3/4 of the way cleared; I rotated the twist grip to fly and completed the before takeoff checks. I turned the demister and heater clockwise; (off) and made a call to Tower for departure. Got clearance; and noted the windshield was clear to depart. After departure I noticed that it was getting warmer and I could actually hear the fan for the demister or heater. As soon as possible; I checked the heater and demister to see if they were in fact off. I tried this several times (rotating the knobs on and off again) and turned the AC fan on to dissipate some of the heat. About two minutes into the flight the crew stated that there was smoke in the cabin. I opened my window and had the paramedic open the window across the cockpit. I flew a little out of trim to get better air flow and clear the smoke. Smoke and fumes still continued. I then called Approach and told him that I was returning to helipad to land the helicopter. He switched me to Tower frequency and I stated our issue and asked for clearance to the helipad. We landed without incident and shut the helicopter down.Helicopter only had 50 total hours. Suspect it was the first time that the heater had been used. I will make sure to turn the knobs until they are in fact closed. I was warned that if you tighten these too tightly; when the switch cooled they would 'be welded together'. Maybe the switch was stuck to the open position.

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.