Narrative:

I was called to pick up 3 passengers at the project site; as I made my final approach to the site and very close to the ground I had to make a cyclic aft adjustment to decelerate; as the nose came up I felt the stinger of the helicopter contact a fence. At this contact there was no yawing; and after there was no vibration of any kind; I had tail rotor command and no abnormal flight conditions; I got my passengers and flew them to their destination; where I shut down and inspected the tail rotor and stinger for damage; and found no evidence of any damage to either of the blades. The following morning I asked the mechanic to check the tail rotor for me to see if he could find anything wrong with it; and he told me that everything looked ok to him; at that point I decided to take the flight that was being requested as I did not see any visible damage and the mechanic did not see any visible damage either. As I was landing I got a call from the chief pilot and told me that the aircraft was grounded due to a tail rotor strike.I asked the chief pilot what was going to happen; he told me that he was going to gather all the information and would be in touch in the next couple of days after they review the information they had. I got a call from the chief pilot to tell me that my services where not needed anymore. That sure was a quick review of the facts. He told me that they had found a piece of wood in one of the rotor blades; but I was not allowed to see this. My being dismissed is not a problem as I would not want to work for some one with so little integrity and no idea of how to operate and support the operation. This is the background that led to this incident. Just prior to my check ride the chief pilot called me aside and told me that the contractor had changed the requirements of pilots PIC in type ( I was hired with a minimum of 500 hours in type; I have 632 hours). The chief pilot told me that we had to get my resume to reflect more than 1;000 hours in type or I would not be able to fly the contract (real nice after they had me quit my job to join this so called helicopter company) so we (he) forwarded a resume to the contractor that showed more than 1;000 hours. When I got to the aircraft the dual controls had been removed but the holes where not covered and the stubs of the flight controls where exposed and they had been flying like that (un-airworthy) I asked the mechanic to please put the control covers on and he told me that they did not have any. I could not fly like that so I made some cardboard covers and covered them with duct tape; that had to be replaced every other flight as they kept coming off; but at least they would prevent any object from falling in and jamming the controls. The GPS in the aircraft had no power source so it would last only 3 hours; I asked and was told that a power source was going to be installed but they never did install it. I had to use my own garmin 496 as it will last 8 + hours; and I have a spare battery. I should have grounded the aircraft the very first day for not having the covers. I agree with the contractor that I should have shut down and inspected the damage there; but the result would have been the same as I found no damage; instead of sitting there for god knows how long before I could even get a hold of someone. On the contractor side they should have those fences either removed or lowered to an acceptable level they are about 2 to 2 1/2 ft tall and the stakes protrude at least 3 ft and this is to high for a helicopter that has a low tail rotor and in some of these sites the helicopter barely fits inside the fences.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Newly hired helicopter pilot reports tail stinger contact with a fence during landing. No abnormal handling or vibration is felt and the aircraft is flown; with passengers; to the next destination. Post flight inspection reveals no damage but the reporter is terminated two days later.

Narrative: I was called to pick up 3 passengers at the project site; as I made my final approach to the site and very close to the ground I had to make a cyclic aft adjustment to decelerate; as the nose came up I felt the stinger of the helicopter contact a FENCE. At this contact there was no yawing; and after there was no vibration of any kind; I had tail rotor command and no abnormal flight conditions; I got my passengers and flew them to their destination; where I shut down and inspected the tail rotor and stinger for damage; and found no evidence of any damage to either of the blades. The following morning I asked the mechanic to check the tail rotor for me to see if he could find anything wrong with it; and he told me that everything looked OK to him; at that point I decided to take the flight that was being requested as I did not see any visible damage and the mechanic did not see any visible damage either. As I was landing I got a call from the Chief Pilot and told me that the aircraft was grounded due to a tail rotor strike.I asked the Chief Pilot what was going to happen; he told me that he was going to gather all the information and would be in touch in the next couple of days after they review the information they had. I got a call from the Chief Pilot to tell me that my services where not needed anymore. That sure was a quick review of the facts. He told me that they had found a piece of wood in one of the rotor blades; but I was not allowed to see this. My being dismissed is not a problem as I would not want to work for some one with so little integrity and no idea of how to operate and support the operation. This is the background that led to this incident. Just prior to my check ride the Chief Pilot called me aside and told me that the contractor had changed the requirements of pilots PIC in type ( I was hired with a minimum of 500 hours in type; I have 632 hours). The Chief Pilot told me that WE had to get my resume to reflect more than 1;000 hours in type or I would not be able to fly the contract (real nice after they had me quit my job to join this so called Helicopter company) so WE (he) forwarded a resume to the contractor that showed more than 1;000 hours. When I got to the aircraft the dual controls had been removed but the holes where not covered and the stubs of the flight controls where exposed and they had been flying like that (un-airworthy) I asked the mechanic to please put the control covers on and he told me that they did not have any. I could not fly like that so I made some cardboard covers and covered them with duct tape; that had to be replaced every other flight as they kept coming off; but at least they would prevent any object from falling in and jamming the controls. The GPS in the aircraft had no power source so it would last only 3 hours; I asked and was told that a power source was going to be installed but they never did install it. I had to use my own Garmin 496 as it will last 8 + hours; and I have a spare battery. I should have grounded the aircraft the very first day for not having the covers. I agree with the contractor that I should have shut down and inspected the damage there; but the result would have been the same as I found no damage; instead of sitting there for god knows how long before I could even get a hold of someone. On the contractor side they should have those fences either removed or lowered to an acceptable level they are about 2 to 2 1/2 FT tall and the stakes protrude at least 3 FT and this is to high for a helicopter that has a low tail rotor and in some of these sites the helicopter barely fits inside the fences.

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.