What did the pilot do wrong

[lanichol]

YouTube - GYROCOPTER CRASH (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYsmteyirio) There is alot to be learned in this incident.

[EI-GYRO]

Not the pilot's first crash, and probably not his last.

Downwind takeoff with inadequate distance.
Levered it off behind the power curve, stayed behind the power curve,
tried to turn without climb speed, and, not surprisingly, crashed.

I'll see if i can dig out the report tomorrow.

[bmoore2156]

From the looks of the flight, he never pitched for best rate of climb. The correct thing to do would have been, lower the nose to gain airspeed. Instead, he was nose high and kept pulling the cyclic back. He lost his airspeed and went into a vertical descent.
Thats what I see from the vid.
Brad

[Earthboundmisft]

That big sharp shiny thing on top was turnin too slowww...wah, wah, wah....

[PW_Plack]

Looks like he may have held back stick too long. And, of course, trying to fly without learning how.

I wonder if his passenger knew enough to properly evaluate the risk of flying with this guy.

[Friendly]

It is classic flying behind the power curve, but the wind appears to be a right to left cross wind in the video. I was surpised the rotors looked as good as they did after hitting.

[willisbr]

Gyro, meet power curve. Hi nice to meet you. Have some more back stick. Yum yum yum. Hope he is ok. :(

[Resasi]

Getting out of bed?

Never learning rotor control?

Crowding the blades?

Never learning proper TO technique?

But looking on the bright side, he did at least clear the fence. His day could have been a great deal worse smacking that head on.

[scandtours]

He shouldn't fly with a passenger. He was not ready and he should at least have learned the most fundamentals before. Getting Behind the Power Curve is the most common problem among beginning gyro pilots. He should know at least STICK controls what and Power controls what.
You cannot do it by power alone....

[pilotescort]

Now that's a classic example of "hazardous attitudes" in action. All of which were ignored, but pushing the stick forward after the nose geared lifted may have made for another day. Beyond that, it appeared he was under-powered for the weight and short rough field conditions. Considering he didn't understand rotor management, the same result would have happened on a long paved runway......with even a worse outcome. What a nightmare!

[Doug Riley]

Every gyro instructor should have his student do a full-power mush descent at least a time or two.

It's eye-opening to be hauling back like mad on the stick, with throttle wide open, and to be descending at the same time. That's what this Darwin Award candidate was doing, but he did it too close to the ground.

[EI-GYRO]

The guy's previous crash was into a graveyard. Musta swerved to avoid the school.

[GyroCFI]

So does anyone here know the outcome of the pilot and passenger?

[Gyro_Kai]

Hello,

from memory, everyone escaped unscathed. This video was available in blurry version for quite some time to protect the guilty.

Kai.

[EI-GYRO]

Minor injuries, I think.

[helipaddy]

http://www.aaib.gov.uk/publications/bulletins/january_2010/rotorsport_uk_mtosport__g_dwdw.cfm


http://www.aaib.gov.uk/publications/bulletins/september_2009/rotorsport_uk_mt_03__g_tata.cfm

[EI-GYRO]

Here ya go; Not up to the usual AAIB standard, really just a pilot report. You only get
the 'full monty' when there's a corpse involved.

I hope he learned more about what caused it than his report indicates.

http://www.aaib.gov.uk/cms_resources.cfm?file=/Rotorsport%20UK%20MTOSport,%20G-DWDW%2001-10.pdf

I'll see if I can dig out his previous escapade, much more entertaining.

[EI-GYRO]

Hi Paddy, got the engine fixed.

[EI-GYRO]

Here is the same guy's previous outing.

Spot the collection of mistakes.

http://www.aaib.gov.uk/cms_resources.cfm?file=/Rotorsport%20UK%20MT-03,%20G-TATA%2009-09.pdf

[EI-GYRO]

Perhaps a better title for this thread would have been 'What did the pilot do right.'? :)

[helipaddy]

jeesus Fergus, you lookin in my window??!

[EI-GYRO]

Might be sad, but not THAT sad.

[scandtours]

First report says
Commander’s Flying Experience: 316 hours of which 78 were on type


Second report says
Commander’s Flying Experience:
338 hours (of which 12 were on type)

If the last report is correct, that explains everything

[EI-GYRO]

The one in the movie was off an R/C flying site, not a regular runway.

It does, however, make a good training video. (As in, what not to do, and how not to do it.)

[Erik the red]

Instead of having separate instruments for speed and altitude, how would it be to have a display with the gyro specific power curve and a marker (red or green) showing where you are relative to speed, altitude and power curve. I´m not a data-man, but that shouldn´t be so difficult, should it ?
Regards - Erik

[helipaddy]

Or pilots could just learn how to fly properly

[Vance]

Hello Erik,

It is hard to watch this video and not want to do something to help the hapless pilot and his victim.

What you propose would not be that difficult taking into account aircraft weight, altitude, center of gravity and available power.

The information from the instrument you propose was already available to this pilot.

Part of a good preflight is knowing your all up weight, center of gravity and calculating the density altitude so you know your rate of climb and takeoff distance.

I feel that pilot should know his best rate of climb and his best angle of climb V speeds. I feel this is fundamental to the piloting process.

A glance at the engine tachometer will tell the pilot if he is making full power.

I feel that airspeed is a fairly simple concept and the air speed indicator is really the only flight instrument that the pilot needs to pay attention to during takeoff.

There is a best rate of climb airspeed and a best angle of climb airspeed for each aircraft. Simply pulling back on the stick will slow the aircraft. In this case well below those speeds. That requires more power for climb. In this case the pilot pulled the stick back until the aircraft was going so slowly that he did not have enough power to climb so he descended inelegantly to the ground. He did not respond by dropping the nose to pick up airspeed to reduce the power required for climb.

This is not a gyroplane specific challenge. It happens regularly in fixed wings although usually part of the problem is a stall or a stall spin which exacerbates the challenge.

Gyroplanes don’t stall or spin so it is possible to descend at full power with the nose pointed toward the sky. This is a maneuver that is practiced at altitude during training so the student learns this simple concept. More weight or a higher density altitude tends to steepen the power required at low air speed curve.

I suspect that if this pilot had any training at all he knew this and having his airspeed indicator marked with red or yellow below the minimum power required air speed would not have helped him.

He didn’t need his altimeter to see he was not climbing and the knowledge of his descent is probably what encouraged him to pull back on the stick.

Unfortunately instrumentation is not a substitute for training or judgment. These seem to have been absent on this flight.

It is not unusual to imagine that pulling the stick back will make an aircraft climb and this tendency needs to be overcome with knowledge and judgment.

It is possible to trade airspeed for climb by pulling back on the stick but this is a temporary fix because eventually you run out of airspeed to trade and the power required for climb rises as the airspeed descends below the minimum power required.

Thank you, Vance

[C. Beaty]

The “pilot” must be loaded to have wiped out 2 MT-03s in less than a year.

I wonder if he used the same passenger for both crashes?

[hillberg]

Would that be a two passenger gyro? (No pilot ?)

[WHY]

Let's see 2 MT-03 in one year ---answer is obvious, he has a lot of money , lot of ego, and insufficient GOOD experience.

Tony

[PW_Plack]

I'm suspicious of the quality of training in general for purchasers of these machines. If students are being rushed through to keep up with sales, this kinda stuff is predictable.

[EI-GYRO]

I think it was different passengers.
More money than sense, it appears.
Reasonably experienced FW pilot, IIRC.

Hopefully some instructor will make good use of this video for training.
The cameraperson was trying to flog the video to the highest bidder, ( had a degraded
version on Youtube ) for a while.

[Resasi]

Another excellent example of 'how not to...' is one of Paul's students mushing in. Posted some time back.

It was a 'walk away' but an impressive demonstration of possible consequences.

[EI-GYRO]

I'm suspicious of the quality of training in general for purchasers of these machines. If students are being rushed through to keep up with sales, this kinda stuff is predictable.

I suspect you are right, Paul.

If our unfortunate friend really believes his own account of the event, he has learned little from it. No mention of power curve. Maybe he decided to keep it simple for the feds.

I wonder where he received his course of instruction.