Gyrocopter accident critically injures Mt. Pleasant man

[AweyRR]

FYI

http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=2126...cid=featured-4

[Alan_Cheatham]

Does anyone know what type gyro this is?
Maybe a Bandit?
.

[Redbaron]

Hopefully he will recover. Has any of the old timers ever heard of a towed gyroglider tumbleing from the tow rope pulling above the cg?

[DennisFetters]

Terrible thing to happen.

As I've said before, tow-training is extremely dangerous even under ideal conditions.

It takes two people to fly the glider; A glider-pilot and a towing-pilot, and both need to understand how the gyro-glider needs to fly and react with the tow-vehicle and conditions. In other words, you now have twice the chance of someone making a mistake.

I don't know the circumstances about this accident nor am I speculating. I'm just passing on this information....

[DennisFetters]

Originally Posted by Redbaron

Hopefully he will recover. Has any of the old timers ever heard of a towed gyroglider tumbleing from the tow rope pulling above the cg?

It almost happened to me. I was using a longer than normal rope and flew higher than normal. The rope started to whip up and down, and that violently porpoised the glider to the point of throwing my legs up over my head (it seemed) about 5 times before my my tow-pilot slowed down enough to let me loose some altitude and regain control. Honestly, I don't know how I lived through it. Never tried going that high again, that's for sure.

[PW_Plack]

Wade is not involved with Chapter 2 or the organized Utah gyro scene in general. It does look like a Bandit. There was someone in Utah reportedly trying to sell three Bandit airframes. Maybe one of them got as far as being a glider.

Edit: I found the thread with the three Bandit frames for sale:

http://www.rotaryforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=34167

If the accident airframe was one of them, perhaps it was a recent buyer.

[Redbaron]

Originally Posted by DennisFetters

It almost happened to me. I was using a longer than normal rope and flew higher than normal. The rope started to whip up and down, and that violently porpoised the glider to the point of throwing my legs up over my head (it seemed) about 5 times before my my tow-pilot slowed down enough to let me loose some altitude and regain control. Honestly, I don't know how I lived through it. Never tried going that high again, that's for sure.

That sounds scary Dennis. I would imagine a horizontal stab would be needed even on a gyroglider.

[DennisFetters]

Originally Posted by Redbaron

That sounds scary Dennis. I would imagine a horizontal stab would be needed even on a gyroglider.

It had one. The force that the rope was exerting on the airframe was far more than what any horizontal stab could overcome going at glider speed.

[GyroDel]

It's always sad to hear of someone getting hurt or worse when involved in some aspect of this sport.

Thank you, Dennis. I never thought much about it until now. The pilot is betting his life when he puts his trust into the person that is towing.

[EI-GYRO]

Whatever that machine was, it wasn't a Bensen gyroglider.

If you, and your driver, and observer, can read and FOLLOW the instructions in the Bensen manual, gyrogliding is pretty safe.

If you can't, or don't, it is likely to get a bit dangerous.

[Texasautogyro]

Sounds to me he might have had the "I do not need any training to do this syndrome"
Meaning, lets read a book or watch a video and play test pilot it can't be that hard.

Of course I am just assuming so. I am sorry when things go wrong when good people have good intentions but do not ask for help from qualified pilots. Mt. Pleasant is about 65 miles from Spanish Fork. Where Michael Burton trains. This could have been a great option and not that far away for this person to have gone to get very excellent help.

I am very sorry when things happen like this.

[Heron]

Boom training is better!
Afterall, it is just to get the feeling for the stick and controled landings.
Going high is a normal reaction!
Heron

[C. Beaty]

Tie a rope to it, put your wife behind the wheel and tell her to stick her toe in the carburetor; probably without knowing how to start the rotor.

Of course that’s dangerous.

But as Fergus (EI-GYRO) says, read and follow the Bensen manual and you have one of the safest and easiest ways of learning to fly a gyro.

[barnstorm2]

Originally Posted by Texasautogyro

Sounds to me he might have had the "I do not need any training to do this syndrome"
Meaning, lets read a book or watch a video and play test pilot it can't be that hard.

Of course I am just assuming so. I am sorry when things go wrong when good people have good intentions but do not ask for help from qualified pilots. Mt. Pleasant is about 65 miles from Spanish Fork. Where Michael Burton trains. This could have been a great option and not that far away for this person to have gone to get very excellent help.

I am very sorry when things happen like this.

My thoughts exactly.

Of course, with the details we have we don't know for sure but that is exactly what was going through my mind.

I hope he recovers well and swiftly and goes on to take some lessons.

.

[Doug Riley]

PPO (or "tow-over") is unlikely in a gyroglider.

The tow-rope's thrustline is often above and ahead of the CG, of course. Bensen lengthened the tow boom early in the B-8 series to move the towline attachment point even MORE forward.

Unlike an engine on a powered gyro, however, the towline of a gyroglider attaches to the frame on a U-joint. It can swivel in the pitch and yaw axes. If the gyro noses down, the "thrustline" tends to align with the CG -- like pulling a wagon with a rope. The towline may even go below the CG and pull the nose up. Therefore, unlike PPO, any down-pitching initiated by towline pull is self-limiting and self-correcting.

As Dennis says, tail surfaces don't have much effect on a gyroglider (until/unless the rope breaks or is released in flight).

I encountered some pretty wild LATERAL PIO when I took off on my first gyroglider flight. PIO in pitch is less likely because the towline will NORMALLY dampen pitch oscillations. Normally, but...

I suspect that Dennis's pitch oscillations were caused by a stretchy rope. Synthetics, nylon especially, can act like rubber bands. Dacron, or gnarly old manila (arrghh, matey) are less stretchy and less likely to set up a resonance. I gyroglided on a 3/8" manila line up to 150 ft. long without any issues.

Incidentally, back in the day, my tow driver was 15 and didn't have his driver's license yet. He was, and is, a really talented guy around machines, though. He made an excellent glider-tow driver. He understood just what was needed.

The accident does sound like a just-go-for-it catastrophe.