Hello everybody from FRANCE

Welcome to the Rotary Wing Forum René!

Welcome to the Rotary Wing Forum René!

I admire your tenacity and prolific, innovative building.

Why do you feel was the cause of your Calidus crash?
 
during takeoff approx. 10 meter high the mast broke just at the top of the fuselage near the welds. It was the second take-off with the new metal chassis, the first flight lasted 30 minutes.

Following the previous owner who had a bad takeoff and damaged the autogyro, I bought the wreck and completely rebuilt the machine with new parts from AUTOGIRO (Germany) about 20k euros of new parts.
The Calidus is 65h old. see the video : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-cu7JvTpxw




 
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I am impressed that you flew again after a mishap like that René!

I would find that experience daunting.
 
Rene:
If you don't mind me asking was there previous damage or hard landing on your Calidus?
What did you or investigation determine was the cause of the mast failure like that? That's a critical component.
 
Hi Rene.

What a horrible mishap with a mast failure in flight! Happy you are alive.

The aviation-safety sugests the accident was because of wind gusts??
http://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/wiki.php?id=170665
I am really interested to hear from you about the frame in the machine. Was it original or was it repaired by someone?

Ps: Lovely if you get your jumpstart-gyro to work! :)
 
I guess answers to our questions are already on the net...

http://www.rotaryforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=42469&page=3

TNVD wrote:
it was completely new frame-must bought from Auto-Gyro and reparation done by Rene itself ... it is hard to judge now - but facts are facts (video, photo)

Inox will never brake on weld line, it will brake near welding line.

Rene comment that it is strange for him that one tube broken like glass and second tube is broken like plastic (fully deformed) - from this facts he make conclusion that one tube just brake in flight and after was strike of blade against tail tube and after canopy opened it is his version of truth (which no one will most probably will not know what happens in reality)
Click to expand...
 
on the French forum Rene wrote

Translated by Google - original further down

The piece is a brilliant half blade that came off the ground or tapping the device, it was found 200m.
I saw the open canopy tried to reach the left arm to close but it was impossible, always I was flying the aircraft straight takeoff, he was always stable and having just take my left arm j ' I heard a sort of bang and then I found myself in the ambulance rescue, I have no recollection of this trajectory to the ground. the first person who came running to rescue me he saw me coming out of the autogyro and I collapsed to 4-5 m of the unit.
I have this little video to show me the path.

--------------------------------------------------

Me - Canopy came open during take off ?? Have a look at the video as it taxies out - locked or a little ajar?


Original


Le morceau brillant est une moitié de pale qui s'est détaché en tapant le sol ou l'appareil, il a été retrouvé à 200m.
j'ai vu la verrière s'ouvrir essayé de tendre le bras gauche pour la refermer mais c'était impossible, je pilotais toujours l'appareil en ligne droite au décollage, il était toujours stable et juste après avoir ramener mon bras gauche j'ai entendu une sorte de bang et après je me suis retrouvé dans l'ambulance des secours, je n'ai aucun souvenir de cette trajectoire jusqu'au sol. la première personne qui est accourue pour me porter secours m'a vu en train de sortir de l'autogire et je me suis effondré à 4 à 5 m de l'appareil.
je n'ai que cette petite video pour me montrer la trajectoire.
 
Better translation: The amazing thing is a half blade which broke off on impact with the ground and was found 200m away. I saw the canopy open, extended my arm to close it but it was impossible. I was still flying the aircraft in a straight line on takeoff. It as still stable and right after bringing my arm back I heard sort of a bang and then found myself in the ambulance. I have no recollection of the the trajectory to the ground. The first person who ran to my rescue saw me stagger out of the gyro and collapse 4-5 from the aircraft. I only have this short video to show the trajectory.
 
gilgsn said:
Better translation: The amazing thing is a half blade which broke off on impact with the ground and was found 200m away. I saw the canopy open, extended my arm to close it but it was impossible. I was still flying the aircraft in a straight line on takeoff. It as still stable and right after bringing my arm back I heard sort of a bang and then found myself in the ambulance. I have no recollection of the the trajectory to the ground. The first person who ran to my rescue saw me stagger out of the gyro and collapse 4-5 from the aircraft. I only have this short video to show the trajectory.
Click to expand...


Hello gilgsn
No it's no good translation, the information is confused
René
 
Bonjour René. Je viens de rentrer des Etats Unis après y avoir vécu 22 ans. Ma traduction vers l'Anglais est parfaitement claire et correspond parfaitement à vôtre récit.
 
sacre bleu
 

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My attempt at a translation
The shiny part is half a blade that broke off when it hit the ground or the aircraft, it was found 200 metres away. I saw the canopy start to open, tried to reach out with my left arm but it was impossible, I was still flying in a straight line after take off, it was still stable and just after having brought my left arm back I heard a sort of bang, next thing I found myself in the ambulance. I have no memory of the descent to the ground. The first person to arrive at the scene saw me leaving the gyro and I fainted 4 to 5 metres away from the gyro.
I only have this short video to show me the trajectory.
Mike G
 
What command of the French language I have, i would agree with Mike: "le morceau brillant" is "a shiny piece". But apart from that immaterial difference between the two translations I concur with either one. Don' know what René finds confusing about it.

The one piece of information I can add to this is that I had the canopy come open during flight, too, in my Calidus. This was the first Calidus with German registration. So however the canopy latch mechanism worked on my early Calidus, it may have evolved since.

I was on short final when suddenly, with a bang, the canopy flew open. I was doing about 90 km/h at that time and guess the engine was doing about 3000 rpm. The gyro yawed violently to the left because of the added drag of the open canopy on that side. I immediately slowed the gyro down and switched off the engine because I was afraid that pieces of the canopy might come loose and hit important structural parts or the prop. I managed to land the gyro with a lot of right rudder and on the runway. The canopy itself was completely destroyed. Apart from that, there was not much damage done to other parts. It was still hanging on its hinges, albeit parts of lexan had broken off.

My personal accident investigation revealed that I might not have closed the canopy latch fully and might have inadvertently opened it with my left elbow, although I don't remember either. One thing is for sure: already at modest speeds the airflow will suck the canopy open pretty strongly, so it definitely needs to be lached securely. This is the same as in other aircraft, e.g. the Katana DA20 or many gliders.

-- Chris.
 
Or did the initial break up flex the frame so as to release latch, whichever you have definitely used up at least one of your get out of jail free cards.
 
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Let me add my 2c.

ckurz7000 said:
I was on short final when suddenly, with a bang, the canopy flew open. I was doing about 90 km/h at that time and guess the engine was doing about 3000 rpm. The gyro yawed violently to the left because of the added drag of the open canopy on that side.

My personal accident investigation revealed that I might not have closed the canopy latch fully and might have inadvertently opened it with my left elbow, although I don't remember either.
Click to expand...

I had canopy opened once in a Calidus in flight while turning from base to final. It was right turn with some left slip thus airflow from the left made canopy rising not that quick. I was in the back seat with a student in front one. Our left hands rised at the same time (our preflight briefings with students include this situation), caught the canopy, put it back to its position then student secured it.

My investigation was short: this particular Calidus had the canopy latch much more tight than others so student (very lightweight young lady) simply thought she secured it (she usually flew the other Calidus with easier - normal - latch). And I didn't re-checked latch position since I've already trusted this student at the time. My mistake anyway.

Looking Rene's crash video it's well seen that canopy latch stays upwards after he closes canopy down and begins taxiing.

I wonder what was manufacturer's response in this case - broken mast is extremely serious accusation.
 
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Pretty good Mike. In this case of course "brilliant" does not mean reflecting light but something unique/great/amazing of sort.

Gil
 
René said:
during takeoff approx. 10 meter high the mast broke just at the top of the fuselage near the welds. It was the second take-off with the new metal chassis, the first flight lasted 30 minutes.

Following the previous owner who had a bad takeoff and damaged the autogyro, I bought the wreck and completely rebuilt the machine with new parts from AUTOGIRO (Germany) about 20k euros of new parts.
The Calidus is 65h old. see the video : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-cu7JvTpxw




Click to expand...


Wow. That does not look good Rene.
What did the factory say about this?
I am glad you came out ok from this.
 
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