Magni M14 down in Germany

Here is a Google translation of the story -

Blaubeuren
A cause for deadly aircraft crash still unclearly


Two days after the aircraft crash with a Show meeting in Blaubeuren (Alb Danube circle) the cause of accident is still unclear. The pilot died, while its airplane burned only 250 meters far away from the spectators out.



Feuerwehrmann deletes fallen small aircraft in Blaubeuren



"we determine in all directions", said a speaker of the police in Ulm. The Tragfluegler in such a way specified is examined by experts for technical defects. Tragfluegler an aircraft is called, which half like a helicopter functions and half like a fixed-wing aircraft. Also a possible pilot error cannot be excluded. The police asks further eye-witnesses and analyzes also amateur photographs, which are present. With the killed pilot it acts around a 52-jaehrigen man out of the area Luzern in Switzerland. It is to have been active an experienced pilot and even as flight instructors. From an autopsy the Ermittler expects further realizations.

Spectator not in danger
After eye-witness reports the airplane had fallen with the ascent suddenly like a stone into the depth. About 1,000 visitors had come to the Flugshow, in order to see the demonstrations with aerobatics, German Federal Armed Forces helicopters and old timers. After information of flight controllers Dieter Wiedmann existed a danger for the spectators at no time. The airplane moved regulation in accordance with in the flight zone proven for such demonstrations. The group of sail flight havens from Blaubeuren had become in the past year of German masters in the segelflug, the flight day lured above all visitors from the region.

Alan
 
I'm very interested in hearing the result of the accident investigation, since the Magni is supposed to be rock solid machine and the pilot was clearly experienced.

I am (or was at one time) fluent in German, here's a somewhat more comprehensible translation.

----
Cause of crash is still unclear

Two days after the crash at an airshow in Blauberen the cause of the accident is still unclear. The pilot died when his aircraft crashed and burned just 250 meters from the spectators.

"We are examining all possibilities", said a police spokesman. The so-called "autogyro" is being examined for technical defects by experts. An aircraft is designated an autogyro when it operates halfway between a rotary-wing and a fixed-wing aircraft. Pilot error can also not be ruled out. The police are interviewing eye-witnesses and examing amateur film footage. The pilot who died is a 52 year old man from the area of Lucerne in Switzerland. He was reportedly an experienced pilot as well as an instructor. The autopsy is expected to reveal further results.

Spectators not endangered

According to eyewitnesses, the aircraft was in a climb when it suddenly dropped like a rock. Approximately 1000 spectators attended the airshow to see demonstrations of aerobatics, military helicopters, and vintage aircraft. According to a statement by chief pilot Dieter Wiedmann, the spectators were at no point in time subject to any danger. The aircraft was operating within the designated area and within regulations. The Blauberen glider club was in previous years the German championship holder, and the event attracted visitors from all over the region.
 
the photo seems not to correspond to the description of the crash!...
 
Very odd, it appears that the prop was stopped on impact.
 
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Iven; Thanks for the translation...very much appreciated. :)


Cheers :)
 
Prop is OK. Tail is OK. Mast is Ok. Engine is still in the right position and main landing gear is OK.Left wheel is damaged.
Never seen something like that before.
JOS
 
Could well be the pilot suffered a hear attack or similiar, shut down the motor and tried to glide it in as quickly as possible and lost controll on the way down.
Certainly looks as if motor was stopped. The motor stopping may by part of the routine but a 912 would re start very easily. Just looks to me as if the pilot was in trouble with something happening in him.
"Left wheel damaged" , well something would have to be bent as the tail is okay and staboard gear is okay so it was the nose and port side that impacted first and obviously fairly heavily indicating the pilot wasnt able to controll the gyro.

"Gyro fell like a stone" all gyros in a glide look like they are falling to a FW orientated crowd !
 
Looks like part of the rudder is missing and one of the rudder cables is hanging loose.

Udi
 
Looks like both rudder cable are losen but this may be because pedal post was distroyed on impact.
 
A Magni crashed a couple years ago, apparently as a result of a failed attempt at a low-altitude loop.

Are people perhaps starting to treat these machines as aerobatic aircraft?
 
Tried to verify some of the info, but everyting I found seems to base on the info quoted in the link above (SWR is a state owned radio and TV channel of excellent reputation).
The amazing thing: If the pilot was from Lucerne, he must have flown with a foreign licence. The "D-"-number shows that the gyro had been based in Germany. And if he had been a CFI, then certainly not on gyros. There is no legal gyro flying in my place. Stranger yet: Nobody I know in and around Lucerne seems to know of a casualty of a 52 year old pilot.
When the German "Bundesstelle für Flugunfalluntersuchung" (BFU) does publish its findings, I'll translate and post them, if they contain any useful info.
The link is: https://www.bfu-web.de/Bulletin/index.htm
 
Doug Riley said:
Are people perhaps starting to treat these machines as aerobatic aircraft?

If so, only once.

Doesn't seem like the sort of thing that would catch on like that. "Hey, the fellow down the road tried a loop and died in a painful smash, sounds like it might be fun to try."

cheers

-=K=-
 
:) Hi,
To translate that German site. Pull Google and look to the right of the box you usually put your search request. Click Language Tools and then cut and paste the website into the translate website. Pick German to English and it will take awhile but come up. It's a fair attempt at translating. Give it a try.

AltaVista had the original translation tool - Babel fish. Same thing and still there.
 
Accident investigation done

Accident investigation done

A German friend knows the investigator of the Magni accident. He was told, the investigation was finished and showed the following results:
- After a fast pass at low altitude, the pilot went into a very steep climb. At the top, the angle of climb became more than 90 degree. Since the accident happened during a flight show, there were many active pilots who watched, so in this case, eye witness' testimony is believed to be quite accurate.
- At the top, the pilot tried to get out of that climb by pushing the gyro foreward very hard. The engine still ran at full power.
- As a result, the rotor unloaded and its RPM declined very fast. The rotor blades started to flap. The power of this must have been extraordinary, because it caused the mast to bend sidewards. One blade hit a wheel fairing which was smacked off and was later found quite far off the point of the crash. Rubber traces on a rotor blade which show the wheel profile prove that mast and blades were bent so hard that the latter were able to hit the main gear.

Conclusions:
- It was a zero G accident.
- In such an accident, the forces may become so great that even the probably most solid mast on the market may get bent.
 
The investigator’s report is more cogent than is the speculation about the pilot attempting a loop.

A high thrust line machine, wide open throttle and very low airspeed combine to produce torqueover/buntover during instances of diminished rotor thrust.
 
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Sounds like the machine got seriously away from him. Will a CLT machine torque over as easily Chuck as a HTL with the rotor thrust taken away. I would think it would just as easy but usually I am wrong. How would a Dominator react in the same circumstances ? That is slightly inverted, full power and stick hard forward.
 
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