Before the flight in the Magniflight Orion gyroplane, the pilot gave a safety briefing to his passenger. He told the passenger to keep his feet off of the rudder pedals and to stay clear of the cyclic during takeoff.
After the briefing and startup, the pilot took off in the gyroplane with his passenger for a local flight. The grass runway at the airport in Valmeyer, Illinois, was bumpy, so the pilot lifted the front wheel off the ground as soon as possible and rode the main wheels until speed was built up enough to lift off.
As all the wheels came off the ground, the gyrocopter started to drift to the right off of the runway. The pilot tried to correct with the cyclic, but was unable to move the cyclic.
The gyroplane continued to move to the right and touched down in a field nose first and bounced. The gyroplane hit a concrete obstacle and sustained substantial damage to the fuselage and main rotor.
The pilot told investigators that he believed the passenger’s left leg interfered with the movement of the cyclic, which resulted in the right drift after takeoff.
The pilot added that there were no mechanical malfunctions or failures that would have precluded normal operations.
Probable Cause: The pilot’s loss of control due to flight control interference by the passenger during takeoff.
To download the final report. Click here. This will trigger a PDF download to your device.
This October 2024 accident report is provided by the National Transportation Safety Board. Published as an educational tool, it is intended to help pilots learn from the misfortunes of others.
Suuuure that’s what happened!! Blame the passenger!
This was very probable. The passenger may have had no idea his leg was in the way and there was not enough time to evaluate the situation. Why else would the cyclic suddenly become unmovable?
Years ago when I was building a two seat experimental, I intended to keep the passenger stick out so the passenger could not interfere (and ease entry/exit). There are too many cases where they would grab the controls and freeze, or make some other unpredictable moves.