G4026

[Ken Watson]

Wind- NilStrip- 400m surrounded by deep ravines and thick bush 1400ft aslGyro- Direct drive turbo ea81 with 54"wooden propThe gyro was being flown to determine flight characteristics. Several circuits and successful landings had been made and it appeared to perform normally. Upon leaving the ground on the final time all seemed normal until the pilot realised the controls were jammed in the almost full back position and the machine was slowly turning to the left. All inputs seemed futile and the engine was at max but the machine was slowly getting behind the power curve. The pilot was trying to turn right with no success to stay away from a substantial cliff and bushland.The max height reached was about 150 ft and had begun to fall sideways to the ground, at about 50ft the pilot bit the bullet and turned left. He regained marginal control

[NiqueNaque]

Ken,Thank you for still being here. Seriously.I would have added [f..k] after the thank and before the you, but the bottom line of it was that it was ´you´ who saved the situation, so no need to thank who you would have been saying all the way to the ground through this little ´incident´. Probably a man of lesser skill may not have been here to make comment, bloody well done! Ken Watson 1; Gyrocopter 0.[And that one won´t do that to him again, eh?]What colour are your undies?? Who´s your favourite nurse now??No doubt you will be having a few words with a senior T/A about ´end over centre´ problems. I had similar issues with mine due to the mounting bracket of the knuckles being lower than it should have been as a product of my fiddling with it, but I fixed that, fortunately before I got it off the ground after a refit, I found the fault through doing static rotor handling checks in a stiff breeze before a taxi / take off - I found it easy to put the rotor back and load it up to revs given the wind but very difficult to push it forward once speed was attained. Could it have slipped prior to take off - are there any scrape marks on the mast from where it may have been to where it is now?Cheers,Nick Tomlin.

[asra]

Hi Ken , What a scary thing to happen, this is my second attempt to post , not sure what happened to the first one , anyway will try to add pics of the damaged stearing system that were taken today at your place . hope it works this time .

[asra]

Hi again Ken , just trying those pics again. Regards ...Monika

[NiqueNaque]

Hmmm,I think a wee little more resolution is required to make sense of the pictures up close - they get a little pixelated.Cheers,Nick.

[asra]

G"day Ken,Good luck and bad luck. Glad you weren"t hurt (the good luck) but sorry

[Ken Watson]

Thanks for the thoughts but my main concern is that this particular set up should not be in use. I commented before flying that i could not understand why it was changed from single rods to dual. It just shows that this particular TA doesn"t know **** from clay. I wish he had got off the ground in it( no I really don"t as I think he may not have survived). My success was pure luck. I hit that hard upright that the rotors bent down and cut the tail off and connected with the instrument pod. Hopefully Murray can post a photo and you can see the blades are only bent down. The ground was marked around and the machine fell on its side due to lack of wheels and the sudden rotor stop.The joint mechanism is the problem as it does not travel in a linear way. The undercarriage snapped at the stub axle ,1"nb chromemoly. Mast keel and all undercarriage bent. One tyre blown. I don"t wish this on anybody. Falling sideways with almost no airspeed with the rotors sideways vertical is the point of no return. This was the point I was at. I re-lived this in my sleep last night-not pleasant. I flew my own machine yesterday just to make sure fear does not get its hold. I will never fly anyone elses machine again. I broke my own cardinal Rule. I have lived to tell the tail of bad workmanship, most have not. For ever thankfull to luck. Ken

[NiqueNaque]

Ken,Makes my last landing look like a walk in the park... unbelievable, youÅ-e damn good to get out of this one.Cheers,Nick

[asra]

Hi , And thanks for the interest shown in the pics

[asra]

Good on you Ken for posting this warts and all as it may stop someone else doing the same with more tragic results .I think we should all report more fully HOW accidents

[admin]

Bigger pics as sent to me - webbie

[admin]

4 more, 2 to go - webbie

[admin]

Last 2 - webbie

[NiqueNaque]

Ken,I sent an email to Monika to ask you to have a look at the paint scrapes on the back of the mast under the anchor points for the articulated arms, I don´t know if you got it so I´ll ask again.I had a similar problem on mine after I modded the gyro - it was due to the bracket being mounted too high up the mast, it was damned hard to push the joystick forward after winding up the blades - has this bracket slipped up the mast? [The paint scrapes seem to indicate it is so.]Cheers,Nick.

[Mark Horan]

Nice job of re engineering those blades Ken, last time I saw them , they was straight!I think you might call them "oil canned", glad your"e not!Welcome to the flying sideways toward the ground and walking away club.Marcus.