Accident Details
On 3 July 2017 at 1300 hrs, a Rotorsport UK Calidus gyrocopter (serial number RSUK/CALS/003, registration G-GRYN), powered by one Rotax 912 ULS piston engine, sustained damage to its rotors, tail, empennage, and propeller during a landing accident at Turweston Aerodrome, Northamptonshire. The aircraft was engaged in a private flight with the pilot as the sole occupant. No injuries were reported.
Pilot Information
The 59-year-old pilot held a Private Pilot’s Licence and had accumulated 306 total flying hours, of which 6 hours were on the accident aircraft type. In the 90 days preceding the accident, the pilot had flown for 1 hour; similarly, in the 28 days prior, the pilot had flown for 1 hour. The pilot had not flown for several months before the flight.
Sequence of Events
The pilot had flown for about one hour and returned to land on Runway 27 at Turweston. The wind was from the west-south-west. As the pilot flared the aircraft for touchdown, he realised he had initiated the manoeuvre too early and that the aircraft was still several feet above the runway and at a low airspeed. He lowered the aircraft’s nose, during which the aircraft yawed and drifted to the right. He applied corrective rudder and control stick inputs, but the aircraft touched down on the right main wheel before rolling onto its right side, where it came to a stop.
The pilot stated that it had felt as if the aircraft “had been caught by a gust of wind from the left”, and he considered that his lack of recency and experience on type were causal factors in the accident.