Gyro down in Germany

[Learjet]

MT-03 accident in Germany From Rotaryforum:

öttingen County: Two Men Die in Crash

Northeim / Plesse Castle. Two passengers were killed in the crash of a so-called gyrocopter Friday evening. The accident to the flying machine, which is a combination of a light airplane and helicopter, took place at about 8 o'clock in the evening.

According to information from HNA.de [note: that is the source, a local paper in the German federal states of Hesse and Lower Saxony - KO] the machine, with two persons on board, crashed in a forested area at Plesse Castle near Bovenden in Göttingen County. Despite the efforts of rescue crews, one of the accident victims died at the scene of the accident.

The second victim was brought to the Göttingen Clinic with serious injuries, where he died of his injuries. How the fateful crash came about was not known as of Friday night at 11 PM.

Although the cause of the accident is unknown, I think we can take something out of the circumstances - and that is that the heavily forested terrain they were flying over compromised any hope of an emergency landing, and no doubt contributed significantly to the severity of the impact and resultant fatalities.
Perhaps if they had been flying over open countryside the outcome may well have been very different?

[peterb]

That looks like an extremely high speed impact. I think that had it been an emergency, the speed would have been lower..... and less destruction of the craft?Can it be.. pilots misjudgement? that some low flying above the tree tops had gone wrong??
Very sad to see!!
My condolences to the families involved.

[Learjet]

More speculation from the Rotaryforum:

I've, of course, been following this news on the German forum. There are indications that the passenger's camera went overboard and through the prop, which destroyed the prop and was the immediate cause of the power loss and attempted emergency landing.

Whether this is true or not, it's a valuable reminder to make sure that cameras and other loose items etc are secured before flight.

[peterb]

Hi Leerjet, I heard of a fatal accident. I think it was at Bela Bela? in a m16.I believe the speculation was also a camera through the prop on take off. Do you perhaps know of the outcome of the investigation?
Peter

[Learjet]

Hi Peter, the accident which you refer to occurred at Bela-Bela on the 24th April 2008. Basie Wessels and a female passenger, Lauren McCall (24) were both tragically killed when their Magni M16 crashed shortly after-take off. CAA have yet to publish the official accident investigation report. Related thread here: viewtopic.php?f=16&t=7157&hilit=bela+bela&start=15

There was some speculation at the time regarding possible engine failure or perhaps the pilot suffering a heart attack etc. The camera possibility is a new twist (she was a photographer though), but given the circumstances (no witnesses to the actual crash) and the fire which ensued, I'm not sure how much light the CAA report will be able to shed on this accident when it is finally released.

[FLYNOTE]

Very very sad this accident !! I have mentioned before the spot of hard learned experience I had the misfortune to have when I came down in the Bushveld trees ! The little or much that I learned from this, was that when decision time comes ( please never again !) and its between worrying about damaging your gyro or softening the impact ... forget about the gyro and go for the " softening of impact" option. Cut power, mags off, masters off , pull back to zero airspeed and hover into the trees. It is an advantage that we have in a gyro compared to a fixed wing which will stall and enter a spin below a given speed.. We can eliminate forward speed which is the no no in an accident scenario. Coming down vertically could also be hard on the anatomy but in my case the trees absorbed most / all of the rotor energy and broke the speed to a large extent. Just a thought ? What say the Learjet man ?

[peterb]

In the event of an engine out and you are in rugged terrain (vallies) and you are forced to go down in a hover..... what are the chances of survival if there are no trees to cushion the decent? Zero airspeed going down in a hover makes a lot of sence if you have enough height to bring the gyro speed down to zero air speed. Are there any reported incidents of a hover landing. that is without something cushioning the the decent and surviving?

[Learjet]

Flynote - I agree with you 100% about 'drop & stop' tree strategy. I think the problem with the above accident site was that the trees were damn tall and it was a long drop from the canopy to the ground

[Low Level]

In the event of an engine out and you are in rugged terrain (vallies) and you are forced to go down in a hover..... what are the chances of survival if there are no trees to cushion the decent?

I depends on your height. On about a 300 ft descend, I've seen over 5 m/s (1000 ft/min) downwards on my VSI on a zero speed hover - about 20 km/h solid impact with the ground I would guess. It has also crossed my mind and it is debatable if one would survive.