Chopper (auto-gyro) down
 

anyone know anything about the chopper down today in PTA?

Rhino Park outside PTA - one dead. Something about a blade coming off

Chopper crash
 

Any idea of what type of chopper it was or who it belonged to?

Press Quote
 

Pretoria - A 31-year-old man was killed when his light aircraft crashed shortly after taking off at Rhenopark airfield on Wednesday, Pretoria police said.
Constable Brenda Kgafela said the cause of the accident was not known.
The man was alone in the Auto Gyro two-seater when the crash took place at Rhenosterfontein, near Cullinan, east of Pretoria, on Wednesday morning.

Spoke to the eyewitness today (who is the AP that signed out the machine not so long ago). It is a Sycamore Gyro (locally manufactured). The rotor separated from the rotor hub after 2 minutes from take off.

The AP was first on the scene, and although speculation at such an early stage is premature, it was obvious that a bolt that holds the rotor hub together sheared. Why it sheared will only be revealed after analysis from CAA. He did say that a new rotor hub was machined not so long ago, that the local company here did not make when the gyro was first manufactured. As far as I know, this is the second fatality from a rotor coming adrift whilst inflight for the Sycamore (slightly different cause in the previous accident).

Have the name of the deceased, but not sure if the next of kin have been notified yet. Pilot was instructor rated on the Sycamore.

"this is the second fatality from a rotor coming adrift whilst inflight for the Sycamore"

Isn't a sycamore a tree whose seeds spiral to earth like a helicopter with one blade??


Don't know why people buy these autogyros, you just have to buy a field and wait:suspect:

Gyro's, in my 10 000hr total time experience, I would say are the safest form of recreation flying, despite the perceived opinion from other folk out there.

If you had choose to lose an engine in any fixed or rotor wing, the gyro would be the safest: it can't stall like a fixed wing, and can't run out of rotor RPM like a helicopter.

In principle, gyro's can't be matched for safety, and this gyro fatality seems to have occurred because modifications were made to a design, and without going to deep into the case, an error might have been made in the assembly of the rotor hub...not the gyro's fault!