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Atlas / NTSB / CEN10CA537

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event CEN10CA537

2010-09-12 Rockford, Illinois, United States Airport · 1C8 Minor 1 aircraft Status: Completed

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

The pilot's failure to maintain control of the gyrocopter while practicing takeoffs and landings.

Factual narrative

The pilot of the gyrocopter was practicing takeoffs and landings when the accident occurred. He stated that he made 12 takeoffs, lifting off to a height 5 to 10 feet above the runway then touching back down prior to the accident flight. The pilot stated that on the last takeoff, the gyrocopter turned sideways and the momentum of the rotor blades resulted in the gyrocopter rolling onto its side. This resulted in substantial damage to the main rotor blades and left horizontal stabilizer when they contacted the ground. The pilot reported there were no mechanical problems with the gyrocopter. The pilot of the gyrocopter was practicing takeoffs and landings when the accident occurred. He stated that he made 12 takeoffs, lifting off to a height 5 to 10 feet above the runway then touching back down prior to the accident flight. The pilot stated that on the last takeoff, the gyrocopter turned sideways and the momentum of the rotor blades resulted in the gyrocopter rolling onto its side. This resulted in substantial damage to the main rotor blades and left horizontal stabilizer when they contacted the ground. The pilot reported there were no mechanical problems with the gyrocopter. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database Retrieved: 2026-02-12

NTSB Findings

Hierarchical cause / factor breakdown from the FAA bulk avdata database. Each finding tagged C (Cause) or F (Factor).

  • C Personnel issues-Task performance-Use of equip/info-Aircraft control-Pilot - C

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_2010_CEN10CA537.txt. Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb. Full investigation docket on data.ntsb.gov ↗.

Related research

What the literature says.

Academic papers and agency reports matching this event's aircraft type or causal vocabulary (icing). Sourced from NASA NTRS, NTSB Safety Studies, FAA CAMI, AOPA Air Safety Institute, Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons, arXiv, and the Semantic Scholar academic graph.

Browse the full corpus — academia portal ↗