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Atlas / NTSB / CEN13CA564

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event CEN13CA564

2013-09-26 Watkins, Colorado, United States Airport · FTG Serious 1 aircraft Status: Completed

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

The pilot's loss of control of the gyroplane during takeoff roll, following his inadvertent release of the cyclic control.

Factual narrative

During the takeoff roll, the pilot stated that the cyclic control slipped out of his hand, followed by an abrupt pitch up of the gyroplane. After becoming airborne for a brief time, the gyroplane descended tail first onto the runway and then cartwheeled several times, coming to rest on its right side. The pilot reported no preaccident mechanical malfunctions or failures with the gyroplane that would have precluded normal operation. During the takeoff roll, the pilot stated that the cyclic control slipped out of his hand, followed by an abrupt pitch up of the gyroplane. After becoming airborne for a brief time, the gyroplane descended tail first onto the runway and then cartwheeled several times, coming to rest on its right side.  The pilot reported no preaccident mechanical malfunctions or failures with the gyroplane that would have precluded normal operation. 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_2013_CEN13CA564.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 (loss of control). 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 ↗