Instructor, Student Safe After Gunshot Drills Prop

Somebody in Utah doesn't like gyroplanes, and he has a pretty blunt way of showing it. That's the most likely conclusion as flight instructor Michael Burton and a student took ground fire over Springville on August 2nd.

They were conducting a normal training flight in an American Autogyro Inc. Sparrowhawk gyroplane, N801AG, at about 1800 local. The pilots didn't know at the time exactly what happened, only that there was an unfamiliar, loud pop, and thereafter a whistling sound.

On the ground it was clear where the unfamiliar noises came from. The carbon fiber propeller of the gyro had a jagged hole from the rear towards the front. It was clearly not something caused by a foreign object damage, which leaves a v-shaped nick in the leading edge of the propeller.

Burton and his student were puzzling over the cause of the remarkable hole -- FOD also doesn't overtake an aircraft in flight from behind and below -- when some Vietnam veterans who happened to be at AirGyro Aviation recognized the ugly aperture.

"That's a bullet hole. Somebody took a shot at you."

A Bullet Hole

Law enforcement experts who have examined the damaged propeller blade agree. Their consensus seems to be that the hole was made by a .30 caliber (7.62 mm) high-powered rifle. As the machine was over an urban, populated area at the time, the shot is unlikely to have been accidental.

The bullet passed through the propeller blade and appears not to have struck any other part of the gyro's structure. This absent bullet complicates the investigation.

Air-Gyro manager Nate Oldham told Aero-News that a bullet manufacturer who examined the hole did not find trace metals such as lead or copper that he would expect to find with common store-bought or handloaded hunting ammunition. This suggests that the round may have been military surplus. The bullet manufacturer was relieve that his own product did not appear to be involved. 

Many .30 caliber weapons could have made the hole including popular hunting rifles like the Winchester 30-30 or the .300 Remington Magnum, World War surplus American military weapons, and common Soviet era foreign weapons like the AK-47, SKS, and Mosin-Nagant rifles.

In any case, the core problem is not the rifle per se but the individual picking it up and firing it at an aircraft. The Springville police department is investigating the case as attempted murder and aggravated assault, both felonies.

A spokesman for the FBI admitted that Federal law had been violated, but didn't indicate that the bureau had any real interest in pursuing the shooter, given the paucity of evidence.

Anonymous Commenters Support Shooter

Some commenters on the Provo, Utah Herald newspaper's website sympathized not with the targets of the shooting, but with the shooter, hiding behind anonymity or false names. "I would be surprised if this were the first aircraft shooting in this area. With all the helicopter [sic] and airplanes now coming from the Spanish Fork airport there is a lot of frustration about the buzzing and noise it has brought to the area," one anonymous "Guest" wrote, apparently  in support of the crime. "Almost daily you can see a multitude of airborne stunts, rolls and round and round flips over Springville, Mapleton and the county."

Another who styled himself "Matt Damon" said, "If aircraft from the Springfield [sic] airport are flying low enough to be hit by rifle fire from the ground, they are deliberately aggravating the people who live in Springfield. They are also flying below FAA minimums over populated areas."

"Damon" -- whoever he is, it's a safe bet he is not the notoriously inarticulate actor -- did call the gunman "insane," but then reverted to blaming the pilots for "endangering and aggravating people intentionally."

Other anonymous commenters took these to task. One insinuated that the "lot of frustration" poster might be the shooter.

The Spanish Forks/Springville airport, where the flight originated and landed, far from being the incipient O'Hare portrayed by the commenters, is reported to have about twenty aircraft in operation daily. But Oldham, the Air-Gyro manager, told Aero-News that the shooter may have warned his intended target -- ironically, a different flight school.

"There are a lot of flight training operations in that area, and some people are upset about it," Oldham said. "You know, there are probably 300 active students in this area. We've never heard anything directly, but there have been rumors -- just rumors -- about threats to other schools, that if they kept flying they would get shot. One school in particular, a helicopter school. But nobody ever threatened us."

And of course, a gyroplane, to the kind of yoyo who would fire at an aircraft... "looks just like a helicopter, right," Oldham finished my sentence. "Ours especially. The gyroplane we train in -- the AAI Sparrowhawk, with its cabin -- resembles a helicopter more than some other gyros do."

And of course, a gyroplane is pretty easy to hit -- they don't go terribly fast. Nate Oldham and I had a funny-but-it's-not-really-so-funny laugh at that.

The tough carbon fiber prop of the Sparrowhawk held together despite the damage. Oldham shudders to think what the bullet would have done to a wooden prop -- like the one on his company's Diamond fixed-wing trainer.

Was Shooter Shooting To Kill?

Was the shooter shooting to kill, or to just scare away aerial traffic? Either is a possibility. The bullet struck only two feet from Michael Burton's head, or his student's. Fortunately, whether homicide was the shooter's intent, or merely a highly likely outcome of his gross negligence, it didn't actually happen.

For Michael Burton, it was good enough to be lucky -- this time.

But if the shooter wanted to keep Burton and his gyro out of the air over southwest Springville and south Utah County, he's succeeded, at least until he's arrested. Burton will be back in his flying classroom, "doing what I love to do," he told the Deseret News. But he won't be flying in the area where someone tried to blow him out of the sky.
 

Second Shooting This Month

AirGyro's Sparrowhawk is at least the second rotorcraft engaged by gunfire by persons unknown on the ground in the Southwest this month. As previously reported in Aero-News, the Bernalillo County Sheriff's Department (Albuquerque, NM) Metro 1 helicopter, an MD Helicopters (formerly Hughes) 500, was shot down by gunfire Wednesday. A bullet fired by persons unknown on the ground struck an anti-torque pedal, spraying the cabin with fragmentary shrapnel and wounding both crewmen. Most recent reports indicate that the pilot will have some permanent damage as a result of his wounds.

Air-Gyro Aviation

Air-Gyro was founded to sell Sparrowhawk gyroplanes (file photo, shown below) and train gyro pilots. It also conducts training from sport pilot through advanced ratings in single and multiengine airplanes. "Many of our gyro students are training to a level of proficiency so that they can then safely fly ultralight gyroplanes," Oldham says. "The ones that train for actual gyro ratings, and take their examinations, are usually Sparrowhawk owners. You know, you make that kind of investment in a flying machine, you want to take everybody you know flying in it!" (Unlicensed ultralight pilots are strictly limited to flying single-seat machines).

What's it been like dealing with Groen Brothers? "AAI has been great. We've never had a problem with them," he told us. He admitted some concern when AAI founding president Jim Mayfield left the company last year, but "there was no change, nothing, same great service. A lot of interesting things are happening there with respect to Groen's bigger aircraft, too." Oldham remains in touch with Mayfield, who also instructs in Arizona and is one of only two Designated Examiners for gyroplane ratings nationwide. "Jim's doing well, too."

Mike Burton, the instructor on the flight that was attacked, is Air-Gyro's chief flight instructor. He's currently traveling (for the very best of reasons, having nothing to do with this incident) and unavailable for comment, but we'll be talking to him when he's available.

FMI: www.airgyro.com