Florida Man Uninjured, Helicopter Substantially Damaged At Mentone

The FAA has issued a preliminary report on the forced landing of a Helicycle experimental helicopter on Saturday, August 6, the final day of the Popular Rotorcraft Association's (PRA) annual convention and fly-in at the PRA Mentone Airport in Indiana. (Helicycle file photo shown.)

PRA Director Tom Milton reported in an online forum that witnesses reported the pilot of the accident aircraft "was flying low and making a sharp turn down wind. It looked as if a rapid application of power was needed to pretty up the maneuver. I was told (by two helicopter pilot witnesses) that at just that moment, the turbine was heard spooling down."

In its preliminary report the FAA, which reportedly did not visit the scene, commented only that the helicopter "crashed in a bean field and rolled over." Witnesses say the pilot exited the aircraft, dazed but apparently uninjured. The FAA reports the aircraft was substantially damaged.

WANE-TV cites the Kosciusko County Police Department in identifying the accident pilot as 61-year-old William Robert Hyde of Miami, FL.

The Helicycle is a single-seat helicopter built from a kit manufactured by Eagle R&D of Nampa, ID. The kit purchase includes a Solar T-62 turbine engine which is blueprinted before delivery to the customer. Torque is limited by the belt-drive clutch, and engine RPM is limited by an engine controller provided by the kitmaker.

In a forced landing incident last year in Illinois involving another Helicycle, the owner, PRA Secretary Stan Foster, reported that an abrupt reduction in collective pitch coming off a max performance takeoff resulted in a brief overshoot in engine RPM, which triggered an engine shutdown. That forced landing, also made from low altitude, resulted in a fast, but successful run-on landing, in which the machine was undamaged.

The Popular Rotorcraft Association, started in 1962 by Dr. Igor Bensen of Bensen Gyrocopter fame, is dedicated to the interests of builders and fliers of rotorcraft operated for personal, recreational and educational use.

FMI: www.helicycle.com ; www.pra.org