IAD00LA013 · Rogers RAF 2000
Rogers RAF 2000 · Accident: in flight collision with object during initial climb
From No airport to Lt Warren Eaton Airport (OIC)
Event
- NTSB case
- IAD00LA013
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- InvestigationHow far the investigation had got when the record was published: preliminary, ongoing, final or completed. Unknown where the source does not say. Glossary
- Completed
- API-reported fatalities
- 0 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- 0
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- General aviation
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Rogers RAF 2000
- Aircraft type
- Rogers RAF-2000
- Category
- Gyroplane · from aircraft type
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- N78ME
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From No airportTo Lt Warren Eaton Airport (OIC), Norwich, NY
- Aircraft age
- Not recorded
- Flight rulesThe regulations the flight operated under: in the US, Part 91 (general aviation), Part 121 (airlines), Part 135 (air taxi and commuter) and others; for flights abroad, the NTSB's coarser commercial or non-commercial code. Glossary
- Part 91: General Aviation
- Phase of flightThe stage of the flight when things started to go wrong: standing, taxi, takeoff, initial climb, en route, maneuvering, approach or landing. Glossary
- Initial climb
- First occurrenceThe single coded event the NTSB judges best describes what happened (records from 2008 on). Older records name the first occurrence in the sequence instead. Glossary
- In flight collision with object
- Also codedOther events the NTSB coded in the sequence, such as a wire strike after a loss of power. Flight Findings uses them for its kinds of event. Glossary
- Tree(s)
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Aborted takeoff, not performed
- Pilot in command › Rotor RPM, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot of the homebuilt gyrocopter stated the purpose of the flight was to do a reconnaissance of the grass strip, land, and perform a takeoff. He said that prior to departing for the strip, he advised a friend of his intentions, and asked the friend to come look for him if he did not return by a specified time. After walking and then taxiing the length of the field, the pilot attempted the takeoff. At the end of the takeoff roll, the gyrocopter indicated inadequate rotor rpm for takeoff, but the pilot elected to continue. The gyrocopter collided with a stonewall and tree stumps at the departure end of the field. The pilot said, 'I hate to use the phrase, but it was pilot error.'
Probable cause
was the pilot's failure to abort the takeoff due to inadequate rotor rpm.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record IAD00LA013
- Event ID
- 20001212X20252
- Case number
- IAD00LA013
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Source notes (4)
- Unreviewed is an editorial label, not an investigation status. API-sourced is not report-checked or human-reviewed. Explicit event totals are used without summing aircraft injury tables; onboard allocation is withheld. Unknown values remain unknown. The operation category is mapped from the NTSB-reported FAR part and has not been reviewed.
- Filled from the NTSB case API where the bulk record had no value: investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date, which is the same as the UTC date the NTSB stores.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 0a1fa4dfd6dd99fbd53295c1c3b4707947f6589212b33fc3f5a8e95b62331d9a; retrieved 2026-09-21T10:45:28.514Z.