CHI00LA104 · Wilson RAF 2000 GTX SE RAF 2000 G
Wilson RAF 2000 GTX SE RAF 2000 G · Accident: in flight collision with object during initial climb
From Monroe City, MO to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI00LA104
- 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
Wilson RAF 2000 GTX SE RAF 2000 G
- Aircraft type
- Wilson RAF-2000
- Category
- Gyroplane
- 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
- N1964
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Monroe City, MOTo not recorded
- 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 › Altitude/clearance, not obtained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The gyrocopter sustained substantial damage on impact with a tree and terrain following a takeoff from runway 15 for a local flight. The pilot and passenger sustained minor injuries. The pilot stated, 'I misread direction of wind from hanger area. I taxied to north end of runway and took off south with a 90 [degree] crosswind. When I passed over hanger area at the south end of runway I hit some turbulence. I should have did a emergency landing in the field south of runway, but chose to continue. At the south end of field that has trees on three sides I didn't have enough altitude to cross a ravine with trees. I hit the top of a large oak tree and fell 50 - 60 ft into the ravine.' The pilot listed his certificate and rating as private and single engine land. An on scene examination revealed no anomalies. Wind at Quincy, Illinois was 210 degrees at 7 knots. The pilot's safety recommendation stated, 'Take off the other direction.'
Probable cause
the pilot not obtaining clearance from the trees. Factors were the trees and the ravine terrain condition.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI00LA104
- Event ID
- 20001212X20774
- Case number
- CHI00LA104
- 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: eaa4898b9f6384db9b365f4a89b6b8ecabea903932e3ecafeaf69a5a48419939; retrieved 2026-09-21T20:16:27.841Z.