CEN11LA591 · American Autogyro Sparrowhawk
American Autogyro Sparrowhawk · Accident: abnormal runway contact during takeoff
From Delaware Municipal Airport (KDLZ) to Newark Heath Airport (KVTA)
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN11LA591
- 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
- Unknown
- 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
American Autogyro Sparrowhawk
- Aircraft type
- American Autogyro SPARROWHAWK
- 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
- N2631B
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Delaware Municipal Airport (KDLZ), Delaware, OHTo Newark Heath Airport (KVTA), Heath, OH
- 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
- Takeoff
- Defining eventThe 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
- Abnormal runway contact
- 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
- Aircraft › Aircraft oper/perf/capability
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The noncertificated pilot stated that, during initial climb about 20 to 30 feet above the ground, he noticed that the gyroplane's airspeed was lower than intended and that the gyroplane began to drift to the right. He attempted to increase airspeed by lowering pitch, but the gyroplane landed hard and rolled over onto its side. A witness reported seeing the gyroplane in a steep ascent after liftoff before it entered a descending right turn. A postaccident examination did not reveal any mechanical malfunctions or failures that would have precluded normal operation of the gyroplane. Rotational damage sustained to the propeller blades was consistent with engine operation at the time of impact. The pilot reported that he had been receiving instruction toward a pilot certificate but had not obtained a student pilot certificate. He further noted that, although he had a pilot-rated passenger onboard, he was still acting as pilot-in-command and was flying the gyroplane when the accident occurred.
Probable cause
The noncertificated pilot did not maintain adequate airspeed and aircraft control during initial climb.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN11LA591
- Event ID
- 20110823X63228
- Case number
- CEN11LA591
- Dataset
- full-current
- Source SHA-256
- 5cf380f0061817c0331a6b2d8cc7e0ee3a79bea469a1001dc5c10e56f35f5ab3
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, coordinates. 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: 296c0e6816678a526f6b60e275210df5896bb850288b0fd45e5a44a4114dc456; retrieved 2026-09-15T16:39:26.795Z.