CEN14CA039 · Wohaska John PARSONS STILES GYRO
Wohaska John PARSONS STILES GYRO · Accident: aerodynamic stall/spin while maneuvering
From FES · Festus, MO to Sackman Field (H49)
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN14CA039
- 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
Wohaska John PARSONS STILES GYRO
- Aircraft type
- Wohaska John PARSONS STILES GYRO
- 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
- N7064U
- Operator
- Wohaska John S
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From FES · Festus, MOTo Sackman Field (H49), Columbia, IL
- Aircraft age
- About 8 years (built 2005)
- 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
- Maneuvering · low-altitude flying
- 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
- Aerodynamic stall/spin
- 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
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The sport pilot reported that days prior to the accident flight, he adjusted the propeller and re-installed it without testing its performance. On the accident flight, he departed the runway and remained in ground effect until he reached 50 mph, then began a climb. As he flew the gyroplane to the south, the surrounding terrain elevation decreased and the pilot thought he was climbing. The engine was operating about 6,300 rpm and the airspeed was 40 mph; the engine develops maximum horsepower at 6,750 rpm and the best climb speed is 45 mph. The pilot initiated a left turn to land in a field or back at the airport, but the wind pushed the gyroplane and the pilot lost control. The gyroplane impacted the ground and sustained substantial damage to the tube frame, vertical tail, and rotor blades. The pilot reported no preimpact mechanical malfunctions or failures that would have precluded normal operation. He reported that the propeller was not adjusted properly in order to provide maximum engine rpm and subsequently maximum climb performance. Due to the slow airspeed, it is likely that the gyroplane experienced an aerodynamic stall.
Probable cause
The pilot's improper propeller adjustment, which resulted in decreased performance and a loss of aircraft control.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN14CA039
- Event ID
- 20131104X22129
- Case number
- CEN14CA039
- 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: 069cd22c17534935a852f26263e6770a2bc334e8bc9b49207936627a291278ff; retrieved 2026-09-15T23:04:55.867Z.