ERA17CA129 · Kerns Kenneth H KENS WINGLESS WONDER
Kerns Kenneth H KENS WINGLESS WONDER · Accident: flight control system malfunction/failure during takeoff
From Mount Airy Surry County Airport (MWK) to Mount Airy Surry County Airport (MWK)
Event
- NTSB case
- ERA17CA129
- 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
Kerns Kenneth H KENS WINGLESS WONDER
- Aircraft type
- Kerns Kenneth KENS WINGLESS WONDER
- 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
- N7195R
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Mount Airy Surry County Airport (MWK), Mount Airy, NCTo Mount Airy Surry County Airport (MWK), Mount Airy, NC
- 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
- Flight control system malfunction/failure
- 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
- Aircraft › Aircraft power plant
- 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 pilot, who was also the owner of the of amateur-built gyroplane, stated that he adjusted the prerotator motor pressure plate before the flight by moving it closer to the clutch to improve rpm. During takeoff, the gyroplane rolled right, and he was unable to maintain control. The gyroplane subsequently impacted the ground and cartwheeled, which resulted in substantial damage to the rotor, mast, and cabin. The pilot further stated that, due to his adjustment, it was likely that the prerotator did not disengage, which resulted in increased right torque and the inability to control the gyroplane during takeoff.
Probable cause
The pilot’s improper adjustment of the prerotator motor, which resulted in its failure to disengage and the subsequent loss of aircraft control during takeoff.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ERA17CA129
- Event ID
- 20170313X32343
- Case number
- ERA17CA129
- Dataset
- full-current
- Source SHA-256
- 5cf380f0061817c0331a6b2d8cc7e0ee3a79bea469a1001dc5c10e56f35f5ab3
Source notes (5)
- 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: d5714e76437f6ee1c6545d131e2a607890ec8b2be54539ac93351426de48a36a; retrieved 2026-09-16T05:05:33.014Z.
- Corrected after a review of the NTSB narrative, which states these values explicitly: departure, destination. MWK is Mount Airy/Surry County Airport in Mount Airy, North Carolina, which matches the event location (Mount Airy, NC, coordinates 36.456665, -80.552112); the state code SC is wrong. MWK is Mount Airy/Surry County Airport in Mount Airy, North Carolina, which matches the event location (Mount Airy, NC, coordinates 36.456665, -80.552112); the state code SC is wrong.