GAA17CA308 · Robert Hamblin AUTOGYRO GMBH CAVALO
Robert Hamblin AUTOGYRO GMBH CAVALO · Accident: controlled flight into terrain/object (CFIT) en route
From Fainting Goat Airport (87TX) to Bourland Field (50F)
Event
- NTSB case
- GAA17CA308
- 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
Robert Hamblin AUTOGYRO GMBH CAVALO
- Aircraft type
- Robert Hamblin AUTOGYRO GMBH CAVALO
- 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
- N721E
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Fainting Goat Airport (87TX), BLUM, TXTo Bourland Field (50F), Fort Worth, TX
- Aircraft age
- About 1 year (built 2016)
- 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
- En route
- 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
- Controlled flight into terrain/object (CFIT)
- 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
- Environmental issues › Physical environment
- Personnel issues › Psychological
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot of the gyrocopter reported that, after flying over his passenger's house to take pictures, he headed back to the airport. He added that, while in level flight, he noticed that "the trees on the ground under [him were] rapidly getting closer." He initially presumed something was wrong with the engine, so he reduced throttle and then successfully applied full throttle in an attempt to troubleshoot the situation. He made a left 180° turn, and the gyrocopter struck trees and impacted terrain.
The gyrocopter sustained substantial damage to the empennage.
The pilot reported that there were no preaccident mechanical failures or malfunctions with the gyrocopter that would have precluded normal operation.
The pilot reported that he had presumed the terrain he was flying over was flat but later realized he had flown into rising terrain.
Probable cause
The pilot’s failure to maintain clearance from terrain.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record GAA17CA308
- Event ID
- 20170530X03313
- Case number
- GAA17CA308
- 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. 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: 82f6427be14b753c3616da5f62cd82970b4cbd3ae5e3d4a35aab530d69bead5c; retrieved 2026-09-16T05:19:56.160Z.