GAA18CA114 · Wayne Miller SPORT COPTER II
Wayne Miller SPORT COPTER II · Accident: loss of control on ground during takeoff
From Van Nuys Airport (VNY) to Van Nuys Airport (VNY)
Event
- NTSB case
- GAA18CA114
- 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
Wayne Miller SPORT COPTER II
- Aircraft type
- Wayne Miller SPORT COPTER
- 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
- N767LW
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Van Nuys Airport (VNY), Van Nuys, CATo Van Nuys Airport (VNY), Van Nuys, CA
- Aircraft age
- About 1 year (built 2017)
- 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
- Loss of control on ground
- 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
- Environmental issues › Conditions/weather/phenomena
- Personnel issues › Action/decision
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
According to the pilot of the experimental amateur-built gyroplane, during the takeoff roll on runway 34 in gusting wind conditions, the pilot did not allow the rotor rpm to adequately increase. He advanced the throttle and the nose pitched up. The gyroplane exited the left side of the runway and the rotor blades struck the propeller.
The gyroplane sustained substantial damage to the vertical stabilizer.
The METAR at the airport reported that about the time of the accident, the wind was from 350° at 17kts gusting to 22kts.
The pilot reported that this accident could have been prevented if he had confirmed the proper rotor rpm.
The pilot reported that there were no preaccident mechanical malfunctions or failures with the gyroplane that would have precluded normal operation.
Probable cause
The pilot’s decision to takeoff in gusting wind conditions with insufficient rotor rpm.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record GAA18CA114
- Event ID
- 20180129X84239
- Case number
- GAA18CA114
- 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: 84d6e51896990b16f73740ddbd0fd60e81bdc9aabd1b81578726dd49ac9c500f; retrieved 2026-09-16T06:24:24.458Z.