ERA18LA095 · Robert Snyder AUTOGYRO CALIDUS
Robert Snyder AUTOGYRO CALIDUS · Accident: loss of control in flight on approach
From Beaufort Executive Airport (ARW) to Beaufort Executive Airport (ARW)
Event
- NTSB case
- ERA18LA095
- 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
- 1 · 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 Snyder AUTOGYRO CALIDUS
- Aircraft type
- Robert Snyder AUTOGYRO CALIDUS
- 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
- N221YT
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Beaufort Executive Airport (ARW), Beaufort, SCTo Beaufort Executive Airport (ARW), Beaufort, SC
- Aircraft age
- About 3 years (built 2015)
- 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
- Approach
- 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 in flight
- 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 as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
After performing a normal takeoff, the private pilot of the gyroplane transmitted over the radio that he was going to conduct a simulated engine-out maneuver and return to the opposite runway. Witnesses saw the gyroplane flying toward the runway erratically and at low altitude over a field. The gyroplane's nose pitched up, and the gyroplane rolled inverted before impacting a grass area to the side of the runway. One witness, who was also a pilot, estimated that the gyroplane climbed to 300 to 500 ft above ground level before performing the maneuver and speculated that it may not have been enough altitude to complete the maneuver.
Examination of the wreckage did not reveal any preimpact mechanical malfunctions and the two main rotor blades did not exhibit significant rotational damage. It is likely that, as the pilot was maneuvering aggressively at low altitude with the engine power at idle, he allowed the main rotor speed to decay, which resulted in a subsequent loss of control and impact with terrain.
Probable cause
The gyroplane pilot's failure to maintain rotor speed and aircraft control as he was attempting to return to the runway during a low-altitude simulated engine-out maneuver.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ERA18LA095
- Event ID
- 20180305X44855
- Case number
- ERA18LA095
- 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: fa0c223cc84dee44f2352f21358f7206c53dde6bf60b26bb585f38697b86273a; retrieved 2026-09-15T06:35:44.124Z.