CEN23LA386 · Silverlight AR-1
Silverlight AR-1 · Accident: loss of control in flight during takeoff
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN23LA386
- 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
Silverlight AR-1
- Aircraft type
- Silverlight AR-1
- 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
- N57AR
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo not recorded
- Aircraft age
- About 2 years (built 2021)
- 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 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
According to two witnesses, the pilot of the gyroplane started his takeoff roll with the rotor in a horizontal position. Both witnesses stated that the gyroplane’s take off roll was longer than usual. When the pilot pitched the rotor up, the gyroplane pitched up, climbed about 30 to 40 ft above the ground, rolled to the left, and subsequently impacted the runway. The left main landing gear separated from the gyroplane after impacting the runway, and the gyroplane departed the runway to the left. The gyroplane came to rest about 1,400 ft from its departure point. The pilot was seriously injured. During the runway excursion, the gyroplane’s rotor impacted the ground resulting in substantial damage to the rotor, horizontal stabilizer, vertical stabilizer, and rudder. The pilot stated via telephone that there were no mechanical malfunctions or failures that would have precluded normal operation. The pilot did not provide an NTSB Form 6120.1 Pilot/Operator Aircraft Accident/Incident Report. According to FAA-H-8083-21 Rotorcraft Flying Handbook, “The normal takeoff for most amateur-built gyroplanes is accomplished by prerotating to sufficient rotor r.p.m. to prevent blade flapping and tilting the rotor back with cyclic control. Using a speed of 20 to 30 m.p.h., allow the rotor to accelerate and begin producing lift. As lift increases, move the cyclic forward to decrease the pitch angle on the rotor disc.” It is likely the pilot did not position the rotor at the appropriate pitch angle to allow the main rotor to reach sufficient takeoff rpm before attempting to takeoff.
Probable cause
The pilot’s improper takeoff procedure which resulted in a loss of control during takeoff.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN23LA386
- Event ID
- 20230830192960
- Case number
- CEN23LA386
- 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, cause areas. 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: 768dfd805c439ba3cb126285ff4682130211ebd1851859dae1a390601969b8ad; retrieved 2026-09-16T18:03:38.730Z.
- Corrected after a review of the NTSB narrative and the aircraft's make and model, which establish these values: aircraft category. The narrative calls the Silverlight AR-1 "the gyroplane" throughout; the NTSB MDB codes it HELI (Helicopter).