CarterCopter flight test - and crash

[apollonorthamerica]

LOL. Helps to go through a checklist, especially when you are a paid test pilot :) Sorry couldn't resist. At least no one got hurt

[bluberrybuddy420]

next time drop the landing gear first!

[dsjm1]

The only pilot I ever knew who could fly the CC by the seat of his pants was Don Farrington. Sadly he (whilst acting as the chief test pilot for CC) died at an airshow in his own designed craft after a takeoff & what appeared to be a heart problem.

Don was certified an most types of aircraft. Of the new guys *when under real stress*, they tended to fly it as a fixed wing or a chopper by instinct, whereas Don Farrington seemed to be able to see it as both craft & take the right action.

[dsjm1]

The Cartercopter here was being demoed to high level military brass & the pilots (military trained guys) were so focused on putting on a good show that they completely overlooked the need to put the landing gear down then in the pressure of that realization forgot they could have pulled collective. It was to be a high speed touch n go.

The CC has 55lbs of depleted uranium in each rotor tip. Rotor inertia provides the energy for quick vertical lift. Landing an be at 24 ft/sec sink rate.

[andytheweb]

They didn't know the landing gear was up? ... and these people are paid money?

[mprime6807]

Say what you want. That thing survived remarkably well.

[winterka100]

Maybe at that speed he had too much lift on the wings to get the rotor to spin up for a gentle landing, but still not enough speed for the wings , causing a stall.(Landing in the transition period between rotor lift and wing lift).

[GayorgVonTrapp]

Did they make the Six Million Dollar Man out of the pilot after this incident?

[jpphoopha]

This accident was caused either by failure to develop standard operational procedures or failure to adhere to same. Landing procedures for retractable gear aircraft are not exactly a revolutionary development.

[airsoftmarxman]

firs of all its a[the] cartercopter second of all i heard and it might of said that it could hover for a little bit so it obviously could have landed but it would be hard

[airsoftmarxman]

its a helicopter land verticaly

[ox141jf]

@airsoftmarxman retard its a gyrocopter, no tail rota or power to main rotas... think before you comment

[airsoftmarxman]

its a helicopter len verticly

[ox141jf]

@airsoftmarxman @airsoftmarxman retard its a gyrocopter, no tail rota or power to main rotas... think before you comment

[Rakehelion]

Flight test pilot of the year, I'd say. Or not. lol

[ehelibuff73]

Ouch! I fly R/C and i've never seen a successful flight with a gyrocopter.

[Engineer245]

Looks like the only new concept here is the extra weight added to the rotorblade tips otherwise it is nothing more than a gyro copter. I saw a gyro copter with a powered rotor that was switched to idle mode back in the 60's so that is not new. He may have a patent on this concept but it is not new. The patent office must have not discovered the prior-art.

[Tecnobingo]

8 crash in 5 years? not a good rate, indeed :-)

I like best other gyros, safer of course: never crashed like this...

[SSGKV]

What kind of test pilot forgets to land with the gear down? I don't think that was a flare test. They tried to tell him, but the rate of descent was just too hot to recover. Crunch.

[SuperHoneycutt]

Ever hear of full flaps ?

[garymcleanuk]

@SuperHoneycutt Its a helicopter!!

[ox141jf]

@garymcleanuk @airsoftmarxman retard its a gyrocopter, no tail rota or power to main rotas... think before you comment 

[ox141jf]

@SuperHoneycutt  retard its a gyrocopter, no useable wings that why it has spinny thing on top...ever heard of a gyrocopter. Think before you comment

[1234coolman]

im only watching it because it says crash lol im glad there ok though

[philosofiza]

Far 2 complex imo - Keep it simple

[GutpileCharlie]

Yes, too much vertical speed. That would have had similar results one way or the other.

[Zooni2]

Well we know the pilot knows how to count. He is just very good on putting down the landing gear.

[mafuletrekkie]

Well there's your problem right there...

[pinewood189]

the run way was built to high

[brotherblonde]

@pinewood189 It's a bit lower now. :)

[haykodjan]

i think even with gear down he would crash anyway with this vertical speed

[hondarider1499]

My dad helped rebuild it but it didn't realy work out so I think they stoped mes'n with it

[xerocytesteve]

A very reliable crasher I see.....

[tappan48]

Check List. Check List. Oops

[explorateurdesairs]

I don't think they were planning to land. the pilot was simply too involved with the test and the data . The plane really well survived the crash.

[ripcurl010]

classic mistake no landing gear

[inagod]

why a test flight with gear up,it's just like texting and driving,you forget,he's giving them flight data ,instead of flying.thats why we have computers

[CorkyNM]

Umm,,, checklist?

[krb111662]

I'm just getting interesting in gyro copters. Well, I've been fascinated since I was a kid. But I'm looking to get into the sport. Real slow like, since I'm previewing crashes. This CarterCopter, though, looks well built to have sustained that hard landing. What do I know? I'm an outsider :)

[gustavo87467357]

wow it looks awesome!! is that already avaible in the market? anyone can info me?

[Postal67]

Amazing, hundreds have died to bring new aircraft to the world and thousands have died because of mistakes in aircraft design.

And yet you have the moron section making comments that are best assinine!

We would still be feeding a mule and fixing a cart with people like this around.

[ShootBigBird]

@Postal67

Unless of course a comment comes from 11 years of test flight experience on military helicopters.

Let me make my comments as clear as a bell; pilots who do not follow procedures or don't have procedures, especially when flying new aircraft types or conducting test flight operations, are dead men walking...should stick to simulators. These idiots included.

The only moronic comment I've seen posted is yours actually.

Give your mule a pat and a scratch for me.

[neuralwarp]

@ShootBigBird You don't have to be so rude about it!

[bfgray]

I love it when they focus on cams instead of safety and prudence. hehehehe  Looked like gear may not have helped decending that fast.

[luketorpedo]

@bfgray

The Carter Copter is supposed to have some clever shock absorbing system they've patented. Theres some good videos out there it being tested and taking some serious bang. Mind you, given its experimental nature I wouldn't be suprised if he did try and deploy it and it just didn't work this time, lol.

[ShootBigBird]

LOL, so much for test flight schedules.

[serger2010]

looks like a giro to me

[nipponhouseplayer]

Mechanics fault

[yekralleahcim]

Give it up idiot.

[soundofsoul1]

If you want to sell this gyrocopter send me an EMAIL lol

[kledder2]

Watching this video again had me thinking. I don't know how much force there was on the bottom area on the plane itself but the landing gear was originally designed to absorb (some) energy so maybe it would have mattered. There's no telling for me because I don't know anything about the landing gear and I don't have data on the flight. I think there is another video here on youtube that demonstrates the power that one of cartercopters landing gears can handle.

[VodkaFanClub]

There must have been a wind shear or lack of throttle (airspeed). Even with gear down it would have been ended up like this. Nice that no one was hurt, that's the most important!

[twitsru]

it should have a landing gear up warning device

[kledder2]

Do you really think that would have mattered?

[FlightLevelHeaded]

@twitsru It does, it's called common sense. The pilot's CS circuit breaker was pulled due to lack of activity.

[lexale]

comunque anche se avesse avuto il carrello giù, bucava l'asfalto uguale.... ha un'angolo di discesa errato..

[ripcurl010]

do we need landing gear then

[MrGhostwhowalks]

I'm nearly 30 years experienced in aviation & this idea in aviation has me more intrigued than any other. Anyone can miss gear - but take a look at how the aircraft survived this - imagine the same in ordinary rotor wing, or fixed wing (for those experienced).

[MrUniversus]

poor cartercopter... :(

[andressen]

Hello? It is stated that this was a test flight - the "plane" did not have his landing gear out and the motor shut down. Tis was a planned emergency landing during tests. If the test-pilot had a brown spot he'd probably be in the wrong job.

[leemnav]

If this was a "planned emergency landing" than the crew would not have shouted through the radio to "get up-get up" and "landing gear".

As for the "brown spot" ,I reckon it was more of a "brown runway than a spot".

[chueffer]

Luckily the ground was there to break his fall.

[dibbuck]

That's not funny! Don't you know ants died when that copter crashed on them!

[marsms222]

Despite what some people are saying, this is quite likely one of the safetest air vehicles...ever. In a helicopter, you have to fall from a significant height to go in to autorotation...same with most planes, if you plan on gliding them in. The Cartercopter can fall from basically any height in autorotation. This means you're virtually guaranteed to land relatively softly.

[dbmrhi]

Had to leave a brown spot in his shorts when that happened.

[mompidi]

levantá que arrastra

[kingair81r]

No wast intentional they were yelling gear up at the end.

[rreidnauer]

Actually, I believe it was an intentional crash. Gear up, way fast rapid decent even with gear down, engine still running, (pusher prop would be stopped if engine power was lost) and no typical flare (zero forward speed at touchdown) as common in gyrocopters.

Yup, I'm gonna say it was just part of the proving phase.

[datzfast]

its like the piolet is in a little safty pod

[gilliguts]

Well you know you have your landing gear up when it takes full throttle to taxi to the club house...

[FFTVAviation]

Well nice to know you can land it if the undercarriage is still up. Just a few scratches. Nothing a hammer can't fix...errr...

[NTW64]

Nice aircraft, the perfect safety video. I would now buy one.

[dustyleviz]

checklist anyone?

[tjtg]

Yep, helps if the gear is down. I am sure this test pilot will be invited back to try again.

[kakompo]

Truth. How can he forget a crucial thing like that? Not good .

[kaje01]

All of the previous test flights were done with landing gear that didn't retract. This was the first flight with retractable landing gear.

[kakompo]

ah I see... he must be used to the non-retractable craft. He simply forgot.

[EvlMagus]

Must have gotten the two checklist mixed up during the flight.

[ImTheMostViewed]

Well, at least now they now it can crash land...

[FlightLevelHeaded]

With that sink rate the oucome would have been the same with the gear down. ouch

[Graybear93]

@FlightLevelHeaded Not true. The landing gear has 2 dozen patents and is designed to handle 200 fps sink, - 12 G drop landings. it would have been a hard rolling landing- damage to prop, no structural damage to underside. Noteworthy that the un powered main rotor did NOT torque the airframe into a rollover crash over as a normal rotor-craft likely would have

[FlightLevelHeaded]

@Graybear93 200fps? That's 12000fpm! I don't think so. Sounds like your reading data off of the seat belts.

[neuralwarp]

@FlightLevelHeaded Nah, the landing gear is fantastic on this baby. It's one of the CarterCopter patents.

[PhuqueUTube3]

@FlightLevelHeaded The sink rate was well within the design specs for this aircraft. But those specs were with gear extended. LOL Even so, it looks like the damage was minimal for a gear-up landing in a conventional aircraft. Since this pilot error incident, the Cartercopter has accumulated many flight hours with no serious problems.

[Gazinbali]

What a dork.. with rotors you can get airspeed down to zero heading into the wind.. he could have put this baby down at 20 kts or less,

not hammer into the dirt... clown...!

[sdrfgvrfgvsfravgdsvS]

wow is the cartercopter!!!

[miketacoma5]

Can you say "checklist"?

[dbmrhi]

The very same thing that I was thinking-HAHAHAHA.

[efesair]

to be honest, it was the best thing that could happen during testing. best prove that the aircraft will sustain a crash landing. looked pretty good the design and after seeing this i am convinced it is a good design.

[gamr4life]

There's a saying about flying retractable gear aircraft . . .there are those pilots who have landed gear up and those who haven't--YET!

[rodmcintyre]

Completely agree !! Poor guy, I can imagine the sick feeling he woulda had 30 feet out realising it was too late to do anything 'cept ground it ! I have to say I have come **very** close to grounding gear up myself and sat on the grass green for 10 mins afterwards ! lol

[MattTheNerd]

LANDING FAIL!!

[mshekleton]

rookie mistake

[miketacoma5]

Even if the gear had been deployed, something would've broken. Hard landing.

[16sag7]

The pilot was to pre-occupied with flight data than flying the aircraft. The ground crew should have warned him sooner. I love this concept in an aircraft. The flexibility of a helicopter and the speed of a fixed wing platform.

[wolfekeeper]

Actually Cartercopter have world class undercarriage, it would have almost certainly have taken it without damage.

[tornadowilkes]

I bet he doesn't fly anymore... lol

[helicopteremergency]

Man, I LOVE that little Gyro. Please tell me you rebuilt it!!

[dzionis0]

hes forgot gera up what a lamo