May 3, 2013 - On Monday, William “Scott” Adair,
58 of Palm Bay, Florida was killed on impact
when his 582 Dominator gyrocopter, N85KY crashed into
a parked Cessna 172 on the ramp at Valkaria Airport in Brevard
County, Florida.
A gyrocopter is an autogyro also known as
gyroplane,
rotorcraft,
or rotaplane. It is a type of rotorcraft which
uses an unpowered rotor in autorotation to
develop lift, and an engine-powered propeller.
While similar to a helicopter rotor in
appearance, the autogyro's rotor must have air
flowing through the rotor disc to generate
rotation.
Although Adair was an experienced power
paraglider pilot he was not an experienced gyrocopter pilot
and this was is first solo flight.
According to witnesses Adair was performing
flight maneuvers in a single seat gyrocopter
just before 8 AM. However, witnesses report that
just before the crash Adair was having
difficulty controlling the aircraft.
Don Walker a Brevard County spokesperson said
Adair was well known and liked at the airport. Adair
enjoyed flying both foot-launch and trike paragliders
in which he was well experienced at.
For those not familiar with the term trike, it is
a propeller powered glider with a three wheeled
undercarriage, a four wheel setup would be
called a quad. Foot paragliders would be an engine backpack
mounted on the pilots back with some form of
parachute.
Adair started a company in 2006, called
Time2Fly, LLC which is a Florida company that
offered Powered Paragliding flight training for
both trike and foot launch. Time2Fly was based
out of Valkaria Airport (X59) in Brevard County,
Florida. Adair was principal owner and he was a
USPPA certified instructor. He also held an FAA
Sport Pilot and Repairman's certificate.
Adair received an FAA Sport Pilot Certificate with limitations of Sport
Endorsement(S) Powered Parachute Land and a
logbook gyro endorsement.
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