Return to the incident list: Incident List Powerplant/Equipment Malfunction PPG Type: Type of Injury:

Pilot Details

Age: 0 Weight: 0 Gender: Highest rating held at the time of the incident: Pilot experience level:

Gear Details

Wing Brand: Model: Skybike L (XIX Art 26) DHV 1/2 Size: Paramotor Frame: Walkerjet Superhawk with

Incident Details

January 1, 2006 Location of the incident: , Type of Incident:

This was the third flight of the day. The first two had been an out-and-back short cross country of about 5 miles each way over heavily forested terrain with occasional small fields, with a half hour stop in a farm field where the landowner served me lemonade, VERY welcome on a hot day! Near the end of the third flight (a low level flight along the coastline), I was approaching the airport for a low pass, intending to then go around, circle, and land. At approximately 100′ altitude over the trees north of the airport, I increased power slightly to shallow out my glide when I heard and felt a bang. The engine raced and I immediately shut it off, continued the approach, and made a normal landing without further incident. Once on the ground it was discovered that the propeller shaft had failed, resulting in the loss of the propeller, drive belt, pulley, and bearing. There was a minor dent in the cage where the prop struck it and some of the netting was trashed. A witness saw the prop come off but it was never found in the swamp and thick brush where it fell.

Inspection of the broken shaft indicated that it had apparently cracked some time previously, probably due to stress concentration and fatigue, and finally let go at this point. There had been some unusual vibration at certain rpm’s for the past several flights, but after inspection I couldn’t find anything wrong so I continued to fly. I have since replaced the broken aluminum shaft with a new one made from aircraft grade 4130 steel.

Lesson learned: If anything is wrong or even “different” about your equipment, DO NOT FLY until you find out what it is! I was lucky, with the failure happening within gliding distance of the airport, but if it had happened over the forest or over the water things could have been much uglier.

Flight Window: Wind Speed: Type: Phase of Flight: Type of Injury: Collateral Damage: Analysis of the incident (additional input by the incident investigation team): Photos (if available):

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