sad to report, James Lee got killed flying his Helicycle today.

David Mccutchen report it on face book, I I.M.ed him and he told me Witness/friend of his stated he pitched nose down and hit a tree. Then patched the ground and burst into Flames.

So sad to hear. James was a nice guy. he almost bought my Commuter when I had it for sale but was concerned about his weight.

man I truely hate to hear this, I was having such a good day until I heard this news tonight, in shock. he will be missed.

here is what a news report said.

GALLATIN, Tenn. – The pilot killed in a helicopter crash in Sumner County Sunday has been identified.

The Sumner County Sheriff confirms 61-year-old James E. Lee of Gallatin died when his Helicycle went down. An Helicycle is a small, single seat ultralight helicopter.

The sheriff said Lee had just flown out to a friend's house to do a fly-by, say hello and then fly back into Gallatin. He said Lee flew around Gallatin often.

The crash was reported around 3:20 p.m. on Douglas Lane at Flynn Road.

Sumner County 911 received a call that a small helicopter had gone down in a resident’s front yard and burst into flames.

Neighbors knew something was wrong when they heard sirens.

"I start hearing them coming closer and I thought someone's house is on fire or my neighbor has had a heart attack, or something's going on," said Marilyn Hahn.

Other neighbors rushed to help with a fire extinguisher but it was too late.

The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the crash.

What terrible news ..... condolences to his family and friends.....

Prayers sent.....

.

That is terrible .... we were all so excited he was finally flying his Helicycle

A couple of days ago he said he had slipping belts (trans oil leak) and he was waiting for Doug S. to come and fine tune everything

Maybe he had belt slippage on takeoff that over-sped the turbine and triggered the RPM limiter and shut the fuel off

Stan had something similar happen ... he knows more than I do .... just trying to figure out what went wrong.

Also a powerline in that part of the yard

It is sad news .... I know some of you were personal friends of his. ... condolences.

edit:

One picture shows it at the base of a power pole and some wire on the ground beside the machine ...
Not that it makes it any easier , but a wirestrike may explain it.

This is so sad. James was having the.time of his life. He called me often, and just two days ago I dialed his number by accident. It was a coincidence I am sure, but I know he is in a better place.

Prayers to his family and friends.

Arnie- What had happened to me is that I accidently ran some fuel on my drive belts. Knowing they would be slick, I cleaned them with alcohol. When I started engaging the belts, they grabbed real hard and one belt flew off before the rotor had only reached 100 rpm.

Arnie..I agree that my feeling is his skids "could" have hooked into that powerline. It would explain the sudden nose down that was reported. Just speculation of course.

well the witness said he hit the tree, I am thinking from the untrained eye, when the helicycle does a Running take off the nose dose drop to a pretty good angle. I am wondering if he was just doing a running take off, maybe watching the gauges and just did not see how close he was to the tree. from the pic I saw it looked like a pretty big open field. I am also wondering if belt slippage may not have been a factor.

I just so hope he was knocked out by the impact and did not suffer from the Fire.

James was a nice guy and he is going to be missed by many.

we may never really know what happened, as well unless someone tells the FAA about his leaking trans, they would not even look at something like that as we know the belts had to have been burned up in the fire.

I am really in shock and hate he did not get to enjoy his machine longer.

NTSB Identification: ERA14FA461
14 CFR Part 91: General Aviation
Accident occurred Sunday, September 28, 2014 in Gallatin, TN
Aircraft: EAGLE R&D INC HELICYCLE, registration: N7062U
Injuries: 1 Fatal.

This is preliminary information, subject to change, and may contain errors. Any errors in this report will be corrected when the final report has been completed. NTSB investigators either traveled in support of this investigation or conducted a significant amount of investigative work without any travel, and used data obtained from various sources to prepare this aircraft accident report.

On September 28, 2014, about 1520 central daylight time, an experimental amateur built Eagle R & D Helicycle helicopter; N7062U, was substantially damaged when it impacted terrain after a loss of control while maneuvering in Gallatin, Tennessee. The private pilot was fatally injured. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed, and no flight plan was filed for the personal flight conducted under Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 91, destined for Sumner County Regional Airport (M33), Gallatin, Tennessee.

According to a friend of the pilot, the pilot had departed M33 earlier in the day and had flown out to his property to visit with him. The landing was uneventful, and while the pilot was there he borrowed some tools from the property owner and increased the tension on the drive belts.

Later on he started the helicopter and took off and departed to the southwest. The property owner assumed at this point that the pilot was heading back to M33 but, a little while later he observed the helicopter coming toward him in a nose low attitude, at approximately 400 feet above ground level, and at a "high rate of speed." The helicopter then suddenly pitched over, began to tumble, and then impacted in an inverted attitude, and a postcrash fire ensued.

Examination of the accident site and wreckage revealed that during the impact sequence the helicopter first made ground contact with the forward portion of the cockpit. It then tumbled along the ground on an approximate magnetic heading of 030 degrees for approximately 90 feet before coming to rest on its left side.

Examination of the engine revealed no evidence of preimpact failure or malfunction that would have precluded normal operation of the engine.

Examination of the helicopter's structure and flight control system also did not reveal evidence of any preimpact failures or malfunctions which would have precluded normal operation of the flight control system. During the examination however, a piece of angle iron was discovered in the debris field along with numerous broken cable ties.

According to the property owner, he observed that the piece of angle iron was attached to the helicopter when the pilot landed and took off from his property and advised that the pilot had attached it to the helicopter's tail boom for weight and balance purposes.

Preliminary review of weight and balance data supplied by the kit manufacturer indicated that the center of gravity of the helicopter was dependent on the pilot's weight, installed position of the battery, and position and weight of any ballast installed.

Preliminary calculations based on the supplied weight and balance data, weight of the pilot, and weight and position of where the angle iron was observed to have been mounted on the helicopter's tailboom, indicated that the helicopter's center of gravity was outside of the manufacturer's approved envelope.

The pilot held a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) private pilot certificate with a rating for airplane single-engine land. He did not possess a rotorcraft helicopter rating or an endorsement for solo flight in a helicopter. His most recent FAA third-class medical certificate was issued on August 19, 2014. He reported on that date, that he had accrued approximately 1,200 total flight hours.

According to FAA records, the helicopter was issued a special airworthiness certificate on October 6, 2008. According to aircraft maintenance records, the helicopter's most recent conditional inspection was completed on May 5, 2011. At the time of accident, the helicopter had accrued approximately 51 total hours of operation.

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It makes me mad that he was even flying it, with it not even having been inspected since 2011. even my Commuter I kept inspected up until the day I took it apart. I also thought he had soloed the R-22.


here is a prime example of why you can not cut corners when it comes to helicopters and gyros.
I really hate this as I had known James for many years. when I was building my Falcon, he had E-mailed me several pics of his Engine on his gyro and things he had made for it. he was a good man and I hate he died .

Please guys, don't cut corners and if you are working with an old machine thats been sitting awhile, please get it inspected, I know when I restored my commuter, the First inspection, the A&P found a bunch of little things that he had me do over. in the end he charged me $400.00 for the Inspection, and Honestly I think it was the best $400.00 spent.

R.I.P. James.