A gyrocopter that crashed into a canal near Selby probably still had its rotor brake on, an air accident investigation has found.

The aircraft conducted a ‘forced landing into a canal’ shortly after taking off from Great Heck Airstrip just after 2pm on September 15 last year.

The pilot was unhurt, after managing to scramble to safety through the passenger-side door as the gyrocopter sank. There were no passengers.

“Shortly after takeoff, the gyrocopter lost performance and, from a low height, started to descend,” a report by the Air Accidents Investigation Branch says.

“The pilot manoeuvred away from a line of trees and conducted a forced landing in a nearby canal.

“The pilot considers that distraction had led him to leave the rotor brake applied and was the cause of the reduction in performance.”

The report says that the pilot, who was experienced with gyrocopters, had been about to take off from the airstrip when he realised he had forgotten his pen and suncap.

“He shut down the engine, applied the rotor brake, and exited the gyrocopter to get them,” the report says.

“When he re-entered the gyrocopter, he restarted the engine and later remarked that it took "an unusually long time" to pre-rotate the rotor to takeoff rpm, but he did not think about it further at the time.”

The pilot took off and the gyrocopter climbed away, before then starting to descend as it flew towards a canal which ran perpendicular to the end of the runway.

“The pilot reported being startled by the descent and, as he could not fly over a line of trees ahead of him and there was a railway line to his left, he turned right to fly into wind along the canal,” the air accident report says.

“The canal banks were too narrow to land on without striking foliage, so the pilot decided to ditch in the canal. The main rotor struck the canal bank and detached during the ditching.

“The aircraft sank but the pilot escaped via the passenger door as the pilot’s door was wedged against the canal bank.”

The report says that ‘with hindsight’ the pilot believes he must have left the rotor brake applied when he re-entered the aircraft after getting his pen and sun cap.

“He said that had he re-started his checklist from the beginning, he would have remembered to check that the rotor brake was disengaged before pre-rotating the rotor.”

The report concludes that the pilot was lucky to have escaped uninjured.

“Performing checklists without interruption is important on all aircraft types,” it says.

“In this case, the interruption caused by needing to exit the aircraft probably resulted in the rotor brake being left applied.

“As the rotor brake warmed up due to friction, it would have become more effective, and this led to the loss of performance and resulting forced landing.

“Given that there was a railway line to his left and a tree line ahead, the pilot had limited options available to him and it was fortunate that he was able to exit the aircraft uninjured after it sank in the canal.”