Fiery Dannevirke gyrocopter crash: 'It just fell out of the sky'

The burnt out gyrocopter which crashed into a farmer's paddock at the southern end of the Dannevirke Aerodrome. The pilot is in Hutt Hospital's burns unit for for treatment. Photo / Supplied

A Tauranga gyrocopter pilot is in Hutt Hospital after suffering burns when his machine crashed in a farmer's paddock next to the Dannevirke Aerodrome runway on Friday night.

The Dannevirke News has been told the gyrocopter the man was flying "just fell out of the sky", and burst into flames when it hit the ground at around 7.30pm Friday.

"He was lucky he got his seatbelt undone and was out of the gyrocopter as quickly as he could," a witness said.

The pilot suffered burns and was taken to Palmerston North Hospital by the Palmerston North Rescue Helicopter with serious injuries, before being transferred to Hutt Hospital's burns unit.

The gyrocopter was one of 19 based at the Dannevirke Aerodrome for the traditional Auckland Anniversary weekend get-together.

Seven were from Tauranga, some from the South Island, others from Hamilton, including Neil Hintz, who was keen to fly his home-built gyrocopter.

Hintz said the wind didn't ruin the weekend.

"I managed to get up in the air for an hour on Saturday night and again on Sunday night."

Hintz owns gyrocopter manufacturing company Autoflight, but is particularly proud of his latest machine, which he built in his backyard.

"It's a new design and performs pretty well," he said. "I will ultimately produce a run of this model, but at the moment it's just a prototype."

With just 11 hours flying solo in his machine, Hintz did admit it's still a little nerve-wracking taking to the skies and he wasn't up for a lunch-time fly to Athol Sowry's Woodville field on Sunday with four or five other experienced pilots.

"But it's awesome flying these machines," he said. "It's the true seat in the sky, imagine riding on a broomstick, this is it."

Hintz flies mainly at Galatea and was at 1500ft recently and said it was a beautiful moment, with his home-built engine "purring."

"I've flown heavier, two-seater machines, but this is so much more nimble, it's like flying a sports car," he said.

In 2011 Hintz's friend and experienced gyrocopter pilot Grant Simpson died instantly when his machine plummeted to the ground, north of Kaitaia.