An 83-year-old woman from Napoleon Township in Jackson County died in a gyroplane crash Saturday on a private airstrip on her property, according to Napoleon Township Police, about 13 years after surviving another crash in an amateur-built aircraft.
The Federal Aviation Administration, the National Transportation Safety Board and the Napoleon Township Police Department are now investigating the crash that killed Karol Kay DeGraw, the sole occupant of the small aircraft when the accident occurred, police said.
DeGraw was last seen departing from the private airstrip. Her intended destination was unknown, police said.
A gyroplane is also known as a gyrocopter because it uses an unpowered rotor to supply lift and an engine-powered propeller to provide forward thrust.
Napoleon Township Police Captain Chris Jacobson confirmed Karol Kay DeGraw's husband as Richard "Dick" DeGraw, an inductee of the Michigan Motor Sports Hall of Fame for his innovative plane building that started in the late 1970s. The hall of fame, a nonprofit founded in 1980, is dedicated to honoring individuals and groups who have excelled in all types of motor sports in Michigan.
Dick's award-winning aircraft builds include an RV-6 low wing plane for his wife and a helicopter called “the Humming Bird," which had counter rotating blades to eliminate the need for a tail rotor, earning him recognition as a proficient helicopter designer, according to his Michigan Motor Sports Hall of Fame biography.
"Dick is known worldwide" as the guru "on gyrocopter designs and safety features incorporated into his aircraft gyrocopter," according to the biography. "In his small machine shop this humble soft spoken man turns out amazing innovations."
There are several videos of Dick DeGraw's unique gyroplanes in action on YouTube, including one featuring Karol flying a gyroplane made by her husband.
"My gyro is so unique with the jump takeoff. I'm a very lucky person that my husband made one for me," Karol told an interviewer from Aero-TV in a video from 2010.
Karol was also piloting an aircraft built by her husband, identified as a 1,200-pound Degraw Rhino II gyroplane, on takeoff from a private airstrip when it crashed in July 2011. The plane, which was built that same year, had "substantial damage," according to the National Transportation Safety Board's final report, while Karol sustained "serious" but undefined injuries in the crash. An MLive story indicated she was taken to a hospital for treatment.
The NTSB, after examining the plane and hearing testimony from Dick DeGraw, determined there was no problem with the aircraft's engine or airframe and that the probable cause in the accident was that the "pilot did not maintain adequate airspeed during the initial climb, which resulted in an aerodynamic stall."
@bykaleahall
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