Michael Hille Posted August 27, 2019 Share Posted August 27, 2019 A ride in a brand new gyro, very impressed 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lucky01 Posted September 6, 2019 Share Posted September 6, 2019 Looks amazing 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spacesailor Posted September 6, 2019 Share Posted September 6, 2019 Back in "the old days" A club in Sydney's Easterncreek/Badgery's creek area, had a Gyro-glider. They would tow the pupil & instructor around the big paddock with a Ford, to acquaint learner with controlling the rotors. I would have taken it further. But for an instructor having me on, saying $4000 an hour for training, I would have started flying there & then. spacesailor 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Hille Posted September 6, 2019 Author Share Posted September 6, 2019 Wow that does sound very antiquated haha the last gyro I saw flying before this was a seat out in the open , very bare , this thing has all the bells and whistles Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Hille Posted September 6, 2019 Author Share Posted September 6, 2019 It was definitely an awesome experience! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ClintonB Posted October 10, 2019 Share Posted October 10, 2019 I found the zero forward airspeed when trimming back all the way a bit unsettling at first. It was an interesting ride though. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Hille Posted October 10, 2019 Author Share Posted October 10, 2019 Yeah it really is a different experience . The control inputs felt positive and the whole machine felt solid Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spacesailor Posted October 10, 2019 Share Posted October 10, 2019 "antiquated" Like this, First Aussie club for me. spacesailer 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
planedriver Posted October 25, 2019 Share Posted October 25, 2019 Sound like me spacesailor. I was Schoies member 139. Never flew out of Schoies though, normally due to weather. I did my bit from Bankstown on weekdays with Mark always wears a hat and long skarf (forget his surname) after geriatric Airways had transferred aircraft to Bankstown for weekday op's. Still have occasional contact with Val Leslie who ran the club mag and was secretary to Ian Honnery who organised the air shows.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bexrbetter Posted October 25, 2019 Share Posted October 25, 2019 Surprising amount of accidents in Gyros, you would think they were crashproof due to their design, idiot pilots aside. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
turboplanner Posted October 25, 2019 Share Posted October 25, 2019 Surprising amount of accidents in Gyros, you would think they were crashproof due to their design, idiot pilots aside. The early ones (1950's Benson and Australian Bee) had no roll control, and many were towed, so you would climb up on a thermal and slide down the side to your death. It never occurred to the untrained pilot to apply rudder and glide down. The rotor originally was wound up on the ground by agricultural means such as by hand, and in many cases may have been too slow for flight. A recent thread on here indicated instructions were very complex for the pilot and particularly centred around having to monitor rotor speed, and what that had to be for specific tasks, and that would all be hard for a low hour pilot. Then there was the low flying excitement......... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spacesailor Posted October 26, 2019 Share Posted October 26, 2019 LOW FLIGHING. Playing tag, in & under the trees . spacesailor Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Koreelah Posted October 26, 2019 Share Posted October 26, 2019 The early ones (1950's Benson and Australian Bee) had no roll control... In 1973 I saw my first Gyro; I believe it was a Benson. Very minimal, just three magnesium (?) SHS cross members, a seat and simple rotor head controlled by a down-stick. It was being assembled in our garage in Waverton, which we had sublet to this Navajo bloke who had been in the movies. His plan was to make a doco as he became the first to fly one across the Tasman. He reckoned he could refuel in flight from underneath. He got as far as testing it at Bankstown by tethering it in a strong breeze, but I lost contact after that. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bexrbetter Posted October 26, 2019 Share Posted October 26, 2019 I have little knowledge on the subject, but it would seem to me that a tractor setup supplies the air flow required to excite the autgyro blades, even looks like a lot of fun .. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bexrbetter Posted October 26, 2019 Share Posted October 26, 2019 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
planedriver Posted December 19, 2019 Share Posted December 19, 2019 "antiquated" [ATTACH]41685[/ATTACH] Like this, First Aussie club for me. spacesailer I've still got the tie. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bruce Tuncks Posted February 11, 2020 Share Posted February 11, 2020 I always thought Kit Carson was a cowboy, now I know he was actually the manager of Schofields. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
onetrack Posted February 11, 2020 Share Posted February 11, 2020 Gyrocopters feature as the aircraft with highest fatality rate (per million hrs flown), for any flying machine. I'm not sure why that would be - in theory, they should be as safe as any other recreational aircraft. But I suspect that the "cowboy" style of aviator gravitates towards gyrocopters, and that many gyro pilots fail to get a good grasp on the principles (and limits) of gyrocopter operation. I also suspect that many gyros are too lightly built, in areas that can be easily overstressed - such as the mast and rotor area. https://www.atsb.gov.au/media/5773880/ar-2017-104_final.pdf Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
facthunter Posted February 12, 2020 Share Posted February 12, 2020 Some had design faults that made them unsafe. from a pitch? control point of view. In the early days fatigue failure of rotors etc was a common occurrence. Any rotating wing??? travelling in a horizontal plane has fluctuating air speed on the rotor blades causing them to bend in flight cycling each revolution. They are also subject to bending due gusts etc and landing inertia loads. All OK if designed appropriately and inspected as needed. A gyro should be impossible to have the rotor underspeed in the air. They seem to be able to fly in rough conditions that normal U/L's have difficulty with and use a bit more fuel for payload/km than other flying machines. . They've been around for a long time. Nev Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
turboplanner Posted February 12, 2020 Share Posted February 12, 2020 The ones with no roll control killed a lot of people, partly because they were sold on the basis that you could assemble them in a shed and anyone could fly them because you couldn’t crash them because if the engine failed the gyro just freewheeled down (this was 25 years before the 1974 Trade Practices Act). The idea was that if the gyro started to roll you turned into the roll with rudder and pushed the control out to stop descent, but for someone with zero hours this wasn’t easy to comprehend, and most reports indicated the gyro slid in sideways from about 50 feet. As far as today’s gyros are concerned there are some excellent posts explaining how you need to fly the aircraft to keep rotor speed up. Can’t remember what the name of the thread was but it was in the last six months. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kgwilson Posted February 12, 2020 Share Posted February 12, 2020 Modern factory manufactured Gyros are safe and reliable in good hands and when maintained properly. There does seem to be a tendency for them to be abused by "Cowboys" who flaunt the rules and cause problems for those who try to do the right thing. We had the Gyro nationals at our aerodrome a few years ago. There was some pretty dodgy flying by some & a few hard landings in competition. They had a spot landing comp & it became pretty clear that many pilots do not practice power off landings. The complaints we have had regarding gyros is low flying over private property, accusations of perving etc & failure to adhere to circuit procedures. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now