Sun Sep 30, 2012 6:21 pm
#1104171
I broadly agree with you - the fatal accident rate for gyros in the UK is about an order of magnitude worse than any other form of recreational aviation.
I don't believe that gyros are fundamentally unsafe any more than flexwings, gliders, or any other form of aeroplane are. My feeling is that the problem is one of critical mass.
Take microlights for example - there are around 4,000 airframes in the UK, and a proportional number of pilots. A microlight pilot is a member of a club where there are likely to be a dozen or more other aeroplanes, 20+ other pilots, and he'll probably know of a reasonably nearby microlight school if he needs any training. If he needs his permit done he has a choice of a couple of hundred inspectors, and a couple of hundred check pilots across the country to do that for him. And so on - extend into gliding, certified GA, you name it. And with that sort of critical mass, there are plenty of people comparing notes on good design, good maintenance practice, good flying practice, and so-on.
The problem, in my opinion, with gyros is that with such a tiny community - a small and poorly resourced association, a couple of hundred airframes, a similar number of pilots, a tiny number of schools, inspectors and instructors: as well as usually only a couple of similar aircraft in any individual club - there hasn't been the tendency to sort out the problems that do exist, properly. So whilst in theory gyros are much older than, say, flexwings - in practice the aircraft and the community behind it are much less mature. And so they are still having the sort of mistakes and accident rates that we associated with microlights in the early 1980s.
How to solve it? In my opinion it's all about communications. The BRA needs to be much more aggressive about safety, the community need to be a bit less maverick and a lot more joined up, and with time the community as a whole will find and fix the fundamental safety issues in the way that aeroplanes did in the 30s, gliders in the 50s and microlights in the 80s.
Will that happen? To be honest, I doubt it. I don't detect the will, or the growth that would make it possible.
G
I don't believe that gyros are fundamentally unsafe any more than flexwings, gliders, or any other form of aeroplane are. My feeling is that the problem is one of critical mass.
Take microlights for example - there are around 4,000 airframes in the UK, and a proportional number of pilots. A microlight pilot is a member of a club where there are likely to be a dozen or more other aeroplanes, 20+ other pilots, and he'll probably know of a reasonably nearby microlight school if he needs any training. If he needs his permit done he has a choice of a couple of hundred inspectors, and a couple of hundred check pilots across the country to do that for him. And so on - extend into gliding, certified GA, you name it. And with that sort of critical mass, there are plenty of people comparing notes on good design, good maintenance practice, good flying practice, and so-on.
The problem, in my opinion, with gyros is that with such a tiny community - a small and poorly resourced association, a couple of hundred airframes, a similar number of pilots, a tiny number of schools, inspectors and instructors: as well as usually only a couple of similar aircraft in any individual club - there hasn't been the tendency to sort out the problems that do exist, properly. So whilst in theory gyros are much older than, say, flexwings - in practice the aircraft and the community behind it are much less mature. And so they are still having the sort of mistakes and accident rates that we associated with microlights in the early 1980s.
How to solve it? In my opinion it's all about communications. The BRA needs to be much more aggressive about safety, the community need to be a bit less maverick and a lot more joined up, and with time the community as a whole will find and fix the fundamental safety issues in the way that aeroplanes did in the 30s, gliders in the 50s and microlights in the 80s.
Will that happen? To be honest, I doubt it. I don't detect the will, or the growth that would make it possible.
G
I am Spartacus, and so is my co-pilot.