Primarily for general aviation discussion, but other aviation topics are also welcome.
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By robert79
#1743905
A friend took me for a flight in his gyro a couple of years back.
It was an open cockpit thing, yellow, Magni or something?
It was quite good fun, very unusual feeling being sat on a seat with very little around you, so a proper sense of the ground dropping away on the take off and a good view.
Lots of vibration, including through the stick which I think would get tiring. Very noisy. Quite cold. Slow.
It was fun but I have no desire to learn to fly one myself. PIC let me have a go but was most insistent on no sudden stick movements, seems that it's possible to make Very Bad Things happen just by being a bit hamfisted on the controls, which also would put me off.
By cockney steve
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1743966
AIUI, a bunt can cut -short your pleasure (and life) Flexwings can be "whip-stalled" (similar to a bunt, in outcome)...the aircraft tumbles base over apex as it disintegrates :shock:
There's a Giro operating out of Barton and I'm saving pennies for a "trial flight)"

The "exposure" is imagined, rather than real. The fact is, both types of aircraft have a "pod" hanging from the lift-unit and whatever manoeuver the aircraft performs (within it's flight-envelope) the occupants are held securely in their seats by 1G or more :) You stand more chance of being ejected from some of the fairground rides! The Giro's climb-rate appears to be phenomenal -as extolled in the video,
Alas my numbers never all come up at once,so I just continue my voluntary contribution to "the dumb-tax" in the vain hope it strikes before lightning sees me off.
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By TyroGyro
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1744169
"Accidents"....

mostly pilot error: behind the power curve, over-rotation, general incompetence...

Although one, showing engine failure on climbout, left the pilot little option but to land on rocks - both the pilot and machine unscathed.

No fatalities in these, but lots of scrap-metal created.... [video must be opened in YouTube]


The same general picture, when you drill down....
http://gyroaccidents.blogspot.com/2016/ ... s.html?m=1

Gyros for a while seemed to positively attract headbangers: "I can jump in these cuties, and be James Bond..."

Of the 12 "accidents" depicted in the video, I reckon 9 of the pilots were clowns who should not have been flying at all.

I know that one was his second write-off of a gyro in the space of nine months.....
Last I heard, this individual was serving a 20-stretch in one of Her Majesty's Prisons for a caper involving fixed-wing that he no doubt had intended for the gyros, had he not destroyed them....
Last edited by TyroGyro on Fri Jan 31, 2020 11:14 pm, edited 13 times in total.
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By TyroGyro
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1744204
Ah, the joys of home-building....
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By TyroGyro
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1744232
Or, not such a good idea trying to save £10 by getting a cheapo bolt down at B&Q.

[actually happened, sadly failing at height...]
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By TyroGyro
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1745149
Some more thoughts on gyros...

A fairly old article, before the "modern generation"
https://www.kitplanes.com/gyroplane-safety/

A South African airline pilot's perspective, mentioning the "Big Three" Eurotubs at the end
http://mysite.mweb.co.za/residents/gpol ... e%201a.htm

Another old article on Autogyro History and Theory, from the early 2000s, before the Eurotubs.
https://www.jefflewis.net/autogyros.html

Back in the day....


Nowadays... land in the car park, catch the boat, take off from the road...
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By TheFarmer
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1745185
I simply don’t see the attraction to gyrocopters.

Yes, in the right hands they can land on a sixpence (their drivers always seem to feel the need to demonstrate this, thereby requiring lots of following fixed wing flyers to go around), but they take eleven times the length of Saunton Sands beach to get airborne, thereby completely negating their short field capabilities. :scratch:

They’re slow.

They’re ugly.

They make their drivers look like they want to fly a helicopter but can’t afford one.

They crash a lot. In fact, it’s probably safer to eat raw chicken off a Brighton city public toilet loo seat at 0700 hours on a Sunday morning than it is to fly one regularly.
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By Crash one
#1745188
I’m not convinced about the basic design of the later versions compared to Ken Wallis versions.
His were all about six feet high with 20 foot rotor diameters and look “longer coupled” than the current designs.
The Calidus is nine feet high with rotors 27 ft 6” dia.
This surely creates a bigger gyroscopic effect further away from the CofG?
Most accidents seem to be ground based roll overs.
Any comments??
By scottish_ppl
#1745190
Great Video :thumleft: Love the ferry sequence, just landing in the carpark, and driving on and off and along the road using their own power. No H&S propeller paranoia to be seen!
Impressive flying scenery too.
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By JAFO
#1745219
TyroGyro wrote:"Accidents"....mostly pilot error: behind the power curve, over-rotation, general incompetence...


I don't know much about gyros but even I watched that first one and thought "just stop, mate, that is not going well". Shows that even the best can get caught out (and the fifth video was of the best of the best) and get it wrong.
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By TyroGyro
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1745225
The full Ken Wallis accident...


Engine failure on downwind, low height. Bad Luck.

Ken was 70 when he had that accident. He flew gyros for another 26 years... picking-up his last world record at the age of 89.

A crime that he never got a Knighthood. Wing Commander Kenneth Horatio Wallis DSO MBE DEng CEng FRAeS PhD
The last of the great British genius-eccentrics...

Image
Image
....Video Link https://vimeo.com/73725698

and "The Legend of Reymerston"

Last edited by TyroGyro on Thu May 07, 2020 7:16 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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By TyroGyro
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1748068
New set of Royal Mail James Bond stamps, not forgetting....

Image
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By TyroGyro
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1767082
Spectacular Gyro crash in the Czech Republic. Pilot slightly injured....



Looks like another clown, this time trying to take off ACROSS the airfield....
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