North American Gyro yeah, I was wondering, those knees were really bent ...looked cramped. What about amt of "storage" capacity if you had a passenger?
+Dan NZ -- I'm 6' 5" and have been looking at the Calidus; you could gain front-seat legroom by sacrificing rear-seat legroom. My thought is to build it as a single-seater with baggage space behind the seat. The same would work on the Arrow-Copter.
+SeikiBrian Thanks for the reply, I was sort of thinking along the same lines, I suppose that for comfort the yoke or stick would need to be extended or moved aft by a few inches? I don't think that the COG would be affected too much?
+Dan NZ -- I have long arms as well as long legs so I might not need to move the stick, but doing so would be simple. I agree that the COG shouldn't be a problem; no more than pilots of different weights. The Arrow-Copter can handle front seat loads of 55kg to 115kg, and the rear seat has no minimum and a 115kg maximum.
Marvellous. Can afford 2 autogyros, but not a decent video camera. Were the double images due to the camera/cameraman, or were the gyros really vibrating so much that I was seeing double images ?
I believe it's the video camera and the conversion to RU-vid. Notice the waving at the beginning. I've had similar issues on videos uploaded to RU-vid. And no, the gyro,doesn't vibrate like that , it's very well balanced.
nice flying i saw one guy teaching and he said never to push forward on the stick but you clearly did. forcing a dive that was awesome! i want to fly at least one time in my life! you're living my dream :) your so lucky! i love the pre start system, can it be used to land at all?
That dive is not commanded by pushing forward on the stick and given that there is essentially no forward airspeed at that point (because he is in a “vertical” descent), it is not a low/zero/negative-G manoeuvre, it is simply a rotation of the aircraft in pitch. In a vertical descent, the nose is held up with the stick because it will want to dip of its own accord. Dipping the nose like that is accomplished by releasing the back-pressure on the stick and allowing the nose to drop - this builds airspeed to regain normal flight. The pre-rotator is a standard fixture on most modern gyros and no, they cannot be used to land. The purpose of a pre-rotator is to get the rotors moving prior to the ground-roll. Gyros without pre-rotators must be hand-started and then taxied with the rotors tilted backwards to bring them up to speed. With a pre-rotator, they can be spun up such that the ground-roll for take-off is enough to bring them all the way up to flying speed. Once the ground-roll begins, the pre-rotator is disengaged and the blades continue in autorotation until wheel-stop.
The modern gyro has a prerotating mechanical device. Pre rotating is help to achieve the neccessary speed of the none driven rotor for initial lift off from the ground..
I am confused. Some, on the internet, say that the top rotor is not driven by the engine; however, in this video,just before takeoff, the top rotor is spinning even though the plane is stationary. I thought the beauty of these planes was that they were safe because the top rotor turns on its own due to the forward movement of the plane, creating lift without using engine power. Can someone please explain how the top rotor functions?
Is there a specific reason gyro's all ways seem to have the primary pilot seat in front? Just wondering if you could have one configured so that you could fly solo from either seat.
also, I thought you weren't supposed to dip the nose down as it can put you into negative g's and lose rpm's in the top rotor. Or is this just something you keep an eye on and if the rpm's get low you pull up or give more power?
+David Cook -- The main reason is visibility; from the rear seat the front seat would partially block your view forward. You could design it with the rear seat higher than the front seat, the way a Cobra helicopter is, but that's not practical on very small gyros. Another reason is that by having the passenger seat in the rear, close to the mast, the center of gravity doesn't change much with or without a passenger.
+David Cook -- It's okay to lower the nose as long as you don't push the stick too far, too fast. As you said, you just need to maintain positive Gs. (In theory, you could fly at zero G, but the margin of error between zero and negative is too small to do so safely.)
The pilot position is for correct center of gravity. Note that the passenger sits very close to the aircraft's center of mass. Flying solo or with a passenger has small effect on the CG.
Yes. Rotors on many (or even most) modern gyros are usually spun up with something known as a pre-rotator. This eliminates the need to spin them up by hand and then taxi along with the rotors tilted backwards to bring them up to flying-speed. As the ground-roll for takeoff begins, the pre-rotator is released and from that moment until wheel-stop, the rotors are in autorotation.
It's a bit of a simplification, but essentially autogyros don't stall. At very low forward speeds the rotor will maintain RPMs by losing altitude, but the rotor is still "flying" as you descend. According to the Arrow-Copter POH, the minimum speed to maintain level flight is 50 km/h / 27 kts. However the craft is still controllable (Vmc) at 35 km/h / 19 kts with power off, and 0/0 with power on. (The propwash over the rudder provides control authority at zero airspeed.)
beautiful aircraft and obviously skilled experienced pilot. sure hope inexperienced rotorcraft pilots do not attempt to duplicate his showboating though.
I have a question that I'm hoping some knowledgeable person might be able to answer. Q: pound for pound, horsepower for horsepower which is most efficient, a gyro or a fixed wing aircraft? My instinct tells me that fixed wing would be and if this is true then why fly a gyro? If not...
+Dan NZ -- Yes, a fixed-wing aircraft is more efficient; generally, a similarly-sized fixed-wing airplane with the same horsepower can fly faster and higher than the equivalent gyro. The reasons to fly gyros are numerous, and include better ability to handle gusts, due to higher airfoil loading; ability to fly at slower speeds without stalling; extreme short field capability; etc.
+SeikiBrian And an Auto Gyrocopter looks like it would be more fun to fly. I hold a Commercial Fixed Wing Licence and also a LTA licence. 25 years ago when I was doing my flight training and in my spare time I used to help a guy who had a hanger on the airfield sculpt and make molds for futuristic looking gyros, he always said I could have a fly of one but this never did happen.
Only caveat might be Jay Carter's Cartercopter. It uses a bunch of tech to unload the rotors at cruise & switch to fixed-wing flight, but with a tiny main wing it can get better efficiency than a fixed-wing designed to be able to take off & land conventionally. He's pushing the envelope though, and so far only Proof of Concept aircraft have been built.
How do you define efficient? Short take offs and Landings? Faster for a given horsepower? Fuel consumption over a given distance? Useful load ? Ability to not stall or to stall ? Vertical decent with no power, and live to tell about it? They are different, with each having positives and negatives.
Dear Ron. Yes I see what you mean and I suppose that I should have phrased my question more carefully. I guess that I was asking about the cost per mile/pound or kilometer/kilo of a gyro as opposed to a fixed wing aircraft of approximately the same AUW, or, how does a rotor compare with a fixed wing in its lifting ability when both are operating within their optimal performance range? I'm not sure if I have even now explained my question very well in the above and I do realize that gyrocopters and fixed wing aircraft are quite different beasts and that there are trade-offs according to what performance and flight characteristics are desired. I was simply wondering what penalty if any a gyro pays for its unique flight characteristics. Thanks Dan
Is this Jacob Rees-Mogg in his younger days? j/k Gyros weren't invented when JRM was that old... First take-off was too steep and the fascination with tempting accidents near the ground will bite one day. A Gyro is not a sports machine, it's a viewing platform that is cheap, easy to learn and fly. Is the pilot still with us?
Nice video but I had to stop watching it about halfway through. The wind noise was too distracting. Next time use a microphone wind cover to stop all that wind noise.
