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Heard a news flash that a gyro went swimming near Noosa, 2POB,
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It was actually a trike, the news reader correctly called it a trike, but the writing on the screen still had "gyrocopter" referring to it..... Evidently, the trike suffered some sort of "mechanical fault" (ie: engine failure) and landed in a lake.... the pilot and his son were rescued by boaties without injury and the rescue chopper pulled the machine out of the lake.... folded up a bit, but didn"t look badly damaged as such.No one was hurt, which is always a good outcome, but I find it very annoying that if any small aircraft has a mishap, it is often first spouted to be a gyro. It is frustrating that the public keeps getting told that gyros are dangerous and crashing all of the time, when the number of accidents involving gyros has really declined to miniscule numbers since ASRA and gyro owners have all worked long and hard to successfully improve training and quality of gyros across the board....
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You are quite right Muz, frustrating when the news cant get the machine correctly identified, police are nearly as bad despite ASRA making representations to police so that they know what a gyro actually looks like !!You raise a very good point, the accident / incident rate when you consider the gig distances been flown very regularly now has been pretty good !! Only the other day 1 Cavalon & another gyro, quite possibly another Cavalon flew from the coastal area out to Mungo & back plus Rick
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Yeah Chopper, on the news they had on the screen "gyrocopter crash" as the helicopter pilot was radioing that he had the "gyrocopter" and was taking it to the airfield on a sling. So, obviously he thought it was a gyro and prolly gave the reporters that idea. However, it was obviously a trike, not a gyro, the accident happened at 730am but the news report was at 6pm.... plenty of time for the reporter (if they had cared) to correct the mistake..... The news reader and subsequent reporter on camera had corrected it to trike, but the graphic still said gyro. Of course, I had people phone to see if it was someone I know and to remind me how dangerous gyros are
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There"s so much ignorance out there. So many people call a "death Dart" a gyro. I"ve had many people ask me if the starter motor up top drives the rotors full time. Even a helicopter pilot once asked that question. I knew how a gyro basically flew when I was about 10. We need to educate the sheep masses. Baaar Baaar.
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The sheeps are very aware of what a gyro looks like ...or sounds like here Max, ........just got to work on all the rest !
Actually, it is getting better but still too many people are so very ignorant & that little starter motor up on the head brings a lot of people who you would think as fairly smart, undone very quickly
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Had another today that was reported as a gyrocopter crash but turned out to be a trike....
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Personally I think Trikes (Death Darts) should never have evolved beyond a harness flying hang glider. A lot of people will disagree of course. A bit like the Quad bike should have stayed as a low C of G buggy with a roll bar. :"( There would be a lot more people alive today.
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Personally I think Trikes (Death Darts) should never have evolved beyond a harness flying hang glider. A lot of people will disagree of course. A bit like the Quad bike should have stayed as a low C of G buggy with a roll bar. :"( There would be a lot more people alive today.At least they got rid of the 3 wheelers Max...Aussie Paul.
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C"mon Paul... the 3 wheelers were fun.... bring back the van van I reckon
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Never rode a 3 wheeler but done a bit on 4 wheelers. To be fair to quads, if the instructions plainly stuck all over the thing were followed, there would be perhaps a third of the accidents we now have. First big one is kids on full size machines.........would you put a kid in a gyro to taxi around ? There are a lot of grand parents walking around out there who all say the same thing ....I didnt know........What, couldnt read ! >
> > >Second one is alchol, so many times the deceased or paraplegic has firstly had way too much to drink & then gets on a 4 wheeler to show everyone how good a stunt rider he is !Third one is rider just pushing way too hard on a mongrel 4 wheeler, they might all look the same but thats the end of story. Some have little to no suspension so hitting a bit of a hole will have the thing tipping over quite quickly or just going too quick & turning will see the same resultsWe have a polaris & its so much safer than the other 4 wheelers I have ridden plus its got proper tyres that make the 4 wheeler handle so much better.Used sensibly, the toll would be a quarter of what it is today.
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I am always amazed at the negative additude people have towards gyros until they see the quality of the current crop of "new generation" machines. I realise that the majority of what the layperson sees is shiny fiberglass and flash upholstery etc but I believe it is helping to change the average persons way of thinking that gyros are legitimate aircraft. Hopefully the normal reaction of " you wouldn"t catch me in one of those" will become heard less often.Whenever there is a news report of an aircraft accident I must admit as sad as any accident can be I always hope that the word gyro is not involved.
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I believe in 2010 gyro"s worlwide outsold piston engined fixed wing A/C. The amount of people taking an interest in the modern gyro"s is extraordinary. I think we are backing the right horses chaps and ladies I"d be pedaling one of those posh machines around the sky if I wasn"t so honest when I was in business. So I"ve had to build my own. First long test flight comming up soon.
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Amazing stats Max, but i only have to look around my little part of the world to see a number of pilots converting from fixed wings and especially trikes to gyros.If your long distance test flight ever sees you down in NSW I"m sure we could find a spot in a hangar for a stopover, same goes for anyone touring around the place.
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