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Yesterday I had a visit from my ole mate Nudge.He was cleaning out his shed and came across a bunch of Kitplane and old Gyro News mags. He bought them over to me along with a couple of ASRA sow on badges and stickers for my car.Long story short Nudge got all this stuff way back when he had a direct drive VW Bensen gyro. At 6"5" and 110 plus kgs, the gyro would only just break ground and would not climb, he sold it and then went on to collect and fly a large variety of experimental fixed wings.So bonus for me and started to read.....Now before signing up with ASRA some 6 years ago, I got hold of as many old GN"s as possible. Not only did those mags afford me valuable info re gyros but it also gave me an insight into the different personalities on the ASRA board.It was extremely interesting to see how each year the various boards worked in trying to bring about change.Last night when the house was quiet, I picked up at random my first GN from the pile on the coffee table, volume 12 No:4
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Bloody PC keeps dropping off the rest of my post..... try again here.I believe the ASRA requirement for Hang and Balance, is simply a survey!The changes the board are moving towards are in my opinion simply that.....changes which will come about over time. I do not believe ASRA will mandate anything in the short term...as ASRA"s History reveals.Doing the ASRA Hang and Balance Tests is a HUGH PAIN IN THE BUTT for me. I"m on my own, dont have a farm or farm machinery and can not attend a club day when all are there with the tools to get the job done in quick order.I have purchased a set of ramps and a chain block etc. Ole mate Nudge has helped me disgn a canterleavered hoist which will attach to the seatainer/Hangar. And we will dig a little hole for the tail.I am happy to do these tests. My gyro may end up being a low LTL, so I may be outside of the possible adopted range of plus or minus 2 inches...but Hey! We dont know till we check it out. As Tim Mc said.........The reasoning behind this is that if we wish to mix in the same air space as other certified aircraft, then we should have an acceptable standard of construction for the safety of all concerned. ( No-one in his or her right mind could argue with this.).I know Tim himself has had concerns about a CLT design process beinging mandated in the past and non of us really want to be told how our gyros should be configured. Certainly Tim has delved deeply into the theory and technical as well as the practical, so I do not wish to quote him out of context but his quote still rings true in my mind. It is apparent to me that many who oppose the current ASRA requirement for us to do the hang and balance test are opposing on the basis of it"s too hard or I"m not changing my machine etc.Often those opposing the survey do not even have a technical or theoretical understanding of the HTL, LTL, CLT and HS"s issuesI have recieved one email in the negative and many phone calls in the positive.The Winds of Change blow slowly through the normal processes of ASRA and CASA.It is important to remember we lost 4 mates in gyro accidents in the last 12 month period and that CASA have jumped on ASRA in a big waytelling us to get it sorted. Given the Brits have adopted the +-2" and the Yanks have been talking up the probs associated with HTL gyros, as well as many European forum discussions, I believe ASRA are conducting this survey and process on the basis of trying to understand exactly what is going on, with us here in OZ. This I believe is a good thing. That is to come to an understanding and then to apply the relevant regs and processess over time. So I would suggest given the tone of some of the threads on various forums that we all take a BIG CHILL PILL. do the survey and sit back and enjoy the flying whilst ASRA decides (through consultation with the membership ) exactly where we go from here.Cheers,Mitch
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Ya spoton Mitch.Like it or not, this is called progress [ and IMHO, its in the right direction].If we didnt have progress, we"d still be walkn round a long strip of clean dirt thinkn " wunder wot this can be used for."
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Thanks for the positive reponse Mitch. I have had many phone calls as you can imagine and my head hurts, real bad
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Absolutely Birdy!
The Missus got a giggle outta your..... "If we didnt have progress, we"d still be walkn round a long strip of clean dirt thinkn " wunder wot this can be used for."Brian my friend, I hope you and the rest of the ASRA Board can work through this with minimal collateral damage.I admire the way you personally are seeking out as much technical/theoretical detail and information as possible. The "Learning Curve" continues for us all.By the way Brother, it takes a certain type of bloke to step up and take on a volunteer position, and we all know that being on the ASRA Board is no picknick. All kudos to you.Now I"ll go back to "lurking"....
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Nice call Mitch.Matty
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I hope I can live up to your commplments mate. :-[There is no doubt that every ASRA board has been down the same path and we know from history that any change is looked upon with a certain amount of suspicion and sometimes, rightly so, however, there is no doubt that there has been a shift as we now see a number of gyros that are or close to CLT or stable. Interestingly enough, these gyros dont feature in the fatals section very often and we know that with the number of these gyros about, plus the amount of hours being flown, if they had problems, we all would know about it so the case to bring the rest of us not flying similair machines must be worth looking at.There is no doubt that Birdy has a way with words. Priceless !!
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I"m glad to see that the message is finaly filtering through to the greater ASRA community. Most people I have spoken to feel this is definitely a step in the right direction, and not a second to soon.
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Thank you for all the positive responses.Sam you are right,the word is slowly getting out there and people are taking the time to research and learn.It reminds me of my arguments with Paul Bruty all those years ago!(You can stop saying "I told you so" now Paul ;D)Some very valuable things will come out of this survey,ASRA pilots will know where their gyro"s COG/TL is located,They will learn more about gyro dynamics as the tests are being done,They can make an informed decision on what action/modifications they choose if they are unhappy with the result of their gyros test,And, members wanting to build a CLT gyro will have a huge database of gyro photo"s from the survey to copy taking all the guess work out of design.
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Thank you for all the positive responses.Sam you are right,the word is slowly getting out there and people are taking the time to research and learn.It reminds me of my arguments with Paul Bruty all those years ago!(You can stop saying "I told you so" now Paul ;D)Some very valuable things will come out of this survey,ASRA pilots will know where their gyro"s COG/TL is located,They will learn more about gyro dynamics as the tests are being done,They can make an informed decision on what action/modifications they choose if they are unhappy with the result of their gyros test,And, members wanting to build a CLT gyro will have a huge database of gyro photo"s from the survey to copy taking all the guess work out of design.And, members wanting to build a CLT gyro will have a huge database of gyro photo"s from the survey to copy taking all the guess work out of design.I reckon that something thats been lacking and so badly needed for way too long!!!
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Thank you for all the positive responses.Sam you are right,the word is slowly getting out there and people are taking the time to research and learn.It reminds me of my arguments with Paul Bruty all those years ago!(You can stop saying "I told you so" now Paul ;D)Ha ha, thanks Murray, much appreciated. not bloody likely mate ;D Great to see it finally happening. Great stuff ASRA.Aussie Paul.
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