Training

[mad max]

I"ve been training in high thrustline Gyro"s for 20 yrs. now and have found that the best students are males around 17 to 23 yrs of age. (can"t speak for F/males-Never had one) They pick it up real fast and before we had rules it wasn"t uncommon to watch someone go solo after 3.5 hrs. However anyone over 25 or so took much longer. I would emphasise that a neg. G could mean death if you are not quick at pulling the throttle back, ect. There were exeptions of course. One old chap was solo ready after 45 mins. He was a 10,000 hr. Jet ranger pilot. Some older fix wing pilots were good and the odd one scared the crap out of me. (Too much confidence) One 30 yr. old R22 pilot scared me while doing a TIF and later informed me he had recently destroyed an R22 and injured his passenger while buzzing a large croc. which flicked it"s tail and knocked the heli. out of the sky. (The reptilian buggers are smarter than you think) :-

[mad max]

My "Boss" wants me to retire from instructing by the end of 2015. I"ll be chronologically 70 yrs. old then so it"s a good excuse to get out in the world and have some fun! (With Gyro"s) I"m posting this little message incase any students out there in my area want to Finish any training before dec. 17 2015. when my med. expires. It"s good to see the new generation machines taking over the world but I must again state that cranking up your rotors to 220 rpm and suddenly gunning to full throttle has a thin line between high speed rotor flap and an out of control roll over and colliding with a 2 million dollar aircraft along the runway and a happy take off. A bit slow in getting the stick hard back can be the difference. Watch the rotor rpm until it starts rising. If it drops rapidly, power off! I personally won"t go to full throttle until I feel early stage of front wheel lift.

[bones]

Your not the only one with those concerns Max, but what would we know.

[Tim]

Pre-rotate to 220, pull the stick hard back then "balls to the wall". Some of these manufacturers obviously know what they are doing because they teach their instructors to teach just that, on high power to weight machines. Unbelievable!This raises the very serious question of how much gyroplane experience do these manufacturers and instructors really have - obviously not a lot.You only need the wrong stick movement, a gust of wind or even something as simple as a bump on the runway (along with many other possible variables) and the squillion dollar machine is at best reduced to very low value kit form, or possibly only spare parts. If the hapless low hour pilot is very lucky, he will receive only minor injuries, but not so his wallet.

[aussie_paul]

Absolutely Max..Aussie Paul.

[MadMuz]

Pre-rotate to 220, pull the stick hard back then "balls to the wall". Some of these manufacturers obviously know what they are doing because they teach their instructors to teach just that, on high power to weight machines. Unbelievable!This raises the very serious question of how much gyroplane experience do these manufacturers and instructors really have - obviously not a lot.You only need the wrong stick movement, a gust of wind or even something as simple as a bump on the runway (along with many other possible variables) and the squillion dollar machine is at best reduced to very low value kit form, or possibly only spare parts. If the hapless low hour pilot is very lucky, he will receive only minor injuries, but not so his wallet.True Tim, it is unfortunate that some of these machines that are "so simple to fly"

[NiqueNaque]

Max,What about the prospect of those pre-rotators that can actually lift the nose-wheel while the machine is not even rolling, admittedly thëy do this with stick-back, what is your thought about those?I have no pre-rotator & only know it as stick back until nose wheel lifts, then stick forward gently to accelerate with nose wheel just skimming and then with about

[mad max]

If your nose wheel is lifting while still stationary it"s good to go. An Ideal situation. The best rotor RPM indicator is the nose wheel. I built a 503 machine once and I"d get nose lift on a windy day while stationary, go straight to full power and be airbourne in 3 mtrs. Machine had no pre-rotator and weigted 100 kg.

[bones]

oh my look what i just stumbled across, wonder what cause this blade flap on rake off.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPf9v7CU8IgAnd the after photo, http://www.ledauphine.com/ain/2014/1...e-au-decollage

[mad max]

I personally know of 3 incidences of high speed blade flap on $80,000 machines. One was twice on the same machine with different pilots. (repair costs around 25k each time) One I saw with my own eye balls. Like to watch your U tube bones but I"m nearly out of megabites. (Telstra are ripping me off) Must save megabites for more exotic tubes

[NiqueNaque]

I recall that beast, I believe it turned up at Whittingham [Singleton] airstrip one day, it was white and very small with a fully welded seat tank under the pilot. Almost a "gyro in the boot" machine.

[RossM]

I personally know of 3 incidences of high speed blade flap on $80,000 machines. One was twice on the same machine with different pilots. (repair costs around 25k each time) One I saw with my own eye balls. Like to watch your U tube bones but I"m nearly out of megabites. (Telstra are ripping me off) Must save megabites for more exotic tubes Max, next time you go to the big smoke, go and use the computers at the library.(I have used them while on holidays, no charge [well, I never have been charged])Don"t know if they will let you watch exotic though

[birdy]

I"m posting this little message incase any students out there in my area want to Finish any training before dec. 17 2015.Im up for finishn Maxy.Iv been told many times i need more instruction. ( by people who tell me they know it all, even tho i never asked)

[RickE]

As a "beginner" instructor I agree with all of you in regard to rotor management and will be teaching my students never to apply full power before the nose gets light, unfortunately the idea of prerotating to 200 and then applying full power works fine 99% of the time it"s that 1% that we don"t want to see happen to anyone.I was surprised recently to see a gyro flying two up on a slightly downhill runway with a stiff ten knot tail wind prerotate to 220 then apply full throttle and takeoff without incident, I have been told that I had witnessed a miracle.I"m not in any way defending the practice, I"m just saying that it doesn"t always end in disaster.

[mad max]

Good on you Rick. You sound like a safe instructor. I"ll try your trick Ross and hop on my free ferry boat and slip into the library which happens to allso be parlament house. If I trip over the chief minister I"ll complain why us sport flyers are locked out of tax payer funded indigenous airstrips. We are free aerial survalence. In the meantime if I"m caught landing on one I just hang out the honker and start urinating and claim an emergency landing. How many hrs. do you have in gyro"s now Birdy?