Gyroplane Training 
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Web by: Rebel Systems Training Days April 7 - 22 2001 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 May 26 - June 2 2001 April 1 - 11 2002 |
Day 1 After the long drive to Carlisle, day one came none to soon. Wind 15 to 20 knots. Damn, that will mean no flying! Was I wrong... Come on then said Roger, let's go up for a familiarisation flight. Eh, ok then! So we went up for an initial 1/2 hour. Roger was complaining that it was a little bouncy, really, can't say I had noticed. Now coming from trikes, I knew that if I was up in these conditions I would be being thrown all over the place, but as far as I was concerned it felt smooth as the proverbial in the VPM. That Rotax 914 sounds wonderful. It was strange that after all the initial anticipation I felt fairly non-plussed about it. I think Roger was somewhat disappointed by my lack of enthusiasm! He demonstrated slow flight, and hovering... At the end Roger decided it was his playtime. These gyros are maneuverable. Very impressive flight envelope. Anyway, we waited a while for more stable, (!), conditions, and in the afternoon we went up again. Well it was smoother than the morning but we are talking the difference between silk and cotton here! Now things were different, WOW!!! Now I knew what to expect, and was not so overawed I got well into it. I was given the cyclic to hold, and sometime later the rudder to have a quick play with. There is certainly a good deal more control authority than the trike. Now I could appreciate the merits of them. 1/2 an hour and it was all over for the day. Chris, another prospective gyronaught was training as well. He was 30 odd hours in and was cautiously playing wheel balancing. This is a picture of what you spend a good deal of time doing. To come...
And Roger watching on patiently... Love the socks! Notice the two radios. One talking to the tower for traffic, and the other talking to the gyro. This way tower is aware of where the gyro is as it spends most of this part of the training on the tarmac on two wheels. It is obviously paramount that all parties are aware of what is going on to avoid conflict. The high-vis jacket is mandatory airside for pedestrians!
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