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 11 The forecast was again not looking so good, but the morning was looking usable. Off for another 1 hour session in circuit, pounding out the landings and takeoffs. My tight circuits were coming on nicely, and so was the transition to thick wedge. The thin wedges however varied between that required and a microlight type approach and flair. Wind was 18 knots, straight down the runway, but every other landing I was landing about 1 foot too high and generally ballooning in, but the final nose up to land was good, with a nice soft landing achieved. The consensus from that session was approach good, and final landing good, but a little sloppy in between. 1 hour 5 minutes done. Weather was by the afternoon deteriorating, and was looking like rain. We went up anyway, and the circuit was generally very bumpy, (comparatively speaking that is - still a generally average triking bumpy ride!). I felt quite at home in these conditions but Roger wasn't happy. Anyway we did half an hour of tight circuits, before rain finally stopped play. So where did I get to today. My feet are now reacting, albeit a little slowly. My approaches are good, but the last little bit of the thin wedge I have a tendency to balloon on occasions. During takeoffs I tend to allow the nose up slightly too much before the magic 60mph is reached, but directional control is good, even in testing conditions. So all in all I am pleased with progress, even if a little slower than I would like. I am having to untrain microlight reflexes before I can replace them with gyro ones. This results in somewhat mechanical control in each new area that shares a common base with microlight. I am hoping to get onto wheel balancing before I have to go home in 4 days time. Dave joined us late today, and he is also coming to the end of the dual training so hopefully we can make the move together. We have been warned that the weather window for initial single seat training is very narrow, (you should see what's it's like for Paragliding!), and might prove very frustrating in progressing with any speed. Roger will only except 0 to 10 knots directly down the runway for initial single seat training. Hopefully the ends of the day will produce acceptable conditions. We'll see. Roger briefed us on the vagaries of the Benson single seater, and we spent some "simulator" time getting used to it. One would lift the nose up/down/left and right to check out reactions. All seemed ok, but it will be a different ball game when let loose, I guess!! |