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 4 Never listen to a trike flyer about the weather. Sorry Dave, but you were wrong! Day 3, was meant to be usable, with day 4 a total washout. Anyway, the day was eminently usable with a 10 knot wind. So, the plan of action was to start on ascending and descending, so suitably dressed we mounted our trusty steed! Most of the training seems to be in the 800-1000 feet region, so we moved between these two heights with ascending/descending remembering Power, Attitude, Trim or Attitude, Power, Trim when leveling out from a descent. Next this was complicated a little more with ascend/descend turns and then with judging power delivery to complete 180 degree turns with predefined changes in height. Ascending seemed to be ok, with me topping out on the mark, but descents I always seemed to end the turn 40 feet too low. After that we then headed out towards the River Eden to do some low level river tracking. This brief this time was to follow the course of the river whilst using the required power to maintain height and speed. Some of the turns were quite sharp, and more and more rudder and pitch was being called for to coordinate the turn. I wasn't using enough pitch to pull us around, (banked over this becomes elevator!), so tended to slip out of the turn but got better during the practice. Well by now my right arm was beginning to ache with gripping the stick too tightly, so thankfully Roger called it anyway and back we headed. Into base leg, power down, nose down, power down, nose down and trim as required until into the "thin wedge" and power right back and Roger completing the landing. Back to the Apron with a very poserish hover taxi. I think Roger like's that bit as it is a chance to show his skills, and because he can! Well, that was a 1 hour 20 minute session and very good it was too. Very enjoyable and a lot learned. Time for the other Martin to go out and strut his stuff, with the same brief as me. Weather didn't look promising by this point, and 1/2 later they came back. Martin was looking a little white, and had been rattled by the squally conditions. He was not amused by the crabbing angle required to maintain track. He wasn't happy. We waited out the conditions until late afternoon, and Martin went up again. He had a better session this time. Roger was concerned that he had worked him too hard on this one as the conditions were not quite settled but he coped well with them. Anyway, Roger said did I want to go up again. Well, do pigs fly!?! So suitably "booted and spurred" we set off once more into the blue wide yonder. This was to be a consolidation session just to build the new skills learned that morning. I didn't feel so fluid on this one. I think I had set the trim too far back, so the stick wasn't the slight back pressure I had got used to. This meant that the nose kept rising gently, and Roger commented that I was allowing the VPM to wallow. It was only afterwards that I twigged it was the trim, and the change in pressure that was giving me the problem. With low hours you just don't understand why things are different and are unable to automatically compensate! So whilst this wasn't such a good session, Roger did say it was perfectly fine, so we came back in 55 minutes from chocks off. Not a bad session, and certainly not a bad day. The other thing that caused me problems this session was that my headset died, due to battery discharge. On my trikes it was wired in, so battery charge is not an issue, but Roger uses a straight connection and the headsets have to rely on their internal batteries. This meant I couldn't talk to Roger for most of the session, but when you have no side tone to tell you how loud you are speaking you end up shouting. I came down with my jaws aching! The forecast for tomorrow is looking good so it will be onto takeoff and landings, i.e. circuit bashing which should be fun. This forecast didn't come courtesy of Dave the trike! |