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 8 Forecast today was gusting 35 knot winds so it wasn't looking hopeful. Neil joined us for the weekend, and was nearing the end of his two seat work, so he got the first slot and wind dummy task. Winds was 20 knots at the moment and building. My turn came and the wind had got up to 30 knots. We took off on the taxi way with a 30 knot wind at 90 degrees. Wow! It didn't make that much difference. The body of the VPM was being pushed by the wind, but the overall effect was one of "what wind": Amazing what the gyro will just shrug off. The circuit was a "little" bumpy, but Roger decided that the overall effect would be to make me work too hard on landing due to the rather gusty nature of the wind so we called it. 10 minutes. Oh well! One thing I did get out of it was the "proper" position for my feet. Up until now I had been using the pedal bars to rest my feet on, and not using the floorpan to rest my heels on, with the balls of my feet applying the pressure. This had the effect that I was having to move my whole leg each time I wanted to effect the rudder position, so making it feel dead. It also hurt my legs after a little time of holding them up. On a trike you don't have the floor pan to rest your heels on as the pod is not designed to take the weight, so they only come into play on landing and taking off with a good deal of resistance needing to be applied to stop the heavy wheel steering from deflecting. It was only after I asked Chris where I should be putting my feet as my legs were getting tired and hurting that we twigged they had been in the wrong position all the time. Maybe this will explain my poor foot work. We shall see. I intended to get a picture of the windsock to add to this page but due to the early exit of all, the office was locked with all my stuff inside, hence this report also being late. Sorry! |