www.PSFmagazine.com | October-November 2016 | 19 18 | October-November 2016 | Powered Sport Flying Rotorcraft News Win with the PRA The Popular Rotorcraft Association reports that they now have an Indiana gaming license. This allows them to hold raffles with proceeds earmarked for educational activity. Their first raffle drawing was a success with the first winner choosing the Boise A20 Bluetooth headset as his prize. With that success, their second drawing is scheduled to be held at the pra Airport in Mentone, Indiana on Wednesday, December 28, 2016. Tickets are a donation of $10.00 each; buy four tickets for $40.00 and you get five chances to win! You don’t have to be a pra member to win, but you get significant discounts on tickets if you are a member. PRA members get a 50% discount and receive two tickets for each $10.00 tax deductible donation while non-members receive one ticket. (Yet another reason to join the pra!) When you win, you may choose one of the following prizes: 1. $1,000.00 of flight instruction 2. Boise A20 Bluetooth headset 3. Garmin 660 touchscreen gps 4. IFLY GPS = AN iFLY740 5. Solo Shot ground-based video camera with gps tracking system 6. Two GoPro Cameras and attachment accessories 7. Flycom helmet with noise canceling headset 8. MGL V6 panel mount radio In order to participate, visit http://pra.org/default.aspx?p=Win. The drawing will be videoed and posted on YouTube, for those wanting to see the winner chosen. Online Sport Pilot Gyroplane (spy) Ground School 2017 Tim O’Connor, a gyroplane cfi and Advanced Ground Instructor in collaboration with the Popular Rotorcraft Association (pra) and faasteam (faa Safety Team), is making available a live online ground school for the Sport Pilot/Gyroplane certificate. Here is a chance for those seeking the certificate to complete the preparation for the faa Knowledge Test online. The course will total 30 hours of live virtual classroom instruction, and students will be assigned homework. This year is expanded to 10 Weeks and 30 hours of live training with no price increase! The 2017 Session includes: • faa Sport Pilot Knowledge Test Prep • Primer for faa Private Pilot Knowledge Test Prep • Cross Country Flight Planning for Gyroplanes • faa Oral Exam Test Prep • faa Student Solo Knowledge Exam Prep • faa Knowledge Exam Endorsement • faa Ground School Currency Endorsement (aka Biannual Review) • faa wings Safety Team Credits You’ll need a computer with a good internet connection, and headphones with microphone (no speakers please). Students will receive a bundle of materials after they have registered for the class, including exam supplement diagrams, worksheets and practice links. Students achieving a 90% or higher score on test prep will receive a logbook endorsement to take the knowledge test at an faa authorized testing center. Students completing the course will also receive faa Safety Team educational credits for the faa wings program. Students who already hold a gyroplane pilot’s license can use the class for recurrent training or remedial training requirements. Required class materials include: Electronic E6B Flight Computer; Sectional Chart Plotter (must be rotating type), a supply of sectional maps (one must be Cincinnati), one or more faa Airport Directories (one must cover Ohio), a bound notebook; a copy of faa far/aim; a selection of faa handbooks, circulars, fliers and publications relevant to your exam; several packs of both index cards and Post-It notes. Tuition: $250.00 Next Session Dates: January 5 – March 9 Classes conducted: Thursdays, 7pm–10pm Eastern. Enrollment is currently open. To register or for more details contact gyro.pilot@yahoo.com. Gyroplane Review by Ira McComic I’m a natural-born Texan of many generations. Long before ancestors on one side of my family came here in covered wagons, ancestors on the other side of my family lived here in teepees. It’s possible some of my forefathers may have scalped other ones. Because of my Texas heritage, I feel “ranger” has a certain ring to it, suggesting the legendary Texas Rangers lawmen of the frontier, the same-named baseball team of today, and that masked man with the white hat and silver bullets, the one and only Lone Ranger himself, famed for ridding the range of rustlers and ruffians. So naturally, when two new American Ranger gyroplanes arrived in my home state, I felt they had come to a fitting place. Specifically, they migrated from their birthplace in Florida to a small Texas town named Anahuac (anna-wack), east of Houston. Established in 1831, Anahuac had a role in fermenting the Texas war for independence fromMexico. Today, the Chambers County airport in Anahuac is the base for the Lone Star Rotorcraft Club, three members of which have formed a four-state dealership for the newly introduced American Ranger gyroplane, designated the AR 1. Although the AR 1 in many ways mirrors a trend for modern-day gryroplanes in the US, it discontinues that trend in one important respect. For the past decade or so, the most common configuration for gyroplanes introduced in the US has been a two-place, open cockpit, tandem seater with a Rotax four-cylinder engine. And nearly all of these gyroplanes, available from distributors and dealers in the US as ready-to-assemble kits, are produced by companies from other countries, gyroplanes like the Autogyro mto Sport, the Magni M-16 Trainer, the Magni M-22 Voyager, the Titanium Explorer, the ela G8 Cruser, and the ela G8— ahem—Ranger. Gone are the days when most kit-built gyroplanes in the US originated from American companies, The American Ranger AR-1 Gyroplane Red and gray AR1s together at Sun 'n Fun
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