www.PSFmagazine.com | December 2018 - January 2019 | 29 28 | December 2018 - January 2019 | Powered Sport Flying FOOTHILL SPORT AVIATION Cameron Park CALIFORNIA WOODS AVIATION Watts Woodland Airport CALIFORNIA LONE STAR MAGNIGYRO Taylor Municipal Airport TEXAS MAGNI FLIGHT LLC Jack Edwards Airport (KJKA) Alabama CAPE COPTERS Cape Girardeau Municipal Airport MISSOURI MAGNI GYRO U.S.A. Perryville Municipal Airport MISSOURI MAKERS OF EXPERIENCE U.S.A. high-quality Italian products, likeMagni gyroplanes, in ITALIAN FLYING TECHNOLOGY MAGNI GYRO s.r.l. - Tel. +39 0331 274816 - Fax+39 0331 274817 - www.magnigyro.com- info@magnigyro.com Support Our Advertisers Ron turned it into as he got a foot or two off the ground and zoomed through them. Me, I’m yelling “yippee, can we do that again!” I’m thinking wow, it can’t get any better than this! I never fly this low in a cabin FW and not even in ultralights, and I thought five and ten feet was low. After finishing the maze several times he flew right at this line of small wind-break trees which I estimated were 40 feet high, which bled off most of his excess airspeed at the top, and just zoomed right over them. Then he saw a pond on the other side and he just flew over the trees and down to a few inches off the water, and now we are a personal watercraft. Wow, it cannot get any better than this! Me, I’m still yelling “yippee,” and “do that again!” Next we went up over the trees and Ron started flying sideways while actually holding our original course. I’m thinking “OK, this is very different; sweet; sure would make clearing turns easy as you can look behind you and to your side for traffic while in the pattern.” He reduced power, slowing us to 40 knots or less (in a two-place) and cruising 100 feet off the ground. I’m thinking wow from 100+ to 40 knots with the same control, hard to beat that for getting there and sightseeing too. But he did. Ron just seemed to stop in mid air with almost zero forward airspeed for a few seconds and then we nosed almost straight down at the ground, pulling up about five feet from the surface and leveling off at three feet, while smoothly adding full throttle and gaining max airspeed again in a very short distance. Back over the trees, through the farmer’s field maze, and headed for a row of much taller trees on the other side of the field, estimated to be 70 feet tall and we’re just a foot or so off the deck. At about 100 yards from the trees I’m thinking “OK he is not going to make it over them with the power I’ve experienced at this distance. He’s got to turn soon or at this speed we will turn at his max bank angle, maybe 70-90 degrees, and still the accelerated stall will send us sliding into the trees like all the airplanes I’ve flown, which could hurt. More like kill us.” At 50 yards from impact I’m thinking/planning: “OK when he turns his max degree turn and the accelerated stall flings us into the trees I’m just going to unbuckle my seatbelt Gyroplane First Flight pulling away from. OK, the taxiing procedures are different, but certainly easy to learn. I observed Ron take the active runway aligning with the centerline, apply the brakes, position the stick/cyclic full back and start squeezing a motorcycle brake handle on the stick which engages the rotor-head prerotator. I watched Ron smoothly increase engine rpm and pressure on the lever, seeing and hearing our blades slowly gaining momentum. This procedure is the greatest difference for fixed-wing pilots. The prerotation procedure starts with yoke or stick/ cyclic forward on many new models, which is not intuitive, until the blades begin to cone at about 100-150 rotor rpm. The brakes were released and 20-30% power was initiated; at this point in other models the pilot moves the stick/cyclic full aft allowing any headwind to assist in spinning up our blades. This process might vary slightly from machine to machine and Ron’s starts with it back from the beginning. However we were now auto-rotating on the ground with the rotor windmilling and the prerotator no longer engaged. If Ron added full power at this point he might cause a rotor flap because the rotor is not fully loaded and the blades are not able to support the full flying lift needed. Blade flap happens in most gyroplanes at rotor speeds below 200 rpm and if the pilot tries to lift off below 200 rpm… it can wreck your day. However training teaches you to reduce power and hit the brakes when you feel the stick first start to shake, so it’s easy to prevent and stop. I noted that as Ron started his ground roll, holding the stick/cyclic full aft and smoothly adding power, he was waiting for the nose to start to rise during the ground run, which is a visual clue that the rotor blades are flyable. To verify that your rotor blades are up to flyable speed experienced pilots cross check this by hearing them, and new pilots can note if the rotor rpm are at 275-350 depending on the density altitude, blades and aircraft. As the nose lifted Ron simultaneously brought the stick/ cyclic smoothly toward the bow to about 30% from full forward and at this instant he held the front wheel just a few inches off the ground as he balanced on the mains for a moment, still gaining additional flyable rotor rpm and airspeed before rotation. She flew herself off a little before Ron smoothly added full throttle and leveled off to gain max airspeed; then he pulled back on the stick/cyclic and we shot up to the sky in a hurry. I could not help but notice the gyroplane stick position is the same 30% yoke position you hold in a Cessna 150 to rotate and at the same Vx of about 55 knots they both will fly. Once flying the first thing I noticed without the body in the way is an unmatched view of more of the world than in any other aircraft I’ve flown, as you can also see right through the spinning blades. Wow, this is a bird’s eye view and I’m the bird! Ron navigated to a farmer’s field where there were rolls of hay about five or seven feet high, maybe higher, and the rolls were all spread out like a maze for mice. That’s what
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