www.PSFmagazine.com | May-June 2019 | 31 30 | May-June 2019 | Powered Sport Flying by Kai Bode Gyroplane Review Kallithea Test Flight Niki Rotor Aviation, a Bulgarian company, was founded in 2000 to pursue the design and build of a helicopter. In 2004 they set the sights anew to aim for a gyroplane. The design and build of the first gyroplane took four years and resulted in a side-by-side, enclosed cabin gyroplane, Niki Apis, flying for the first time in 2008. After collecting some experience with this model, Niki pursued a different build and introduced in 2016 two new models, which will certainly take their share of the market very soon. The Lightning and the Kalithea are gyroplanes with tandem seating and with enclosed, spacious, and mostly transparent cabins. The difference between the two are mostly in the tail construction, where the Lightning is sporting an innovative propeller-on-boom construction. The Kallithea has the conventional boom below the propeller and an empennage also well in the slipstream of the propeller. This results in a very stable flight, but more about that later. I always enjoy trying out a new gyrocopter and had the opportunity to do so in my second homeland of choice, New Zealand. Tony Unwin runs a gyroplane sight-seeing and training operation out of Tauranga, a beautifully situated town on the North East coast of the North Island of New Zealand. Niki's Lightning on the left featuring its unique tailboom construction and on the lower right you can see the Kallithea's more conventional tailboom. Press Pass Participants will be asked to • Describe the techniques that they use themselves • Listen to the techniques of other instructors in the group • Debate the pro’s and con’s of the techniques and in particular the different scenarios where one technique may be advantageous over another technique. • The current definition of ‘Best Practice’ will be discussed and proposals will be made to amend the definition, if appropriate. October 23-25, 2019 Mastering the Gyroplane The next two-day session is a training course designed for everyone who is interested in gyroplanes. If you have started training, or are thinking about starting training, then you will be able to use what you learn at this event to get more benefit from your flying lessons. If you are a qualified gyroplane pilot, it is a chance to brush up on your knowledge and fill in the gaps from things you may have forgotten or that you missed during your training. The objectives of the course are to: • Understand the gyroplane. Learn the reasons why a gyroplane is such an awesome aircraft. Questions like: “Why is a gyroplane tolerant to gusty conditions?” “Why can a gyroplane land in such a short distance?” “Why is a gyroplane so stable?” This event is “Gyroplane Technical–Made Simple.” • Learn the similarities and the differences between a gyroplane and fixed-wing aircraft. Understand the skills you can reuse from fixed-wing pilot training, and what you need to focus on when flying a gyroplane. • Review the lessons learned from the iapgt project since 2013, and how you may be able to negotiate a lower insurance premium for your gyroplane. October 29–November 1, 2019 Gyroplane Instructor Masterclass The final symposium is a Masterclass for Instructors to participate in the International Instructor Development Program. It includes discussion of: • Flying the techniques • Use the instructor toolkit • How to be part of the iapgt Certified Instructor program More and more manufacturers, insurers and gyroplane organizations are keen to recognize instructors who train to a common international standard. What is Involved in Standardization? Standardization is simply about having a common way of doing something, in this case: how to fly a gyroplane. There are different techniques to do things like take-offs, landings, preflight planning, etc. Standardization is about selecting the techniques that will provide the greatest margin for safety for the pilot who will fly less than 50 hours per year. The techniques selected are not always the most efficient, or the fanciest, but they will be easy to learn, effective, and if an inexperienced pilot does not get it completely correct there should still be the widest safety margin for error. There are ten elements in the iapgt standardization process: 1. The definition of the skills to be taught 2. The systematic approach to flying 3. The structure of the lessons 4. Explanations of gyroplane-specific topics 5. The content of in-flight exercises 6. The debrief technique 7. The recording of a student’s progress 8. Teaching the theoretical subjects 9. The general assessment flight content 10. Ongoing Pilot development The Gyroplane Instructor–International Development Process is about Learning the current techniques that have been proposed, Challenging them if there are better techniques and Developing the world standard of gyroplane training. The Instructor Leadership Masterclass is one of the ways that a gyroplane instructor can participate in the program. The Leadership Masterclass is a subset of the Practical Instructor Training Course for new gyroplane instructors. The course helps the instructor understand how to use the tools, the checklists and the lesson plans in order to streamline training and help students progress as quickly as possible with the limited time often available for training. The course highlights the different techniques that have been in development specifically for gyroplane training that are different from traditional fixed-wing training techniques. For more information on all three of the conferences, including pricing, visit https://iapgt.org/arizona2019. And one of the best things of all, accommodations for all the events are available at Biosphere2. Visit https://biosphere2.org.
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