Some of the brightest minds learning to fly.

[GrantR]

http://youtube.com/watch?v=z5OpxAHg4b0

I liked this comment:
Nice....population control at its finest. Another Darwin Award winner in the works.


Oh and just for the hell of it.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=9PaLpfWpOnU

Enjoy.

[MikeBoyette]

Jason is a member here he now admits that was no the brightest idea.

[gyroplanes]

I'm not advocating self-training, by any means, but we would probably have a lot more pilots around if people realized that flying anything is not magic. It doesn't require super human strength or intelligence to fly an aircraft. It's really quite simple, even helicopters.

I'm certain that any CFI here will attest that learning to fly is all in the confidence the student has. It's not often motor skills.

People that "can't learn to fly" have usually defeated themselves.

[scottessex]

Yeah just look at some of the airline pilots out there! Oops, I didn't mean to type that out loud. :)

[Doug Riley]

Nope, it isn't difficult. It does involve reflexes, though. Humans aren't born with flying reflexes. Jason was lucky that everything happened slowly enough on his flight that he could think through his next move. The Quicksilver also is a very stable, draggy airplane in which nothing much happens fast.

Reflexes are faster than thought. Sometimes (especially in gyros, which are rather "quick") you need the fast reactions that only reflexes can provide.

I'm attaching a picture of MY first-ever flight. I had minimal training and got a mile behind the gyro. It was going one way while I overcontrolled the other way. The flight was terminated by a collision with a snowpile, which, fortunately, was soft and didn't hurt me or the gyro.

[EI-GYRO]

Jeez, Doug, could you not find a wider axle? :)

[Doug Riley]

Fergus, I had originally planned to fly floats -- influenced, no doubt, by the fact that my father had flown a float Cub. A float Bensen uses two of those 80" axle tubes. I put the wheels on one, "just to get her flying" while my floats materialized. Fortunately, they never did.

Wide axles have saved my bacon a couple times. I probably would have flipped on this first flight after I hit the snow if I'd had only a five-foot axle. Decades later, I forgot to switch back to nosewheel steering upon landing my Gyrobee. I coasted regally toward a ditch, wondering why the rudder pedals weren't working, until my right wheel was in it. The 'Bee's 7-foot stance kept the rig from falling over.

I wasn't so lucky in another encounter with snow when I had a shorter axle. That one cost me blades and a prop.

[EI-GYRO]

Sometimes the 'Law of Unintended Consequences' works in your favour.
I installed a strobe for visibility.
It was useless for that, but it was great at
reminding me when the ignition was 'live', so I
left it on the machine.

[ontos209]

love the look on your face. :) hmmm looks like right rudder and stick for left turn. dang you look young. gonna put the picture on as my screen saver.:lol:

[Scary Gary]

Thats a nice helmet Doug , were did you get it ?

[RockyMeLad]

Thats a nice helmet Doug , were did you get it ?

Who knows, but he sold it to Gyro Ron or Criss. :D

[Arnie Madsen]

Doug. This is the one and only time I could call myself a fellow gyro pilot. When I saw your picture .... well I have been there .. about 1979 .... not with you however. My pilot was a 70 something gentleman from Winnipeg Canada who was a priest and we knew him as Father Svoboda .. some type of Ukrainian or Chec or Hungarian Orthodox or Catholic ... Im not sure which.

He came to the Portage la Prairie airport with his 1967 Dodge Dart with a Bensen Gyro strapped to the roof rack. He bolted it together and attached a frayed tow rope to the Dart bumper and volenteered me to be his passenger.

An aviator named Jim Sheppard drove the car , all I could do was reassure myself that it must be completely safe to fly with such a religious person. What could be safer?

We did 3 flights up and down the strip and that was my one and only gyro flight experience. I had almost forgotten it until I saw your picture . Thank you. Does that make me an actual gyro guy ? Hope so.

Greetings from Canada
Arnie Madsen
Bell 47 G2

ps: Father Svoboda lived into his 90'S I think. There must be a Bensen Gyro stored in a Church somewhere in Winnipeg. I remember it had aluminium blades and he was saving up for a Mac engine .....

[fiveboy]

Arnie - SORRY GUYS A LITTLE OFF TOPIC BUT APROPOS.......

A priest and a pilot go to Heaven. They meet St Peter who says to the pilot - well I see your papers are in order - here's your golden robe and golden staff - welcome.

The priest walks up St Peter says I see your papers are in order - heres your sack cloth and wooden staff. Welcome.

The priest says - wait a minute!? How come the pilot got golden robes and a golden staff and I - a priest - only got sack cloth and a wooden staff.

St. Peter says - well you see when you did your job people slept, when he did his job - people prayed! :angel:

Rob
(Born and raised in Canada Arnie!)

[Doug Riley]

Ontos: The rudder has no effect on a gyroglider under tow. The tow rope pins the nose in place. So the pedal position is random.

The stick is deflected for a left bank, in a belated attempt to counter the right bank. What this still pic doesn't capture is that the gyro was swaying madly back and forth, with yours truly (age 16) overcontrolling like a perfect idiot. Gyros have poor damping in the roll axis.

I did develop some reflexes after awhile and had great fun gyrogliding. I even gyroglid (?) at Oshkosh 1972 in this same rig.

I got that helmet from my parents. At that age you think you're invincible... "Don't need no stinkin'," etc.

I remember some mention of Father Svoboda in the PRA mag in the 70's. He may even have written it himself. I suppose that Rev. Igor appreciated a fellow flying clergyman.

[EI-GYRO]

Well Arnie, you have more b@lls than me, then.
I have 50+ hours on my gyroglider, but nothing on earth would
persuade me to fly as passenger on a two-seater.

One should always wear a helmet, if only to hide the look of
terror on one's face. It makes the towcar driver nervous.

As an aside; If you DO hold full left rudder on, the machine will
move gently to the right, and vice versa.