2 MTO's and a Calidus in 5 days
 

Roy Hanan CFI and dealer for MTO and Calidus is organizing a build of 2 MTOs and a Calidus in his central Florida Hangar. I few up to check it out yesterday and since they didn't have a video camera I took a few videos and Laura who flew along with our neighbor took a few stills.

One of the MTOs will be Roys, his second. He is putting this one on amphibian floats.

www.photobucket.com/MTO_build

Thanks Joe - great videos and a very busy hanger - interesting comment on the video ..." ..................these are Certified gyros in every place in the World, except here".

sure are plenty of "Auto-Gyros" coming into the US.


Cheers

Joe - is this at Massey Ranch?

Yes Larry, it is.

I'm not real sure how well the amphibian floats concept is going to work out. For one thing he will need to be very conscious of his touch-down attitude and always make "dry" landings in a VERY flat attitude or else he's going to slam the aft portion of the floats onto the ground

. The other concern is going to sound really silly to some of you but it's very real and that is - it's alarmingly easy to forget to have the gear in the correct position. I have a bit of time in amphibious fixed wings and unlike normal retractable gear airplanes sometimes the gear is down for landing and sometimes it's not. After doing a bunch of water landings in a row it's VERY easy to forget to put it down when coming in to do a dry landing and/or vice versa the other way round. Gyros aren't known to have much in the way of a landing checklist and this is one area where a great deal of discipline will have to always be observed. I wish him luck just the same and am anxious to see them all up and flying.

Is this considered a 51% build for a gyroplane?
Serious question because I don't see any welding, fabrications, chop saw, drilling, composite work, even painting being done by participants. I am just trying to fathom how gyroplane 51% rule applies. AIR-200 has just released 8130.2G CHG1 and they have new guidelines for all ASI's and DAR's for 51% rule's interpretation and also for LSA. In short they are much stricter.

To be honest I don't know if its covered by the 51% rule, however it is my understanding that all it means is that you can't do your your own maintenance/annual inspections, it is still experimental and still qualifies to be flown by a sport pilot.

Hi Joe: 51% Exp-AB category requires that the builder apply to get a repairman certificate for his/her 51% and only after he gets that cert is he allowed to do/sign-off inspections and work on that aircraft.

There is a Experimental Exhibition category which generally has a 300 NM limitation from home base unless a program is submitted to the local FSDO at the begining of each year to stating where the participant aircraft in that category may be going that year that is beyond 300 NM.

That type of Experimental Exhibition aircraft can be completely built by a factory or anyone else and sold. Its operating limitations have to be followed.
Seriously if you think about how most gyro pilots fly personal aircraft, they don't go beyond 300 NM and if they do they know if advance like all the shows or a planned across the continent cross country so there is very little trouble in being able to put that in writing in the start of the year and submit it to their FSDO.

I did not know that.
 

Hello Abid,

I did not know that I was not allowed to work of an Exp-AB aircraft because I don’t hold a repairman certificate for that aircraft.

I am not able to find where it says that in the FARs.

Would you please direct me to the applicable regulation?

Thank you, Vance

Interesting FAA publication, it might be in here:
http://www.faa.gov/library/manuals/a...h-8083-19A.pdf

I contacted them and asked them and they say that it does comply with the 51% rule and that is how they are all being registered. Here is the email address info@autogyrousa.com if you want to learn more.

No your grandma can even work on an Exp AB aircraft. She however cannot sign it off as airworthy after that work at inspection time. For that you need a repairman cert or need an IA.
P.S. (For lawyers) - Do not take this as advice to have grandma work on your experimental aircraft

I guess then in gyroplanes assembly must be enough for meeting the rule's intent. I know some of those guys. Bob Snider in particular. I trained him to fly trikes. Nice guy. I know Helen well also who is their chief instructor for airplanes. They are also dealers for SeaRey and want to get a SeaRey S-LSA and I have been doing engineering and certification compliance and project management on SeaRey as a consultant so I keep her informed from time to time as to where it is.

Thank you for clearing that up.
 

Hello Abid,

That was my understanding too; that is why I was confused by your statement.

Thank you for clearing that up.

My grandmother is dead so she is not able to performance maintenance on my experimental amateur built gyroplane.

Thank you, Vance

A&P also
 

I belive that an A&P can also sign off on annuals and such in an EAB. This is different than airplanes with a type certificate.