Gyrocopter safety devices

Locksmith

Member
Joined
Jul 30, 2007
Messages
18
Location
Dade city fl
For the past few weeks I have been reading online about gyrocopters, designs, safety and safety devices.
The gyro I have in mind (in preliminary build planning stages)

The first thing I'd like some opinions on is a seat. I have seen many different seat designs, from aluminum rails with webbing, to full bucket racing seats.

I like the idea of a small bucket seat made out of a plastic or fiber material, however I have run across a few discussions claiming that fiberglass is a poor material to build a seat out of, as it can crack etc.
I have seen very sturdy plastic seats (had one on my old dune cart) that would accept a seatbelt fairly well. I am leaning to one of those plastic seats.
Does anyone have a particular one in mind that would work well and be lightweight?

Another thing on my mind and I've seen discussed here a little bit before is seat belts.
I can understand how most of the time our gyro's never experience zero g's or severe unloading of the rotor, however in the (unlikely?) event of a crash or bad landing, the possibility of raipd enough decelleration to fold one's body forward and possibly hit the control stick etc.

The three choices I am left with taking into account what I know so far, are:

I can simply use a lap belt. This would hold me in the seat while flying and landing.

Another option I have seen is a combination lap/shoulder belt such as found in cars. These belts have much better upper body restraint, and will prevent many back injuries, and possible impalement on a control stick if the crash were to be violent enough.

The other option, that I have considered the most is a 4 point belt system that will hold you in during a crash be it head on, tip over, or possibly the unpleasant reality of a tree/woods landing.

I like the 4 point harness idea the best so far, as I will be relitively new to flying gyros when I get my own (still doing instruction first, waiting to be cleared for solo before flying) and I see one problem with most seat belt designs, and that is they are mounted to the mast. While mounting a seat belt to the mast will hold you in during a bad bumpy landing etc, if you were to put much sideways load on the mast, with you strapped in, you could be crushed by the weight of the gyro pulling the belts tight.

I think the best way to mount belts would be a seprate "crash beam" that would extend upwards from the lower frame rail, between the diagonal mast braces, and have mounting points for the seat and shoulder belts.

Aside from seat belts, I havent seen much discussion about helmets other than they are very useful when they have communication gear built in, and I see them being very useful for preventing head injury or disorientation in something like hitting your head against the mast behind you etc.

anyone have anything to add?
 
On the seatbelt issue, ask any two people here, regardless of their level experience and expertise, and you'll often get differing opinions.

I decided that, for me, the restraint option that makes sense is a four-point, with the shoulder belts anchored below a fail-point on the mast. I'm building a Sport Copter Vortex, and Jim Vanek claims that in a blade strike, his mast will separate reliably at the folding joint above the anchor point for the belts.

I've seen a couple of Sport Copters in which builders managed, unfortunately, so test that under real-world conditions such as blade strikes, and it seems to work, so I'm comfortable with that.

Other designs may call for other strategies.

On the helmet issue, I can't see any practical way to communicate from a gyro without building the mic and earphones into the helmet.
 
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