Most Popular/safest Single seat Homebuilt

[BEN S]

Oh and Matt,

Sportcopters rule!

[NoWingsAttached]

So much depends on the builder and the quality of the build, the attention to detail, and then maintenance - along with experience and training! Probably boils down more to what are you looking for in a gyro, how much is your budget, and what is available at the time you are ready to make the purchase, as well as the questions about whether to build from plans, kit, or buy a pre-owned and flying gyro that is already ship-shape.

I love Dominators, they are really fun and easy to handle for the most part. For a new pilot, while a Dominator certainly is likely one of the most stabile flying platforms, on the other hand it can present unusual challenges for landing at times. For instance, there are easier blades to manage while landing, but they cost a lot more - sometimes DOUBLE. Also, there are far easier center-of-gravity airframes to manage in crosswind, and handle at touch down. To make the high Dominator CoG issue more excacerbated is the live and totally independant suspension which does not add to ease of handling in certain difficult landings, and can actually work against you to make matters worse if you don't know what you are doing. But then there are times when a hard drop can be absorbed by this landing gear, eliminating dangerous rebound while saving your butt from an expensive rollover. Bottom line, there always trade-offs, no matter what you are talking about in a gyro.

Plenty of good TYPE training is recommended when transitioning to a Dominator design, most especially for a low-time gyro pilot. And if you plan on landing in crosswinds, get adequate taining in those conditions in a tandem Dom!!! Your life may not be at stake, but those rotors cost a LOT to replace, not to mention props!

Low CoG singles like the Bensen style and all of its knock-offs (Bee, Hornet, KB, etc)are quite docile and easy to put down in the windy, bumpy stuff, but without shocks on the struts they can rebound and bounce back up and bite you in the arse... For a first timer's single place, I would recommend getting started in a low CoG machine, something that is relatively cheap, then moving up to a Dominator after a season or two. You can ALWAYS sell a gyro, so return on investment shouldn't be a worry.

Good luck, and have fun!

[Udi]

Blaming the pilots for accidents is an easy way to claim a superior safety record. I don't know of many gyro accidents that couldn't have been prevented by more training and more gyro experience. You can blame the RAF design, for example, for all of the PIO/PPO deaths. But the fact is that there are many pilots who fly this model safely for many years. Each one of these accidents could probably have been prevented if the pilot had more training and experience. Should the pilots be blamed?

I could say the same for almost every gyroplane accident on the record - be it a roll-over accident, to which some gyros are more susceptible, a PIO/PPO, an engine failure followed by a poor execution emergency landing, yaw instability that leads to loss of control, poor power to weight ratio, poor ground handling, poor rotor-tail clearance, roll-yaw coupling, torque-over, and so on. -- ALL can be prevented with more experience and training.

And so I believe a gyroplane selection should not ignore "pilot error". Which gyro model has the most hours flown with the least number of accidents - period! Of course there is no data available to answer this question but the FAA accident register gives a good flavor of what's going on, if you kinda know the models and popularity.

Udi

[aerialvisitor]

Perhaps Birdy can thoroughly describe the Feral for us, complete with photographs. Thanks.

Dave

[drleon]

i have been looking at my pile of plans and have been toying with the idea of a jt-5 without a cockpit maybe from aluminium tube and bolted or riveted
it's the fore runner of magni
as single seater it's got a great horisontal stab
not many flying though
designed around a vw

[helipaddy]

Or a Dominator with a JT-5 cockpit.....

That would be a serious bit of kit.

[drleon]

Personally
I have flown an air command single seater for two years
I prefer the lower machines compared to the others

[WaspAir]

From a pure numbers standpoint, there are probably more Bensens in existence than anything else, making them very popular. And also from a pure numbers standpoint, a whole mess of them aren't flying any more. A gyro won't crash if you don't fly it.
So, statistically speaking, is the most popular / safest single seat homebuilt a Bensen that doesn't fly?

[drleon]

Are there any plans built gyro's like the Aviomania Genesis ??

[Resasi]

The Genesis is/can be a plans built machine.

Build/buy that.

[raghu]

Originally Posted by Udi

Blaming the pilots for accidents is an easy way to claim a superior safety record. I don't know of many gyro accidents that couldn't have been prevented by more training and more gyro experience. You can blame the RAF design, for example, for all of the PIO/PPO deaths. But the fact is that there are many pilots who fly this model safely for many years. Each one of these accidents could probably have been prevented if the pilot had more training and experience. Should the pilots be blamed?

I could say the same for almost every gyroplane accident on the record - be it a roll-over accident, to which some gyros are more susceptible, a PIO/PPO, an engine failure followed by a poor execution emergency landing, yaw instability that leads to loss of control, poor power to weight ratio, poor ground handling, poor rotor-tail clearance, roll-yaw coupling, torque-over, and so on. -- ALL can be prevented with more experience and training.

And so I believe a gyroplane selection should not ignore "pilot error". Which gyro model has the most hours flown with the least number of accidents - period! Of course there is no data available to answer this question but the FAA accident register gives a good flavor of what's going on, if you kinda know the models and popularity.

Udi

could not agree more.