I'm building mine!
I'm building mine!
I thought long and hard before I chose what Gyro to build, but I figured out what would be the ideal Gyro for me and I am building it. I am building a Single seater because that's how I will be flying most of the time. My wife supports me in this endeavor but has no desire to fly with me so realistically unless I deccide to become an instructor, (sometime in the unforseeable future) a single place machine is perfect for me.
It will have G-Force landing gear with a selector that can leave it in the raised position until I am ready to land, at which time I can release it and it will drop into position and be ready to absorb any landing forces that may be asked of it. Both the main and the nose gear will have air shocks or struts that can be raised or lowered to appropriate heights at the push of a button by air pressure from an on board tank.
It will have a shaft drive Metro Launch Pre-Rotator that will drive the rotors to full flight speed (over 300 RPM) for very short take offs, and none of the disadvantages of the current jump systems that have been developed so far.
It will have center line thrust and be an extremely stable, easy and safe machine to fly. It will have a large, airfoil shaped Horizontal Stabilizer, mounted on a very long moment arm that will add to the rock solid stability of my machine. It will also have a very aerodynamic shaped nose pod and wheel pants. Even the landing gear legs will be faired to reduce drag and to keep the drag centered near the center of gravity. Eventually their will be a fully enclosed cabin available for my Gyro that will make cold weather flying more plesant and it will bring the cruise speed of my Gyro to well over 100 MPH. (While this is still in development I have seen the prototype and it is one good looking cabin)
And if all of this is not enough, once on the ground I will be able to fold up the Rotors and Drive my SSC where ever I want to take it. Not only will it be a street legal and licensed road vehicle that I can drive home from where I am flying but once I land and want to take it back over to the hanger, or through the crowd at Mentone back over to where I am camping, I will shut down the main engine that drives the propeller (so there will be no dangerous spinning propeller) and I will just drive it like a motorcycle to where I want to go. Talk about convenience, this truly is the ultimate Gyroplane available in the world today.
Oh, and hopefully it will be powered by a dream powerplant. While it's not available yet and won't be available until the first of next year at the very soonest. If Gemini is able to bring it out on schedlule (and yes I realize this may not happen and I may have to fall back to plan # B, but there is a plan # B in place and it is totally awesome too) but if they have their new engine available by the schedule they believe they will hit, my machine will have a supercharged 100HP diesel engine that will be giving me a full 100 HP at 5,000 ft. (the altitude I will mostly be flying at) so I will have an economical (fuel sipping) and reliable engine with plenty of power to make my single seat Gyro a real performer.
Oh and I almost forgot, it's going to be BEAUTIFUL!!! I realize that beauty is in the eye of the beholder and I admit I may be prejudiced towards my own Gyro. but the question was asked, "So what would your Dream Gyro Be?" Well, I am building my Dream Gyro!!!! I wish it were going faster, because I really wanted to be flying it this summer. But it will be next year before it is done. But, it does take a little time to build a Masterpiece, and that's what I am building.
Gyro Doug
Butterfly Super Sky Cycle Builder
