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Being skilled may reduce your risk per hour of a bad event occurring. The corollary is: your absolute risk may rise when you are exposed to more hours. This is what WaspAir points out below. If you fly enough: you will hit a bird. You will have an engine out. You will make a mistake...

Not hard to imagine an airplane without a stall warning horn. My previous plane had a stall warning horn, but at one point it was barely audible. And yes I fixed it. That said, I would have liked an AOA indicator, but it was cost prohibitive to add. Some would claim this is way more...

I'm an engineer, but not one who deals with metals. I'd probably start by looking at https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S003040262100454X If I had to guess, the aluminum was tempered (heat hardened) on the cut surface by the laser cutting, and the dimpling for flush rivets...

Interesting. I'm not sure how that would happen without a substantial shock load.

Yes, but sometimes you need to adjust when the pattern is busy. And sometimes the wind means it will be tough to make the runway, for example a strong cross wind. That said, you should always have a landing spot you know you can make.

I feel this picture from the FAA handbook leads to a general misunderstanding of the problem. I like to think of it as two distinct things with the same name: low and high speed blade flap. The diagram showing low speed. But high speed being what really wrecks gyros. And yes, I am sure...

Its more than that. Its the principal of exercise. "The principle of exercise states that those things that are most often repeated are the ones that are best remembered." The problem is aborted take offs in training are infrequent. And even more rare are aborted takeoffs due to improper...

You touched on one of the challenges I see for pilots learning to fly gyros. The rotor is a very effective break after landing. Its easy for a student to develop an association here. Especially for a fixed wing pilot, where stick back, at lower speeds, can also provide some breaking action ...

Not that I have noticed. That said, it can be pretty rough to fly a gyro in the winter, depending on what part of the country you are in. --So, you would think more are for sale in the winter, but I have not seen it. Maybe its because everyone is planning to fly in the spring. And then the...

Some of my students have reported that the simulators were counter productive to actually learning to fly. Small things like not properly aligning the gyro with the runway when landing, which requires use of the rudder and stick in an uncoordinated way when dealing with a cross wind. Or not...

For me, I take full advantage of altitude planning. If I am going somewhere, I fly with the most favorable winds. Typically quite high with a tail wind. I want as much speed as possible. I've done several 200 mile flights above 7500 AGL. (heresy for some I am sure) This is really nice in the...

Actually most light aircraft don't fly at 10,000 AGL or fly at 170 KTS. Below is a rather typical flight for a light airplane. 6000 AGL, and 115 mph (100 kts). Its a PA28A (Piper warrior I think). A gyro might do the same at 75 mph? --Not suggesting anyone buy a $100K gyro to do such...

Yep, you don't need a roof, lights or wipers on a car. You could restrict yourself to sunny days. But most people only have one car and it is equiped to travel in normal conditions. So, if you have one aircraft, and you want to use it to travel, you will want it to have the capabilities to...

Because you can and it makes the aircraft more useful. For example you have a crazy idea to fly 200 miles in your gyro. You would like to make it to your destination, but some clouds are on the path. Maybe you want to fly over terrain and would have to descend through a cloud deck. Or...

For me, a gyroplane IFR rating would be secondary. If I was flying at night and found myself in the clouds with an IFR capable gyro, I'd call ATC, declare an emergency, then fly the appropriate approach. That said, I am unlikely to have spent the money to equip my gyro with more than an...