Pilots Say They "Love The Wind"

By David Juwel

The first thing you might notice when you look at the instrument panel of a gyroplane is that there is no stall indication on the airspeed indicator. That's because they don't (as one pilot put it) have the "stall demon" on their shoulders like fixed-wing pilots do. That was just one observation made at the Bensen Days 2010 Fly-in, held in Wauchula, Florida, this month. Bensen Days is sponsored by the Sunstate Rotor Club (Chapter 26, Popular Rotorcraft Association[PRA]), and this was their 37th event. Typically, about 100 gyroplanes fly or trailer in for the event.

Gyroplanes fly in a constant state of autorotation, which pilots say make them a very safe aircraft. "In a helicopter, if the engine quits, you have 2-seconds to shift into the autorotation mode if you want to survive," says airline captain and gyroplane pilot Roy Davis. "In a gyroplane, if the engine quits, it's not an emergency because the gyroplane flies in a constant autorotation mode. You just make a normal landing."

Davis also compared flying a gyroplane to a fixed-wing aircraft. "Fixed-wing aircraft typically land at 50mph plus, the bigger the aircraft, the higher the speed," he said. "Gyroplanes land at 0-10 mph."

Gyroplane pilots also say they "love the wind." In a high crosswind situation, the gyroplane pilot can simply modify his landing by turning directly into the wind, and then do a zero-roll landing on the runway or on the grass. Some of the more practiced gyroplane pilots can fly in winds as high as 30 mph. And, they say, the aircraft's ability to have precision control throughout their entire flight envelope also makes them very safe. They don't have to worry about a stall jumping up and biting them at the worst moment. Wind and stalls are two of the biggest influences in the realm of flying. The wind is less of an issue with gyroplanes, and the stall is no issue at all.

The safety issues of early gyroplane models have been addressed by advances in design. In the early days there were no 2-place aircraft. Pilots built from plans and learned to fly from a book of instructions. There were also design flaws that allowed the gyroplane to be unstable causing power pitch over's and pilot induced oscillations. Modern designs have engineered out those issues. Now you can purchase a completely safe and stable gyroplane, take flight instruction from a CFI in a 2-place machine, buy a quick build kit, and get adequate support in building and maintaining it.

The PRA says the industry has matured, and that today's gyroplanes are fun, safe, and affordable.

FMI: www.pra.org