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.