zaitcev.mee.nu

A member of local ultralight association has a gyroplane, and I saw it flying today. Nothing new for anyone who's been to Youtube, but still, it's quite nifty. In a nutshell, you get an aircraft that "does 90% of what a helicopter can do for 1/10th of the cost". Although a gyroplane cannot hover, it can land and take off in fairly confined spaces. Since the rotor is always in auto-rotation, an engine failure is a much less dramatic event than in a helicopter.

The most intriguing attribute of a gyroplane for me is its ability to operate in higher winds than airplanes. This problem is particularly acute in ultralight and sub-LSA airplanes with small wing loading. Many must stop operations as soon as it blows 7 knots, but a gyro easily lands in 30 knots from any direction.

Disadvantages exist as well. The "1/10th of the cost" only applies to the purchase price and maintenance, but the fuel consumption is pretty much the same as helicopter's, which is higher than in a comparable airplane. They are slow and their range is limited. The vaunted reliability is offset by rather odd handling. Remember that it's paramount to keep the air flowing through the rotor disk, so hitting a stiff downdraft may become fatal even high up. Training is hard to find and flying gyroplanes requires specialized skills.

Oh, and there's no legal way to buy a factory-new one in U.S.A. The bureaucrats forgot to include them into the LSA regulations, and nobody sells a certified model. Gyroplanes undergo a renaissance around the world, and most excellent European models have to be disassembled and then reassembled by owners using the 51% rule. Of course, unlike kitplanes, they do not become cheaper in such case. Buy American, I suppose.

So, not a silver bullet. But if I had a ranch, I would definitely look into getting one of these.

Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at 07:26 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
Post contains 321 words, total size 2 kb.