This WEIRD Aircraft RUINED Flying For Me?!
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- Опубліковано 9 лют 2025
- **Get £10 off your entire Huel order using code "ROUTESABOVE" at checkout! bit.ly/49rzjwI **
I've never been more surprised of what these strange aircraft are capable of.. Here, Edward tries to put to rest the assumptions that people make on these funky light aircraft. Have you been flying in one of these? Let me know if you would or what your experience was!
Taking off from Kemble Airfield (Cotswold Airport) in Gloucestershire, UK, we flew around doing some amazing manoeuvres and having an all round blast.
The aircraft is a Rotorsport MTO Sport made in Germany by Auto Gyro.
Gyrocopters/gyroplanes are a strange piece of engineering and have A LOT more to offer than you might think..
Enjoy!
🙏 Special thank you to Edward for kindly inviting me to come flying and see what all the fuss is about. What an experience! 🙏
S U B S C R I B E
/ @routesabove
F O L L O W
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C O N T A C T
📧: routesabove@gmail.com
K I T
Flying:
Plane - PA28-161
Headset - Bose A20
GPS Map - SkyDemon (on iPad mini 5th gen)
Flight equipment 👉 www.pooleys.com/
Content Creation:
Camera - Insta360 x2, GoPro Hero 10 Black, Panasonic GH5
Laptop - 2022 M1 Pro Macbook Pro 14" 1tb & 32gb RAM
Editing Software - Davinci Resolve Studio
All my videos are shot, edited and delivered by me and a huge amount of effort goes into making these, along side my full time job. I don't make any money doing this and I do it because I love it. I'm in an incredibly fortunate position to be able to do all this and it's something I'm extremely grateful for. I do my best to reply EVERY comment on all of my videos and hearing what you (yes you) think of my content is ALWAYS greatly appreciated. I hope someday with your support that who knows, maybe this could be my new "job". If you like what I do here, then I would encourage you to subscribe and I look forward to sharing many more amazing experiences I have no doubt will be coming my way! To quote a fellow aviation UA-camr and friend, Caltitude - "Find something you love to do... And do it."
PLEASE NOTE: These videos are for entertainment purposes only. All of my videos, including this one, have been significantly edited down from the original full length raw footage. Many radio calls, checklist steps, and other procedures have been omitted to keep the videos a reasonable viewing length.
Please speak to a CFI with any flying questions you may have, do not use this video as instruction.
Featured footage for context used from below channels:
GyroGerald
adventureflightscostaricag80
sportcopter
AeroTendencias
baalkool9019
badgoy8439
tacaero_training
VTOLSociety
FlyEuropeTV
SethMcMurry
#aviation #pilot #flying
Would you dare climb on board of these if given the opportunity?! If any of you lovely people have an aircraft you be happy showing me around I’d love to hear from you 🙏🙏
Yup, I would. If they made one that can handle my massive frame at 2m, and 145Kg.
One of the most amazing air vehicles we have made. Loads after them LSAs. Opening a school in the next year or so across the pond. Oh and you cal totally hover a C172 and reverse it, I have had a C206 down to 4kts ground speed. Backed up a few Cubs as well.
I live a few miles from Sport Copter and have riden in them many times. I've also flown in an old McCulloch J2 with Jim Vanek , the owner of Sprot Copter. 😁
I have yet to see a gyro do what can't also be done in a Cub.
WEIRD punctuation. "Here, Edward tries to put to rest the assumptions that people make on [sic] these funky light aircraft" -- "about"
I still have some the PIECES of one that I owned back around 1995. Weight and balance was off and I did a "lawn dart" after the engine quit -- without the engine thrust, it would not flare. Shredded the aircraft, broke a rib and a bone in the foot... Ended up buying a fixed wing aircraft (Grumman) after that... They are not very forgiving of negative G maneuvers... Most pilots who make that mistake end up doing a nose over and dying...
I normally fly gliders but had the opportunity to take one of these up a few years ago.
Truly brilliant - I’d love one.
Pointed it into wind and sat stationary at 1000 feet.
There’s something surreal about sitting, perched on a plastic chair, with no bodywork around you and people walking their dogs directly below you.
Completely agree!!
Why are they more expensive than a plane since there are less to them
Dorr I mean less parts to them
@@gordonkeith9685 because there are less OF them
@@gordonkeith9685Planes are mass produced, which lowers production cost.
I took a trial flight in a Cessna, a Glider, and one of these. The Autogyro was by far the most exciting. He even let me land it, and I'd never flown one before.
Yeah they are a different box of frogs aren’t they!!
I took a trial flight last year, like you, first time in an autogyro and was allowed to land it several times.I've been up in a couple of light aircraft and gliders but never got close to actually landing one. The last landing was a simulated engine failure! Wow, it just shows how safe these vehicles are. I'm going to start proper lessons this year.
Not sure how/why Google recommended this video to me, but I'm glad it did. Watched from start to finish! Really made me smile!
Thank you so much for the kind words and I’m glad you enjoyed it!! 🤟🤟
I don't watch aviation video but UA-cam algo compels me
Glad I could be of service
Same here haha. I fly fixed wing but I’ve always wanted to give one of these a go
@ Defo give it a go James!!
3:40 Can we all just take a moment to appreciate that spectacular bit of piloting to land that so smoothly at that speed? That was amazingly well saved
Moment taken, completely agree
I am a fix and rotary private pilot, in 2007 I bought a Magni 16 gyro which I flew 700 hours in 8 years. If you get proper training and fly by the book there should be no problems at all.
700 hours in 8 years that's very good going!! Yeah agree a lot falls down to who is flying..
They had some badass pilots at Oshkosh this year flying gyros. I went there with one opinion of them and left with another really impressed
I’d love to have seen that and yes, they are incredible aren’t they!! Happy flying chap
This video has been sitting at the top of my recommended list for the best part of a week now, and refuses to go away.
Did you finally give in?
I built and flew my Air Command gyro back in 1988, (first legal one in NZ) great fun and safer than a helicopter, great machines. Taught to fly it by a grandmother in Tracy, USA,
Amazing and what a mission to build your own! Happy flying
Marion Springer? Excellent instructor by all accounts. Utterly pragmatic and sensible approach she had. I flew in an early dual aircommand as well with my CFI found it a pussycat.
I have my PPL SEL, IFR student, and gyro student. Now I'm considering a complete switch to gyro. Exciting, fun, capable, safe, but less practical for longer journeys.
Oh amazing, yeah goes to show doesn’t it!! Amazing machines
I was a PPL A pilot with a slightly sniffy attitude to microlights when I started. However, after learning a little more, realising they were better in almost every way, I converted, bought my own (several) & never looked back.
Fantastic! Happy flying Paul
Depends what you need it for. I never had a sniffy attitude towards any aircraft and spent my life flying. I've noticed that attitude among small plane owners. Some are like yacht owners.
@@paulgraham6353 Yup. I don't have anything against any specific aircraft, except where safety is concerned - e.g. I would probably not fly a paramotor because they don't seem that safe. Especially since youtubers that I watch have had partial wing collapses in conditions that really didn't seem that extreme...
Used to holiday twice a year where a flying school sold flights in autogyros, just for that, until the school closed. Looking down over mountains and coastline from an open cockpit with the side only up to knee level was an amazing experience, and easy to fly - instructor said try a landing on the first ever flight. Safety - the instructor said 80% of incidents are ground handling, not in flight, mostly due the wind catching the rotors high up and the leverage of the mast. The Germans allegedly call it the Flying Motorcycle, a good analogy due to it's size and handling. I really miss flying one.
Amazing, thanks for the comment. They are amazing bits of kit and I honestly did have no idea they were this much fun..
Ground upsets aside historically the serious accident stats for gyros is far worse than helos and vastly worse than f/w.
@@markashford827 This is true but its more due to historically difficulties getting good instruction - still can be an issue. For many years the only engines many of us could get were VW and Subaru, most of these were direct drive and so dual powered machines were all but impossible. The Mac Engines while powerful were not available everywhere and were highly unreliable. Where you could get gyroglider training you could learn most of what you needed with an instructor but you still had to do supervised ground instruction. Unfortunately the advent of the Rotax 532 (65hp) did allow for dual machines but the typical two seater back then probably had an empty weight of 130ish kg. Stick in fuel and two heefty blokes and the machine was a slug with a similarly powered single seat machine weighing 1/3 less in the air meant more than an additional 1/3 performance increase. Now I personally was lucky my instructor didn't throw out the glider and ground training when such two seaters became available he kept the glider then after solo in that we did dual powered training (a few hours) then we transitioned to our single seat machines doing hours of ground runs. Never saw an accident at that club. But saw plenty at others. The advent of the 4 stroke rotax engines meant they could build much heavier two seat machines like this one. The very dangerous aspect of gyros in going negative G, you need to maintain positive g load on the disk or the airflow reverses and the rotors stop in about 1 second. If that happens there is no recovery. Unfortunately people still push these machines fast thinking modern designs have solved all the issues- they haven't. My advice is stick below 100mph get as good training as you can and be disciplined. All the maneuvers you experienced in your flight here are safe. People however don't always stick to these. As a sport I believe we need to get back to basic blade management none of the 200rpm and go - this leads to most accidents (trying to avoid other issues due to traditionally poor understanding of rotor dynamics). We are loosing the lighter end of the sport and very few can afford these machines now. They are perfectly safe if flown within their limits. You can't compare the accident statistics to make assumptions about the aircraft. They are a reflection of not just the machines which are fine but the training quality. Helicopters are more dangerous but pilots are trained to extreme levels compared to gyros or fixed wings. We are still on a journey to really being good at the whole instruction thing. There are excellent instructors and there are others. Our sport still has lots of myth surrounding it and this doesn't help us. The gyros though are amazing and safer if flown within their limits.
@@cameronlapworth2284 I see that you know the topic well, so maybe you can explain a few things that I don't understand... For example, how did the guy make a U-turn while practically hanging in place? After all, in order to hang in the air, this machine must have the wind in its nose. The moment he turned around, he must have had the wind at his back! This is the first thing I don't understand.
@@Zbigniew_Nowak hi, a couple of things to understand how to do this. First you fly in the air so it's movement relative to the ground is only relevant in relation to turbulence and if impacting the ground. So for example a hot air balloon for the passengers feels like it is in still air but it will be moving with the wind. You could be doing 50mph in a hot air balloon and hang a hankie out and it will point straight down. So if I flew a turn around a hot air balloon in my gyro it be a nice basic circle relative to the air. So to do this normally you turn with yaw string and constant bank etc and it will be a nice turn. Problem is if fixated on the ground pilots will try to turn a perfect circle over the ground to do that can get very very dangerous. In fact and forgive the side track here a number of ppo type accidents happen turning from downwind to final in circuit. I don't know but believe something like this might be happening. Let's say you have a 15mph tailwind on downwind leg. You start your turn normally for but the turn doesn't seem to be doing anything. Because the wind relative to the ground is pulling him further he increases bank this requires more power so he increases throttle and pulls in more back stick. Airspeed increase too. In fact to make the normal looking turn he does quite a bank quite a lot of back stick and quite a bit of power. Now when he's pointing back into wind the blades were SO loaded up that he suddenly having straightened everything up again has excess lift and he climbs but he's trying to land so instead of waiting he pushes the stick forward. This momentarily gives even more lift because the vector is more vertical and his blades have excess energy due to the high energy turn so he pushes forwards again this time unloading the disk. I repeat I'm not sure this is what's happening but it's plausible. The thing to do in downwind turns is be aware the ground from a safe height is going to be a very different sight picture so just do a normal gentle turn and accept the drift, turn earlier etc. So back to your question point 1 is the aircraft doesn't know it's in wind it's flying in a moving body of air it flies relative to that air. Point 2 is to do with inertia. You can if you build speed first build inertia in the rotors like a fly wheel thus you can build excess rotor speed turn before you loose all the excess revs then carry on. The guy in this video has a 100hp two stroke engine. Massively overpowered so many of his manovers are essentially hanging on the prop allowing the engine power to overcome the drag of the rotors. On my old VW gyro which was relative to this underpowered I could hold full power a lot of back stick getting high rotor rpm and hold height down to 12mph my normal flight speed was 35 to 40mph. His machine is lighter bigger prop and about 45 more HP so he can hang the do a quick rudder turn and hardly loose any rotor rpm. Do more and you'll start descending but not falling about 800fpm down but a you can build then use inertia
A super little clip highlighting the versatility of these little machines. It took just one trial lesson with a very able instructor and I was hooked.
They are amazing bits of kit aren’t they. Glad you enjoyed!!
I'll never forget my trial lesson in a gyrocopter out of Rufforth Airfield. Swooping low over Castle Howard's lake and snaking down the River Derwent after flying through the centre of York. Truly amazing (and safe).
Love it
My uncle flew gyros his whole life. He would do these flippy-spinny stunts over the house that I can't explain but the nervous family members would rush inside not to watch. National Geographic asked him to do an expedition with gyros in Antarctica in the late 80s, he declined. Know the song "Red Barchetta" by Rush? That's how I always thought of my uncle - he's got treasures out behind the property in the garages no one's ever been. I think it's time to visit my uncle
Love this story!!
Very well presented video. I have flown "open cockpit " in hang gliders and ultralights. This looks like it was an amazing experience.
Maximum amount of fun !
Thank you! Yeah such a fun experience and way more capability than you’d (or at least I) think
Went up with Edward in that machine not long after he got his licence at Clench. Very similar characteristics to a weight shift except doing what he demonstrated in your video, that of flying stationary in to wind. Felt weird and I found myself looking up for the imaginary hang bolt that is present on a weight shift.
Great footage by the way.
👍🛩
Oh cool! Yeah such an experience, thank you and I’m glad you enjoyed!
I'm saving money for a closed canopy Cavalon Sentinel Side by Side seat Gyroplane. Hopefully, in 7 months, I will have mine. I was hooked when I went on a trial flight. It is unreal. Never felt anything like it. I love the fact it can get into tight areas to go camping. Especially if there is a stiff nose wind, it can land in a few feet. Thanks for sharing exactly how I felt after a test ride.
You are more than welcome and I'm glad you enjoyed!! Best of luck with your flying endeavors, it's going to be a blast!!
The Low flying in the field at 90mph looks like an absolute blast.
I can confirm that is exactly what it was
i remember seeing a gyrocopter in a book of aircraft when i was a kid in the 80s and thinking they were the neatest things, may have even been a drawing of that first old timey one you showed. glad to see they're still around.
@@this.is.a.username love it, yeah they are interesting bits of kit I’ll give you that
25 years ago I got my pilots licence. I flew for awhile. But a little cesna is not bird like. I didn't continue. This looks like the flying experience I was hoping for. I have been aware of autogyros for years and years. But this video does a great job of really showing the experience.
Never flew one of these, but we’ve been up in fixed wing, weight shift, and even powered paragliders. We love all forms of flight.
You'll love this when you do go in one
As a Career helicopter Pilot and hobbyist paraglider pilot. I certainly wouldn't mind having a go at one of those. Looks like fun though not hugely different from helicopters.
I bet you've got some good stories Mr Bob! Yeah definitely worth giving it a go if you can!
Built one of these when I was 10. From a set of Benson plans .One of the safest things to fly.
Love it!
Flying normal aircrafts didn't attract me so much -> too much cabin around (coming from paragliding, rc-modeling). But several years ago, when I flew in an autogyro, I was thrilled and couldn't resist to make a SPL for it. Since then, I love to fly those incredible autogyros only! The sight, the wind, the flap-flap, when it decends and does tight turns sounds sometimes like a Huey 🙂. I love the capabilities of handling strong winds and gusts, where nobody of our airstrip is willing to take off in their LSA, the gyro is very capable of flying safely and much more comfortable through thermals than a fixed wing. Love this so much!
Thanks for the comment! Yeah it's a totally different type of flying isn't it, so much more exposed and so much performance in a little package. Glad you enjoyed 😎 Much appreciated!!
As a Spaniard with no previous aviation interest I always though gyros were just our little quirky but not remarkable contribution to aviation history. Thanks for proving me wrong!
You are most welcome, glad you enjoyed!! They are surprising to say the least aren’t they!
I love my MTO Sport (the same as the one in this video other than mine has a 912 rather than the 914).
I've wanted to fly since I was very young and always imagined myself flying fixed-wing. Since flying the autogyro, I no longer have any desire to fly anything else.
I love the jealous looks we get from the guys at the fixed-wing flight-school next door when they're out tying down their Pipers and Cessnas and we're preparing our machines for flight.
Yes, they will fly in conditions which will ground almost everything else at our airport, but just don't expect to actually go anywhere (at least, not quickly if you are against the wind).
It's also an awesome feeling being cleared for a zone-transit, in something so small, directly overhead the local international airport with loads of heavy-metal milling about below.
One drawback of these aircraft is that they are very hard to spot in the air. The most reassuring thing I hear on the radio is, "visual with the gyro".
One of the things you could try was to paint one blade a different color than the other. This was done in Viet Nam and when seen from above was more effective than a strobe.
@@tfogelson3139 Ooh, that's a good idea.
"it's nice to have an unrestriced view isn't it?"
"errm yeah..." (looks down, then nervously checks his nappy)
😅😂
These are vastly underrated unfortunately. The is now a vertical take off gyro for sale, has a clutch to adjust blades for correct angle of attack vie a simple button on the cyclic. These aircraft are perfect for the newer, lighter, 500wh/kg now available. Batteries offer massive /instant torque that a gyro begs for. The gyro future looks bright,eco clean, affordable.
Not really, that gyro requires a 120hp 914 to carry two people at 80mph. My fixed wing Eurostar requires a standard 80hp 912 to carry two people at 90 mph. They need more power, regardless of whether that is from an ICE or electric motor
My Dad built and flew his own gyrocopters. He would have loved this video.
Amazing, what an achievement!
I have flown an autogyro several times and had a ball. I would do it again in a heartbeat.
They are amazing aren’t they!
So much fun!! I love flying in gyros!
They are fantastic
I had no idea! All very cool, but sitting stationary above the ground was next level.
Crazy isn’t it!!
Incredible video! I will try one someday! My only disagreement is his statement that you can't fly a fixed-wing aircraft that slow without stalling. During flight training in college we had a Cessna 150 Aerobat that was quite heavy. I was on a cross-country alone flying into a strong headwind and was able to dump flaps & slow down enough to fly backwards. I was over I-20 or I-30 going west into Dallas & it was strange watching vehicles pass me & see I was travelling backwards.
Thanks for the comment and glad you enjoyed! Yeah fair point, I should have emphasised how low we were because we were at about 1500 ft at about 15kts, I know in the right conditions that many aircraft could technically impersonate a hover like this but they would need faster winds etc..
He was right, you can't fly a fixed wing like that. The stall speed of your Aerobat is 42kn.
This production quality deserves a lot more subscribers
🙏🙏
great video. never realized til now how great these gyros are!!!
Me neither, great bits of kit aren't they! Glad you enjoyed!
Helped build one. They are fabulous. However, unlike a fixed wing aircraft, they cannot take any negative G. Put the nose down and it's all over.
40 years ago, in Newry, where I live, there was a vertical quarry face opposite where I was working, and a storm blowing straight onto it. An army spotter plane sat vertically above it without any forward movement for 10 mins. Pilot was enjoying himself.
True facts about the negative G. And wow I bet that was a strange sight!! 😅
That's a reasonable thing to believe because it was true of most gyroplanes for a couple decades, but it's no longer correct. Igor Bensen somewhat revived interest in them in the '70s and '80s, and for cheapness and simplicity of manufacture he popularized designs with no, or grossly inadequate, horizontal stabilizers. These designs were vulnerable to a phenomenon called "buntover", in which the machine can flip from happily flying to unrecoverably upside-down in seconds if the rotor is unloaded. Bensen arguably saved gyroplane technology from complete oblivion, but his negligence also quite rightly saddled the toys people built with a reputation as deathtraps, since they would abruptly drop their hobbyist builders out of the sky for reasons that only aircraft engineers understood.
Modern designs like this one all have big horizontal stabilizers placed well back from the CG and the cockpit wind shadow, and are therefore not vulnerable to buntover.
As for overall safety, I wouldn't say the stats are actually there to back up the claim in the video but ceteris paribus I'd feel safer in a modern gyroplane than a modern small airplane (let alone a *typical* small airplane, which is built 40-50 years ago and designed 70-90). Everyone focuses on the engine-out scenario, and it's true that a gyroplane's ability to land just about anywhere with almost no roll makes engine-out an inconvenience rather than the dangerous emergency it is in a plane. However, it's a statistical fact that airplanes whose engines fail do overwhelmingly find suitable enough landing places, and even if the plane is wrecked a large majority of people involved walk away with no injuries or a bruise. Rather, the big argument for gyroplanes' relative safety is low-altitude stall/spin, which is the airplane's snap failure mode. For decades it's been the number one killer in small aircraft by a mile. A perfectly adequate pilot has a bad moment and pulls that little bit too hard trying to save a muffed approach or after losing track of airspeed, maybe pushes the rudder where they want the nose, and the plane rolls over and falls. Gyroplanes just...can't do that thing.
Never understood why autogyros aren't more common. They are superb little craft and way safer than microlights.
Completely agree
my best friends dad in high school (46) years a go had one of these back then they were all the rage for light air craft
Love it
I'm semi-obsessed with autogyros. It's like a magic trick!
It’s exactly that!!!
Ah man loving this content!! Great production
Glad you enjoy it!
Was able to get an introduction flight in an MTO a few years ago and then took a few lessons from a guy named Dwayne Hun i believe. We flew RAF2000's it was amazing to experience. I will get back in one as soon as i possibly can.
Amazing, yeah in the right hands these things are great. Happy flying
Excellent video, really enjoyed that. Never flown in a gyro but the video certainly made me want to. They aren't cheap to go up in compared to fix wing but worth it by the looks of it. 👍
Thanks Ben! Much appreciated!! Yeah defo worth a go if you get the chance, especially if you’re used to fixed wing, you eyes will be opened 😅😅. Happy flying my friend
So impressive to watch this incredible flying technic. Piloting on such a gyroplane requires serious skills, I think. It all seems so simple and easy. But I think this is a deceptive feeling. My credit for you guys and full respect Very nice video compilation
Couldn't agree more! Thanks for the comment and kind words 😊
@@RoutesAbove Of course, keep going
Its not that hard. The vertical stuff is just stick right back and hold some power for rudder authority. The low stuff you need to watch your speed but they are very maneuverable. Myself I wish they wouldn't show all this low stuff. Look its great fun and this guy would have check out the area for powerlines maybe even gotten permission of the farmer in question. But this is never mentioned. I know one guy flew through powerlines buzzing a farmers house, he survived with serious injuries. Another I know was decapitated flying low over a river that had a power line recently strung across it. If you are going to do this you really need to know the land and KNOW there is nothing to collide with. In my country a number of people have clipped not only powerlines, but one hit his rotors on a combine harvester (killing himself) others have hit trees etc. clipped blades on the ground. So you need to be careful. But the turns aren't that hard these things can fly much more aggressively than this. But risky.
@@cameronlapworth2284I know someone who wrote off his car driving in a straight line at around 40mph, in a 40mph zone, in broad daylight with good weather, dry roads and good visibility. They crashed because they weren't paying attention. Thousands of people travel along that road at 40mph each day, and accidents are relatively rare. The same person has written off two other cars. Give this gyro pilot some credit, he clearly knows what he's doing and has probably been flying there for years. If someone does the same things and kills themselves, it doesn't mean that thing shouldn't be done, it does mean it should only be done when it's safe to do so.
@RoutesAbove absolutely
My Dad had one back in the 70's built if from a kit, flew it a hand full of time, then while he was testing some new rotors on the the end weights brike off and it totally became unbalanced and crashed to the ground, luckily he was only 15-20' in the air, one of the cables whipped around the mast and took a big gouge put of his helmet, I'm sure he had a concussion and bruised but other than that came away fine. He did not try again, which the family was grateful
Jeez that’s actually totally nuts, glad he’s ok and thanks for sharing!! What a story
That trampoline double bounce thing is called a "Kip".
I did not know this haha!!
A friend and I built a Benson Gryocopter and I personally flew it for 66hours. I will say the copter is one adrenaline pumping S O B. I decided to sell it because my friend was taking to many chances with flying it and I didn't want to see him killed. I will say it was sure fun. I had an engine out over an interstate highway. I flew over a bridge on it and landed in a muddy field not turning a wheel on it. My friend and I picked it up and carried it out of the field.
Oh amazing, glad you got out ok! Thanks for sharing
Your friend wasn’t Bill Benson in New York was it?
Wildest looking flying machine ever. I used to watch them flying at Frederick Maryland FDK.
Yeah amazing bits of kit aren’t they
The first autogyro was flown at Hendon Air Show in the 1930s.
I take it that the Gyrocopter Girl content in my history has brought me here 😃
😅
I remember seeing the bond film when I was very young back in the late 1960's thinking that "little nelly" was a mini helicopter. Then in the late 1980's I began to research it and discovered the history of the gyroplane / autogyro. It is an amazing story and truly inspiring to discover that a spanish engineer solved the number one engineering challenge that made powered rotor flight possible. The problem with powered rotor flight is the gryoscopic rotational force induced by the spinning rotor. This force causes a rigid rotating wing to induce a vertical rotation on the craft and would always cause them to flip over when they got off the ground. In a rotor craft you also have to account for the increased lift of the forward rotation and the decreased lift of the backward rotation which is problematic with a ridged winged rotor. Jaun de la Cierva discovered the models he made with flexible rotors flew better than the models he made with rigid rotors. This inspired him to develop hub assemblies that allowed the rotors to flex up and down and forward and backward during the rotation to account for the various changing lift forces during flight. This initial hub design was later adapted to the powered rotor concept of helicopters. I believe Jaun understood how to achieve powered rotor flight but the material science available at the time could not produce a material strong enough to handle the forces involved with a powered rotor. I personally feel that every engineering course that discuses powered rotor flight should emphasize how crucial Juan's discoveries were to the eventual invention of the helicopter.
Thanks for comment, yeah Juan did some amazing work didn't he!!
I have an Hypothesis. He was so good piloting this, that he did 80% of what you ask an helicopter to do. So he invented the talented pilot helicopter. I saw videos of him landing basically anywhere in a little space. He just calculated the wind speed and direction and voila! He died in a plane crash :(
AFAIK he did not try to create a helicopter. He tried to create a safer alternative to fixed wing aircraft. Aviation was very dangerous back then. The low stall speed of the autogyro made it more forgiving during takeoff and landing, when many accidents occurred.
This video was so enjoyable.
Thank you!!
that was an awesome video I never knew they could do some of the things i just seen in this video it was incredible
Thank you! Love to hear that feedback and yeah pretty crazy right! I was blown away too haha
I've seen a PA-12 flying backwards, had wind speeds across the glenn flats at 140mph.
!!
I wish I was 50 years younger, I'd be into this in a heart beat.
Never too late!
Come on man! I'm 72 and just started to get into it. What a way to spend my QTR=Quality Time Remaining. Sport Pilot Training starting next month in Arkansas.
This is what we like to hear!! Happy flying my friend!
MAD MAX!😉🚁
Had a couple of goes (at Popham and Cromer). They're great but can't quite get used to the constant vibration. I know it's perfectly safe but still unnerving. Noisy and thirsty. Guy at my airfield has one, he's quite new and not yet offered me a go.
Yeah it's a bit of a different sensation I'll give you that.. All part of the experience maybe?
Gyroplane is the latest and greatest term for these. Yes, in the beginning back when de la Cierva was building them and licensing the design, etc. they were called autogyros, or autogiros, and later gyrocopters (contemporary to the usage of the Bensen Gyrocopter called Little Nellie in the Bond movie), but things change with time. Back in the day the early designs had wings and rotors, but it was soon found the wings were completely unnecessary, so they were removed from the design. In the beginning the engine arrangements were all tractor, but they've been transitioned to pusher designs for a long time now.
During ww2, the RAF used autogyros for radar calibration purposes.
Didn’t know this!!
"From two thousand feet you've got about two minutes."
Wow, I remember jumping out of an airplane parachuting down and it felt like the entire time was less then two minutes and that was from about 7500 ft. I've never piloted anything powered and honestly it went poorly for me with the parachute being solo (serious go tandum first, it's silly but my goodness it'll hurt less, I'm still in pain 4 years later). Autogyro's literally buy you more time then just being a dude in a parachute. I always wanted one, now I REALLY want one.
Thanks for sharing and really happy you liked this! Yeah I’ve done a tandem and would love to get a solo jump under my belt or even get my AFF. Defo give the autogiro a go if you can!!
i had a thrilling afternoon ride in on of these machines over the lakes of the lake district in england, i had just of my motorcycle and into on of these and it was like a flying motorcycle great fun when we beat up the air field at low level.
Ah amazing, love it
Presume that was with the guy who runs Troutbeck ?
Love to see more of the amazing little machines
Totally agree
nicely edited mate. been watching a few of your shorts over the last few months
Thank you mate, much appreciated. A lot of work goes into these so great to hear. Stay tuned for plenty more 🙏
gyros have a dangerously underrated phenomena: the stall speed relares to g load and rotor rpm, not necessarily related to airspeed...... hence those many accidents (stalling the rotor) followed by a deadly not recoverable tumbling rapid descent. u hv to understand that and at all times keep ur rotorspeed above a min. In a tight turning manoeuvres u can easily loose oversight and..... impact rapidly!
Yes true facts. Thanks for the comment
I've been told that historically there were more autogyro accidents because they didn't put proper tails on them. This one obviously has a nice big fat tail on it, so it has a lot more inherent stability.
Didn't know this! Makes sense, thanks for the comment
The danger part is misleading. If you are a fixed wing pilot your instinct in a stall is push the stick forward. If you do this in an auto-gyro you will fall from the sky as you will have unloaded the blades. Looks like lots of fun tho. Stay safe
A great video - love it!
Thank you so much!!
That would absolutely terrify me !!
I reckon you'd love it, give it a go!
I always liked tha guys with their huge kites and lawnmower motor props
Haha it’s a style isn’t it
They look like fun. Fixed wing can hover go backwards etc. Just depends on the wind aloft.
This is true, I guess we were also really low when we did it in the video so should have made more of a point in that.. glad you enjoyed!
@@RoutesAbove Years back when I instructed we did a morning test flight just to make sure conditions were safe for students. I would take a student they flew and we did a circuit. One morning we were at about 300 we had flaps down for landing and as we slowed down, the 150 stopped then we started to go backward. The tower was impressed. A short time later the upper wind went to ground. Memories.
Amazing, that's what it's all about isn't it!!
INgenious
And thank you for the test flight 😍
Glad you liked it!
I always say that autogyros are aviation fun distilled.
Very much agree
I’ve flown a Piper backwards in a stiff headwind.
!!
this is basically what convertible drivers try to get regular car drivers to experience. it's so hard to go back to a normal car after
Haha yes very true
Living in Canada and seeing the cross country map made me giggle a little bit
Hahaha I bet
Autogyro is nearly perfect light affordable and fun aircraft, but as any aircraft it deserves commin sense, respect and *proper training* for it to be truly safe, mainly, but not exclusively, due to the thing called "rotor unload", that can easily be a deadly trap for an inexperienced reckless operator.
Yes very true and completely agree 👍
i've seen tarmac runways, i've seen gravel runways, i've even seen metal runways, but this is the first grass runway i've ever heard of
No way?! Never heard of metal runway or are you pulling my little legs?
@@RoutesAbove Read that again. Seen a metal runway but never a grass runway
There are some pretty wild gyro pilots out there .one of my favorites was an Australian outback guy called 'birdie' .. he used his gyro for cattle mustering. Boy can he handle that thing like he was in a rodeo . His videos are on UA-cam . Worth a look . He was also flying a gyro on the first Mad Max movie too I believe.
Amazing!! I’ll be sure to check him out. What a great use case haha!
I don't have any interest in flying but these look like they would be awesome fun. Despite my lack of interest in flying I'm probably going to have to look up the physics behind how they work.
Glad you enjoyed! Yeah they are a pretty interesting bit of kit!!
At 3:36 where you show the video of an MD600N autorotating to a hard landing and splitting the skids, that happened at the same airport I was based out of while I did my helicopter flight training. That was at Gillespie Field a little east of San Diego, KSEE, in the US, and it was a US Border Patrol helicopter.
Thanks for sharing that! I'm in Escondido
Cool video! While flying is amazing which I do on a Diamond DA40 TDI, you have inspired me to try this one too.
I'm glad I could be of assistance! Diamond aircraft ay, that's pretty mega. Maybe we could swap? 😅
My wife says she wants one of these. She says they are so cool.
Last minute Christmas present then? 🧐😅
@@RoutesAbove naw. She is just talking. I think it would scare her.
Only one way to find out though..
I'm a PPL and must pay to have a ride in one of these as it looks like a lot of fun
Just read the fatal accident report for Cavalon G-CKYT - didn't look like the student pilot did anything too terrible to result in the rotor head separating?
Huh? Negative G and gyros don't mix. Inexperience I suspect and in my view the most likely people to have issues flying gyros are fixed wing converts. Gyros are incredibly safe, but like any aircraft, if you fly outside the box ....
These are safe, as long as the main rotor is attached of course 😁
True facts
Some dude says its safe, so it must be true...
Remember OceanGate?
😬😬
autogiro is a BLAST. i flew at the autogyro school at rochester, kent.
With Kai? My mate Matt runs the microlight school there
i flew this thing once, because i was kinda forced to. at the end of the demonstration flight, on which i could fly it too for some time, the demo pilot asked me if he can show me one stunt. i answered yes: the greatest stunt which i will appreciate the most will be the finals and a full landing!) i feel thousand times better in my glider.
Ah great that you've got the experience to compare the two! I look forward to gliding some day.
I became fascinated with the autogyro from Mad Max.
Didn’t know one was featured there too!!
If you are impressed by the open air flight and free view all around you, you should really try paramotoring some time as well. There are downsides to that type of flying, when it comes to range and weather, but being able to see everything around you, which is not blocked by your own body, that is really something. There are tandem options there as well.
Back in my day 99% of gyros were open frame so much like that too.
Or a flexwing microlight.
Can they be made slightly larger for a canopy/cabin and a wee bit more seating space? Also, would they benefit from having small wings/winglets on the main body?
Great question! Honestly no idea but makes sense! I'll have to leave it to the engineers in the comment section to advise :)
I have been convinced for a very long time that an autogyro is a superior aircraft for many applications. IMHO
I'm getting there I'll tell you that!!
Great video! Is the noise for the people on the ground better or worse than a regular airplane?
Thank you! As it's a smaller engine it's a bit more quiet but by no means subtle
Looks like it's the bike of the sky haha 😂
haha yes
I wouldn't want to spend 4 hours in this thing going cross country.
And I wouldn’t wanna ride a skateboard for four hours cross country. What is your point?
@lebojay Did you watch the video?
Wow that is really cool
Not bad ay!
This does look like huge fun.....but, I visited the AAIB a couple of years ago. I was given a tour around the tragic hanger of wreckage, which is incredibly sobering and very moving. In one bay, there were some bin bags with thousands of small bits of wreckage, the largest of which seemed to be half the size of a small lawn mower, and along one side, lying on the floor along the length of the bay, what was left of a main rotor blade system from an autogyro. After a brief conversation with the inspector showing me round, she explained she flew helicopters as well as fixed wing. Then she said quietly as we stared at the tragic remains, "Why would you fly an auto gyro?" I don't know the specific sequence of events leading up to that fatal accident, (although I do know it was not a CFIT - 'Controlled Flight Into Terrain' event, but some form of mechanical failure) and of course it would be totally wrong to comment or speculate further on it, but I did leave with a feeling that despite their wonderful freedom and unique attributes, I would be very unsure about flying one. Is there a reason that fixed wing or even more expensive, light helicopters still far out number the autogyros on register? It's a genuine question, not a criticism based on fact.
I guess, as with a lot of aviation, with many hours of instruction and flying experience, to some degree, you improve your chances and make your own luck, but I have heard several scary stories about autogyros.
I went Bruntingthorpe once to look at one for sale (I was testing there at the time) It was fitted with an old Arrows two stroke engine and looked distinctly home built (it wasn't) What put me off was the owner stated, if you overspeed, you have about four seconds to sort it out before the rotor deflects into the tail. Newer machines are far, far safer.
@iamthefatstig
I'm sure they are, but of all the things I've flown in including an airship, a couple of things remain off my to do list; autogyros and an R22 and possibly also an RR44. Not quite enough helicopter for me!
The early ones are claimed to have had a very good safety record (they were typically tractors with big tails with a thrustline inline with the CG and the fuselage drag). Where things appeared to go South for them was with cheap homebuilt ones (think "buy these plans for $10" in the ad section of a popular mechanic magazine) after the war that can trace their roots back to German Gyrogliders used on U-Boats. Folks were strapping bigger and bigger motors onto a relatively complex set of dynamics (a vertically shifting center of drag as you speed up) and edging closer to one of the two areas of concern in a gyro - powered pushovers (and negative gs). The other issue was that many of these designs did not appear to have a horizontal stabilizer (which helps address the first problem too) and it was possible to set up a situation with pilot induced oscillations which makes for a rapidly reduced life expectancy.
Ultimately all aircraft will kill you if you push them outside of their envelope. Modern gyrocopters, thanks to the work of folks like Tervamaki, and the folks at Magni (who I believe worked on Helicopter design before starting their own thing) have identified many of the post war design issues in combination with the work the Civil Aviation Authority did with the University of Glasgow. In the US you'll see people trying to centralise thrustlines with centers of drag and / gravity as well as push for better horizontal stabilizers. Just as there are many fixed wing layouts, there are more than a few gyrocopter layouts, but thought around horizontal stabilizer design, thrust line and potentially the cg of the rotor in relation to its aerodynamic center are why the modern Gyros are not even close to the "devices" from the 50s and 60s.
I think we need to look at longer-term trends on these craft. Now that they are designed with inherent stability, are designed by folks with serious rotorcraft design experience and with a body of knowledge around the causes of the failures in the 50s and 60s I would be and have been comfortable flying in them (there is one make in particular which emphasizes safety that I prefer). The stories that people refer to frequently turn out to be verrry old, and verrry poor designs (another analogy like comparing a modern dual surface hang-glider which can stall and recover versus an early Rogallo wing which you stall, you die).
What killed a lot of people in the past was gyros being designed and built by amateurs (a little like the flying flea in the 20s and 30s - over time they fixed that design but people don't fly them anymore), irresponsible marketing "this is a STOL aircraft", (they're typically not, they need a reasonable length of runway in order to takeoff (and unlike a fixed wing, the takeoff is the difficult bit (not the landing)) but the landing can and will be very safely and easily short) and poor (or in the case of the 50s and 60s, likely non-existent) training.
Modern stable designs, and effective gyrocopter specific training make this a very different situation today.
@jtjt210
Thank you for your fantastic detailed reply!! I love it! Yes, over the many years I have been involved in the fringes of aviation, I have read quite a lot about autogyros and truth be told, they do still fascinate me and it's no doubt more about my own prejudice that I still find myself unlikely to strap one in and go flying!! I really do wish I felt better about them. I see them quite a lot locally to where I live in the UK and now I am retired, sort of think I should give it a go. Maybe I will one sunny day!
I understand all the tech descriptions you have covered so well and appreciate the effort and passion involved. I don't want to be seen to be adding to the bad press on these interesting and very clever machines, but it still remains that they are far and away out numbered in the world of aviation, by machines that are better, if vastly more expensive to purchase and operate. If there was a serious investment from a very large and well established aviation company, behind pushing these machines into the mainstream, perhaps they would succeed and gain a better press and track record. Of course, all aviation carries with it the risk of catastrophe, serious injury and death, but it is mitigated by the sheer numbers of certain types of aircraft flying and the millions of hours experience of these types.
The amazing experimental machines dating back through the years from WWII, right the way through Commander Ken Wallis and his fantastic passion for the autogyro, the Australian and US designs that have sold in limited numbers over the decades , all point to an enduring fascination with a very clever concept. But, for whatever reason, no very well established aircraft manufacturer has taken the idea very far commercially and to me, that speaks volumes about the inherent risks that have not been simple to fix. They are not willing to put their name on a design and sell them in large numbers. The applications as passionately demonstrated by Ken Wallis back through the late 60's and 70's, are clear and seem hugely obvious and attractive. After all, a small, manoeuvrable machine that can operate in a similar way to a helicopter for some tasks and at a fraction of the cost, must seem the holy grail of attraction! Yet still, the perceived problems persist and have effectively grounded autogyros and kept them firmly in the centre of the minority bracket. The very area in aviation, that has the highest number of accidents per flying hour.....a sort of vicious vortex ring if you like!!
Anyway, give thanks again and maybe one day, I will push my fear aside and find out what all the fuss is about! 😀👍🏻
Whatever and wherever you fly, stay safe and happy flying!!
@@jtjt210 Possibly the wreckage was from an Inverness based Magni which had afatal crash. It was a mechanical failure summary www.gov.uk/aaib-reports/aaib-investigation-to-rotorsport-uk-cavalon-g-ckyt
Usually it's the ground that ruins flying for people. No you don't _have_ to pre-rotate the rotor. It's advantageous to do so as it greatly reduces the take off run. But it is not compulsory.
I did not know this! Thanks for the comment!
That's not correct at all. If you don't pre-rotate you'll almost certainly end up with blade sail and crash before you leave the ground. If you're harping back to the olden days with wooden rotors then things have moved on,
@@chrisa7237 BS.
i want to see a gyrocopter cross country!
Interesting idea 🤔🤔
The low flying is fun but I've always flown at under 10 ft in both flex and fixed micros.
10ft!!
Very nicely presented video.
Thank you!!🙏