Blue Shift wrote:I been looking at those ultralight gyros - supposedly they aren't so hard to fly, and you can touchdown or take off in an area the size of a small parking lot. The one I have in mind, the Gyrobee, you could probably pick up off the ground almost, it's so lightweight. The plans are freely available on their website.
I think it'd be cool to have just the minimum required to fly - a tube frame, a passive rotor up top and like a Rotax engine with a pusher prop in the back. If I ever built one of them though, I'd make it a point to put one of those ballistic recovery chutes in - you pull the handle and a rocket flies out and deploys a canopy large enough to bring you and the aircraft to the ground safely, though it'll probably leave you plenty sore. I figure it's about the next best thing to an ejection seat. Probably would have to come up with a rotor jettison system to make it work on a rotary wing craft, but it could be done. Even on a dead stick, gyros are really easy to bring in as well - just about every airshow I've been to where they flew a gyro, they made a point to cut the engine and land on a dead stick. I swear I saw them set down a two seater Subaru powered gyro in a 5 foot space on a dead stick. Crazy.
My dad has a Cessna 310 twin and has a 150 he's storing for somebody as well that he has free access to. The 310 makes a great intermediate range cruiser for those long trips, but there's something about the 150's similicity that I think is cool. It's also very forgiving and easy to fly - fixed pitch prop, and no retractable landing gear to forget to put down. Once we went out and tried to put it into a controlled stall dive, which I've been in a 152 in a stall (fun). We climbed really steep and pulled the power... and the nose just came down and pointed itself at the horizon and kept flying - at 40 knots! We were losing altitude of course, but it didn't go nose down. It'd make a great little trainer. It's been awhile since I've gone with my dad out to the hangar, but one of these days I'd like to take up flying.
I don't know of any rotor jetison - not saying they aren't out there, but I don't know of any. Kinda unsafe, as the rotor could fall on someone.
1 thing you need to know is that helicopters are inherently unsafe as compared to fixed wing acft, so just assume the greater risk or don't fly em.
As for a 150, I think they're junk. Not to contradict you, but in hot areas like Phoenix they're worthless at least 1/2 the year due to density altitude. A 172 makes a much better trainer IMO due to its more docile nature, better float, and more availabilty of power when needed. Plus it's nice to have elbow room.
