Autogyro

Boris Badenov said:
All of the simplicity and intrinsic safety of a helicopter but built in some guy's garage and powered by a weedwhacker engine. What's not to like?
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I got assigned a walk-in flight review while I was instructing.

He wanted to complete it in a 152 because the auto gyro he built in his garage was a single seater. I kept very detailed records on those sessions and wrote the most specific logbook endorsement ever.

I didn’t need to, turned out he was a hyper-detail-oriented engineer with a meticulous and professional approach to flying and, I assume, constructing his contraption. He flew it into our airport and it actually looked really fun/cool.
 
zmiller4 said:
I didn’t need to, turned out he was a hyper-detail-oriented engineer with a meticulous and professional approach to flying and, I assume, constructing his contraption. He flew it into our airport and it actually looked really fun/cool.
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Despite the terrible progress I've made on building my own airplane, the process has made me much better at seeing problems on the certificated ones.
 
drunkenbeagle said:
RV-7 taildragger
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That's cool, I have a good friend that is on his 3rd RV, the last two were RV-8s. He's a career A/P, IA (the only GA stuff he works on either belongs to a friend or it's his, otherwise it's all private jets), a bit of a perfectionist and an experienced airplane owner (he's owned a 152, a Mooney, a Debonair, a Bonanza and a Baron plus the RVs since I've known him), when he finished the first one he decided he didn't like some of what he'd done (some of that was related to advances in technology and some was just him realizing he'd rather do some things differently) so he sold it after the initial hours had been flown off but before it got a paint job and started over. He then built another beautiful RV-8 with all of his doodads, bells, whistles and an outstanding paint job was applied. The problem (not really a problem) was his wife was used to the Bonanza or the Baron and hated sitting in the back so that perfect airplane went up on the chopping block and once again he's started down that long road, this time with a RV-7 because it has side by side seating. He's sold all of his other aviation contraptions and he has a clear vision of what he wants so he's not fussing around with the time and expense of 100 hour or annual inspections on anything else. I'm curious to see how his new airplane turns out, he's told me some ideas he's got regarding the tech (all of his stuff has always been IFR certified) and the paint. His great uncle might've done some cool nautical/airplane stuff that he wants to pay homage to.
 
knot4u said:
That's cool, I have a good friend that is on his 3rd RV, the last two were RV-8s. He's a career A/P, IA (the only GA stuff he works on either belongs to a friend or it's his, otherwise it's all private jets), a bit of a perfectionist and an experienced airplane owner (he's owned a 152, a Mooney, a Debonair, a Bonanza and a Baron plus the RVs since I've known him), when he finished the first one he decided he didn't like some of what he'd done (some of that was related to advances in technology and some was just him realizing he'd rather do some things differently) so he sold it after the initial hours had been flown off but before it got a paint job and started over. He then built another beautiful RV-8 with all of his doodads, bells, whistles and an outstanding paint job was applied. The problem (not really a problem) was his wife was used to the Bonanza or the Baron and hated sitting in the back so that perfect airplane went up on the chopping block and once again he's started down that long road, this time with a RV-7 because it has side by side seating. He's sold all of his other aviation contraptions and he has a clear vision of what he wants so he's not fussing around with the time and expense of 100 hour or annual inspections on anything else. I'm curious to see how his new airplane turns out, he's told me some ideas he's got regarding the tech (all of his stuff has always been IFR certified) and the paint. His great uncle might've done some cool nautical/airplane stuff that he wants to pay homage to.
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Sorry to quote my own post but I wanted to add that my friend has only built conventional gear RVs.
 
knot4u said:
That's cool, I have a good friend that is on his 3rd RV, the last two were RV-8s. He's a career A/P, IA (the only GA stuff he works on either belongs to a friend or it's his, otherwise it's all private jets), a bit of a perfectionist and an experienced airplane owner (he's owned a 152, a Mooney, a Debonair, a Bonanza and a Baron plus the RVs since I've known him), when he finished the first one he decided he didn't like some of what he'd done (some of that was related to advances in technology and some was just him realizing he'd rather do some things differently) so he sold it after the initial hours had been flown off but before it got a paint job and started over. He then built another beautiful RV-8 with all of his doodads, bells, whistles and an outstanding paint job was applied. The problem (not really a problem) was his wife was used to the Bonanza or the Baron and hated sitting in the back so that perfect airplane went up on the chopping block and once again he's started down that long road, this time with a RV-7 because it has side by side seating. He's sold all of his other aviation contraptions and he has a clear vision of what he wants so he's not fussing around with the time and expense of 100 hour or annual inspections on anything else. I'm curious to see how his new airplane turns out, he's told me some ideas he's got regarding the tech (all of his stuff has always been IFR certified) and the paint. His great uncle might've done some cool nautical/airplane stuff that he wants to pay homage to.
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Do you know anything about LOM engines (4-cylinder inline)? I LOVE the 95% scale Ryan STA kit and it has a Rotec and can fit the cowling that makes it look original. But DAMN...the sound of it, particularly with such a beautiful airplane, is hideous. It's like seeing Sophia Loren naked in her prime but when she speaks it's a muppet voice after a drag of helium. Check that - it's even worse.
 
knot4u said:
this time with a RV-7 because it has side by side seating. He's sold all of his other aviation contraptions and he has a clear vision of what he wants so he's not fussing around with the time and expense of 100 hour or annual inspections on anything else. I'm curious to see how his new airplane turns out, he's told me some ideas he's got regarding the tech (all of his stuff has always been IFR certified) and the paint.
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Yeah, the choice of RV-7 was easy, based on there being so many of them out there flying already (or RV-9, same thing, different wing). Easy to find out how to do anything. The tech is easy, go with Garmin or Dynon. It is already way cheaper since there are experimental versions of everything that are exactly the same thing. And known to work. And it's the same price as being VFR anyway. Tandem airplanes are fine for short flights, not so great actually going anywhere. My project is sadly on hiatus for the next year or two.

Builder-owned RV's probably get more thorough condition inspections than most annuals tend to be, based on what I've seen.
 
As for autogyros - I've kind of been fascinated with them since Road Warrior and seeing a few at flying. Then the "Miss Champion" Pitcairn got restored and flown to flyins and it was pretty cool.
 
drunkenbeagle said:
Despite the terrible progress I've made on building my own airplane, the process has made me much better at seeing problems on the certificated ones.
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flew in one my buddy built a couple years ago. So much fun but after 15 min I couldn’t handle the aerobatics anymore. I know there’s plenty of info out there but if you have questions he’d be more than happy to answer them.

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Uffda on the RVs with their parts problem and their bankruptcy. I’ve got friends that say their parts were essentially trash because of cracks at the laser drilled holes.

I haven’t heard much about it lately, so I assume that at least some of the problems have been worked out.
 
I think an autogyro looks like it might be the most fun ATV ever. I've never seen one I trust. ATCs (remember those three wheeled off road contraptions?) were awesome, they used to race them in stadiums but you had to be careful as an amateur weekend enthusiast out in the desert. First of all if you plant your foot in a turn like you'd do on a motorcycle the rear wheel would try to eat your leg and dismount you abruptly (I've fallen victim more than once) and the other issue is when cornering you must put all of your weight on the outside of the machine or it's just going to go straight and you'll just look like a hapless fool as you bounce off into the brush (once again I'm your prime example). I've ridden a few ATCs and pondered buying one, funniest thing ever was the sticker the factory put on the head tube stating that "WHEELIES, JUMPS AND OTHER STUNTS ARE DANGEROUS!!". Life in the '80s must sound like some old mythical BS to folks who weren't there.
 
Richman said:
Uffda on the RVs with their parts problem and their bankruptcy. I’ve got friends that say their parts were essentially trash because of cracks at the laser drilled holes.

I haven’t heard much about it lately, so I assume that at least some of the problems have been worked out.
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they seem to have gotten thru the BK doldrums. of course now everything costs 30-40% more from what I gather, at least they can still get parts
there was some resolution on the laser drilled parts but i’m not too sure as my airplane is made of glue
 
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