Don’t call it a Reboot
He’s been there for years
Rockin his peers and puttin warboys in fear
Makin the tears rain down like a Aqua Cola
Listen to the Doof go BOOM
Personal autogyro – the future is here now!
Now I can pick up my pet Burro in my autogyro (instead of trusting the United States Postal Service):
In Boy’s Life, the future was hovercraft.
I’m pretty good at making things. I can weld reasonably well, mig, torch, and forge. Decent at wiring things up and soldering. Fabrication? Do you want wood, metal, plastic?
I’m also pretty damn sure that I, under no circumstances, should be building personal aircraft…
Related story, once a friend tried to enlist my help building an ultralite. My response: “I have absolutely no idea how to build a plane. You definitely do not want me responsible for something that your life depends on.”.
Aw shit! I remember that now!
Thinking about it, there was probably a cord, wasn’t there? Who wants a cord on a hovercraft chair?!
I’ve always wanted one of these.
Yes, they have certain drawbacks, but I have to believe they’re safer than gyrocopters. And before someone make a “Oh the Humanity!” comment, please note that 62 of the 97 passengers and crew of the Hindenberg survived. Not many fiery jetliner crashes can claim that kind of survival ratio!
Maybe a thermal airship is the way to go. Easier to store (fold it up when you’re done) and you get to save on the helium costs. Here’s one for sale for $85k. Less than a Tesla!
http://sky4buy.com/An-airship-blimp-you-can-fly-FAA-registered-INCL-TRAINING-FOR-PILOT-LICENSE-251989833627/02787
Came for this. Can now leave thread content.
thank goodness for teh interwebz - i search for Gyrocopter - 3rd click? “Nude Gyrocopter Girl”
not posting the link, but not making it up.
there are many used ones for sale.
http://www.barnstormers.com/Experimental,%20Gyrocopter%20Classifieds.htm
years back, I’d drive from Austin to Henderson, TX for the motorcycle roadraces. There was a 2 seat Gyro for sale in a yard in Hearne, TX for YEARS. Finally I stopped and asked about it. The owner told me if I’d let him take a quick ride on the race bike? He would take me for a ride in the Gyro.
I did, he did. I do not need to buy one. very cool, very scary.
I am totally building one of these!
I don’t need to be alive anymore anyway!
Why not?!
Actually they are notoriously difficult to get off the ground and extremely easy to land. Takeoff runs longer than a Cessna 172 are frequently seen, while you could plonk one down in a large back yard.
This is the modern equivalent:
edit: complete with the obligatory mad Englishman.
Autogyros have the same single point of failure as a helicopter, without the rigorous engineering to ensure failures are kept to a minimum.
No. Autogyros have the same fallback landing mechanism (autorotation). Not having a drive mechanism to the main rotor, and not having a tail rotor at all means that the complexity is greatly reduced compared to a helicopter. The advantage I can see to a 'copter is that they generally have better seat mechanisms, which is important in a autorotation landing because it is hard on the spine.
When I was a kid, our neighbor had built one of these, but had sold it years before we moved in. Personally, I could never reconcile those facts.
There’s no way I’d trust something that I built to safely fly me around the neighborhood. And I know I could never trust someone else’s home-hobbyist ass to sell me his used one, no matter how good they are. It wouldn’t matter if it was John Denver himself.
The single point of failure I refer to is the bearing which attaches the rotor to the aircraft. Without the regular professional inspection which a proper helicopter gets, its just not going to be very safe.
Autorotation is not a fallback mechanism for an autogyro. Its the only way of staying airborne. If the aircraft changes attitude suddenly, the rotors will lose angular momentum due to precession. If the aircraft goes into negative g, the pressure differential across the rotor disk will reverse and the rotors will lose angular momentum that way too.
I’m more interested in the plans for that one
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