Are they safer now. Probably. But most of them can be damaged by a
inattentive movement
of the control stick. Not so an airplane (in most cases).
Hi
Lynn,
As I mentioned
before, there ARE certainly dangerous gyros out there, and many of
them were really popular models. Back in the days of the Bensen's,
there wasn't even any such thing as a two place machine for training, so it was
all self taught. As you can imagine, that didn't help much with the
safety record.
Modern CLT (centerline
thrust) machines like the Dominator are light years ahead of the Bensen's in
stability. You can push and pull on the stick until you puke, and it won't
go out of it's way to kill you. The only downside is that they end up
being tall, so they're a bit more likely to tip over on landings in
crosswinds. Still, this is equivalent to a ground loop, and is just as
preventable with training and experience.
Gyros are way more
maneuverable than airplanes, and can do things that only helicopters
could dream of. They do it without all the complexity, and can do it with
only a Sport Pilot rating. The visibility of an open, pusher type machine
is unmatched. If your goal is to fly around the local area for the view, a
gyro is hard to beat.
To make this at least a
bit relevant to the list, I just can't think of any aircraft that's more
suitable for engine testing. You can land them on a dime, with zero ground
roll. The engine is out in the open to fiddle with and monitor. The
Dominator is almost certainly what I'll build, since it's already well proven
with the weight and power of the smaller Subaru engines. It should make a
good fit for the single rotor engine.
BTW, the RV-8 is already
informally for sale. I'll make it official when I get around to building a
web page with all the sale info.
Cheers,
Rusty