From: Rotary motors in
aircraft [mailto:flyrotary@lancaironline.net] On
Behalf Of Russell Duffy
Sent: Monday, February 05, 2007
7:01 PM
To: Rotary motors in aircraft
Subject: ***SPAM*** [FlyRotary]
Re: gyros was Re: crankcase vents
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).
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.