Contributor
Founder, Gyrocopters.com
Training
The enclosed, side-by-side Magni M24 Orion is the gyroplane you train in at Vance Brand Airport in Longmont, Colorado. Full specs, instruction rates, and a $175 discovery flight with a gyroplane CFI.
Training
The FAA's MOSAIC rule lifts the barriers that kept gyroplanes out of American flight schools: a first-ever factory-built certification path, no weight cap, and freed rotor designs. What it means for students and schools.
Buying
An old reputation, a regulatory box, scarce instructors and pricey insurance stacked up against a genuinely good aircraft. Two of the four are changing now.
Training
A steep approach, a flare that spends the rotor's stored energy, and a touchdown that can use just a few feet of ground. Here is how the landing works.
Buying
The airplane is transportation; the gyrocopter is the flying itself. Speed, safety, cost and mission, compared honestly for a first-time buyer.
Buying
Mostly for the joy of flying, and then a working resume: patrol, pipeline and powerline inspection, photography, agriculture, and a real military history.
Ownership
Liability commonly runs $1,500 to $1,800 a year and full coverage several thousand more. Why it costs so much, and what actually brings it down.
Buying
Opposite lift principles, different laws, and barely overlapping jobs. Why the quadcopter comparison fails, and which machine fits which mission.
Ownership
Most two-seaters fly on 100 to 141 hp, nearly always a Rotax. What the power actually does, what the turbo buys, and the underpowering mistake to avoid.
Training
In cruise it is one of the easiest aircraft there is. The takeoff roll and rotor discipline are the real skills, and airplane pilots find them hardest.
Airworthiness
An annual inspection around $1,000 to $1,500, a Rotax on a 2,000-hour clock, and life-limited blades. The real schedule and the numbers to ask before buying.
Ownership
Blades off, a gyroplane fits a garage bay and rides an ordinary trailer. How owners store and move these machines, and the blade-handling rule that matters.
Training
Historically sport pilots flew by day only. The FAA's MOSAIC rule now opens night flying to more pilots, with a medical requirement and an equipped aircraft.
Buying
A gyrocopter handles wind better than almost any light aircraft, and rain worse. Here is why, where the real limits are, and what it means for a buyer.
Ownership
A two-seat gyrocopter typically carries about 480 to 680 pounds of people, fuel and baggage. Here is what useful load means and the pilot-weight limit to check.
Training
A sport pilot gyroplane rating usually runs about $5,000 to $8,000 all in. The biggest lever is not the hourly rate, it is how consistently you fly.
Buying
The rotor keeps autorotating, so the aircraft keeps flying and glides down to a landing with little or no roll. Here is why an engine-out is a controlled arrival.
Buying
Juan de la Cierva flew the first one in 1923; Igor Bensen made it a kit anyone could build. Here is how the gyrocopter came to be, and nearly vanished.
Airworthiness
Gyrocopters are legal, but they are aircraft: you fly from airports or private land, obey federal airspace and minimum-altitude rules, and cannot buzz the neighborhood.
Buying
There is no single best gyrocopter, only the best one for your mission, budget and support. Here is how to shortlist without buying someone else's ideal aircraft.
Ownership
Most run on ordinary unleaded gasoline, the same fuel as your car. Here is why, when aviation fuel is needed, and the ethanol and octane catches to watch.
Buying
Often only a few hundred feet to take off, and almost none to land into wind. Here is why the pre-rotator makes it possible and what changes the numbers.
Buying
A gyrocopter is a rotorcraft with an unpowered, free-spinning rotor and an engine-driven propeller. Here is how it flies, what it costs, and what it will not do.
Buying
The rotor is not driven by the engine. Air flowing up through it keeps it spinning. Here is what that means for takeoff, engine failure, and why it cannot stall.
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