Had a flight in a RAF Autogyro today

[Shox Dr]

Sorry no pic’s until we get it in for modifications. It’s RAF(Rotary Air Force 2000) autogyro with a subraru engine.
Wiki linky to info

Tiny thing, only just managed to get in it. Very quick to take off and land, much quieter than a helicopter.

 

[Seadog]

Fun, aren't they? I had my one and only eperience in a gyro in 1990 at East Midlands Airport. The pilot was Tony Melody. We went up to arout 500 feet as I recall. It was a bit like sitting in a pedalo.

 

[Tinbasherdan]

When I had a flying lesson there was one in the hangar and the instructor was saying they should have named them something that rhymes with crash, as that’s all they want to do

 

[frank horton]

for me 50'th got a 2 hour fliying lesson in a Robinson, out of Hatfeild, herts......Great fun......always fancied building an auto-gyro tho, how hard can it B.......hahaha

 

[Shox Dr]

When I had a flying lesson there was one in the hangar and the instructor was saying they should have named them something that rhymes with crash, as that’s all they want to do

Pilot that took me had 1200hr fixed wing and 600hrs rotor, and still took 65hrs to get the hamg of flying an autogyro. Said he preferred, it to his helicopter

 

[Keith 66]

Make sure the Jesus nut is tight on the top, if it comes off you meet Jesus!

 

[slim_boy_fat]

......always fancied building an auto-gyro tho, how hard can it B.......hahaha

What could possibly go wrong?............

 

[Wallace]

What could possibly go wring?............

Gravity?

 

[Migmac]

I thought Q invented that!

 

[Shox Dr]

What could possibly go wrong?............

Plenty. We’ve just bought an insurance right off. Bloke paid 85k for a Calidus autogyro, had it a week before he crashed it on take off, he got 55k. We paid alot less than that

 

[zx9]

I thought Q invented that!

Little Nellie

 

[fizzy]

Little Nellie

Yes Ken Wallis was a genius = think he was Barnes Wallis' son.

 

[bourbon]

no relation

 

[fizzy]

no relation

Apparently he was but quite distant! I didn't realise that. Both were incredible!

"Wing Cmdr Wallis flew Wellington bombers during WWII and was among those logging the highest number of sorties. His grandfather, who was one of the first five people to fly an aircraft in England back in 1910, was second cousin to Sir Barnes Wallis, famous for inventing the "bouncing" bomb which was used to destroy the Möhne and Eder dams in Germany's Ruhr district in May 1943."

 

[penfold]

RAF gyros have a rep for killing their occupants; they need horizontal stabilisers which the designer and manufacturer did not deign to include. Once modified they seem ok safety wise.

 

[knighty]

didn't they use them in WW2 to test/setup radar installations ?

send the pilots out and get them to hover/hold position while they tweaked the radar setup?


(or did I imagine this?)

 

[KemppiFrog]

There is an autogyro in the' science museum from WW11. Not powered, but towed by a U-Boat so they could see a lot further.
I knew Ken Wallis quite well back in the 70s and flew with him in his two seat autogyro. Also got to take Little Nellie to a RAF BoB day for static display after Ken had to cancel his flying display due to a car accident.
After fixed wing, the performance is startling in terms of take off and turns.

Also, my father did a bit of demo flying for Cierva after the war. But their a/gyros were interesting rather than useful and helicopters were becoming practical.

Agree with Penfold, I would not want an RAF autogyro. There are other more proven machines.

Oh, and they can't hover knighty, but with a decent head wind can appear to

Shox, I presume the mods include a horizontal stab?

 

[8ob]

Fun, aren't they? I had my one and only eperience in a gyro in 1990 at East Midlands Airport. The pilot was Tony Melody. We went up to arout 500 feet as I recall. It was a bit like sitting in a pedalo.

RAF gyros have a rep for killing their occupants; they need horizontal stabilisers which the designer and manufacturer did not deign to include. Once modified they seem ok safety wise.

When I was a nipper we lived across the road from the RAF Farnborough so got to see most of the airshow through the fence, one year a Gyro spanked the floor killing the pilot. Takes a braver person than me to go up in one of those Had the birthday treat of flying a Piper around for two hours, that was amazing

Bob

 

[Seadog]

didn't they use them in WW2 to test/setup radar installations ?

send the pilots out and get them to hover/hold position while they tweaked the radar setup?


(or did I imagine this?)

They may have used them, but not to hover. A gyro can only generate lift when it is moving since it relies on the motion to spin the rotor (the clue is in the name).

 

[KemppiFrog]

That was probably 1970? Pee-Wee Judge was flying a Wallis W117 but pulled up to quickly and instead of rolling out, pushed through, the rotor hit the tail and that was that. He was a fixed wing pilot and did not have much time on the Wallis. Classic Air-Show-itis. He was test pilot for Beagle Aircraft and they were going to produce a run of that model for sale. The army were interested. After the accident Ken decided to stay out of production and just do his research and work for the Home Office along with air shows.