Free gyrocopter!

It will make it all the way to the crash site.

in all seriousness though, a gyrocopter is an ingenious machine and there is no inherent reason for it to be any more unsafe than a fixed wing or powered rotary wing.  They are simply misunderstood.

It's a lawn chair with a rotor...

What could go wrong?

Rodan said:

californiamilleghia said:

Which is worse , a Hand Glider or a gyrocopter ?

At least you don't take off in a gyrocopter by jumping off a cliff...

This reminds me of my last visit to the auto parts store.  The guy in front of me was looking for some specific kind of exhaust pipe piece.  He said he was building his own pulse jets to attach to a home built ultralight.  I'm guessing we'll be reading about him in a Darwin award at some point.  

Someone has watched too much Colin Furze

We forgot one !

the hand glider with a motor attached to it :)

I see one flying around here every few months , 

the guy must have big b...lls  to fly  it  over the city !

In reply to californiamilleghia :

There's a very fine line between bravery and stupidity.

ShawnG said:

In reply to californiamilleghia :

There's a very fine line between bravery and stupidity.

 

is that the line right next to madness and genius ?

Is a hand glider just an auto corrected hang glider?  I see it written out a few times in this thread and Google was no help.

What a hand glider might look like:

In reply to dculberson :

And little relationship to a hound-glider 

As an A&P, I designate that as flying lawn furniture.

You guys could have posted videos of how to fly one correctly, but confirmation bias is alive and well!

californiamilleghia said:

We forgot one !

the hand glider with a motor attached to it :)

I see one flying around here every few months , 

the guy must have big b...lls  to fly  it  over the city !

 

HE's breaking the law.  FAA part 103 vehicle regs (which is what all Ultralights are in this country) cannot be flown over any congested area of a city, town, or settlement, or over any open air assembly of persons.

And my wife doesn't want me to get a motorcycle

In reply to D2W :

With motorcycling, you have people actively trying to murder you. At least with backyard aviation, it's just gravity and sudden stops.

"Just" :)

Flying is perfectly safe.

We've never left anyone up there.

Keith Tanner said:

"Just" :)

Reduction in variables!  

ShawnG said:

Flying is perfectly safe.

We've never left anyone up there.

I've learned that it's better to be on the ground, wishing you were flying than to be flying, wishing that you were on the ground.

A Gyrocopter is a perfect example of

"Just because you can, doesn't mean you should."

Okay, long and convoluted story coming...

In late 2003, I bought a new WRX and almost immediately realized that I would need snow tires for it. I found a guy near Bridgeport on eBay who was selling nearly every part of a low mileage WRX. The auction descriptions were written in horribly broken English, but he had a perfect set of stock alloy wheels. I was fairly convinced that the car was stolen. We made a deal, and I got directions to his house. My father and I got in the truck and went for a ride. We may or may not have been heavily armed.

It was the nicest house in a bad neighborhood. The dogs were big and angry.

The guy could not have been nicer.

He was a Russian immigrant, and a former pilot of fighter jets in the Russian military. He was working as a machinist in the area, subcontracting parts for Sikorsky. He had bought a nearly new, but totalled in the rear, WRX for it's engine and was selling everything else.

He was fulfilling a lifelong dream and building an autogyro, and, apparently, turbocharged Subaru engines were the powerplant of choice. He had purchased a half finished autogyro kit for pennies on the dollar, built a beautiful shed in his backyard, rebuilt the engine inside and was putting everything together.

The previous owner of the autogyro had painted Yosemite Sam and "Kiss My Grits" on the tail. As he proudly showed me his work he asked, "What is this 'Kiss My Grits'? I don't understand this...". I did my best to explain, but I don't think I did a very good job.

He proved to be the first in a long string of really good people I have met while buying car stuff on eBay and Craigslist. Fingers crossed, but I don't think I've run into a bad guy yet, though I have shopped in some pretty sketchy neighborhoods.

I was impressed by his work, but I jokingly said, "I'll look for you on the news".

I have since seen video of him flying that cool little machine.

Kiss My Grits, Sergey...

In reply to Woody :

Lotsa good stuff in that story! Did you think to show him some clips from Alice (Flo at Mel's Diner saying "kiss my grits")

For other bad ideas of how to get to the crash site faster - the Germans tried to design several jet fighters and even manned rockets during World War II with wooden airframes, designed to be put together mostly by unskilled labor. The Me 163 Komet seems to have killed more Germans than Allies, but I'm a little surprised the kit-plane industry hasn't attempted to recreate a He 162. 

In reply to MadScientistMatt :

Wood was not the issue with the 162.  Wood is an outstanding material for aircraft, especially ones not designed for a long life.  Here's a couple of rather successful wooden aircraft.

The Vampire was also the first jet to successfully land and take off from an aircraft carrier.

I worked with a guy whose Dad was a maintenance guy at Frontier Town.  They had two gyro copters doing fly overs for the show, one weekend they crashed into each other.  One was destroyed, Dad took the second one home but removed the gyro blade up top.

Imagine a pack of 8-12 year olds taking turns whipping this thing steered by your feet with an open prop around a field.   The Safety First slogan wasn't invented until the 80s. 

MadScientistMatt said:

For other bad ideas of how to get to the crash site faster - the Germans tried to design several jet fighters and even manned rockets during World War II with wooden airframes, designed to be put together mostly by unskilled labor. The Me 163 Komet seems to have killed more Germans than Allies, but I'm a little surprised the kit-plane industry hasn't attempted to recreate a He 162. 

If the kit plane features an LS swap it should do well. Then we can use half of the jet nacelle for storing luggage.