Ha - I hear you although I guess that goes for flying in a hurricane too!

Yes the weight and balance point is interesting actually and I suppose ultimately will depend greatly on the aircraft you fly. Aside from the BRS sounds like you need Rotax 915 power! It is the single biggest difference you can make for take offs.

Yes I saw that too.

Sport Copters fly inverted ;)

Already exist. They blow off the rotor head with explosives first.

Maybe you can just have the nose section blow off and descend under its own chute :)

Another good use for the forgotten and undersppreciated gyroglider.

When you unload the rotors in flight (and it does just happen in ppo) the airflow is reversed the disk will stop in about 1-2 seconds. The airframe is still flying forwards and flys straight through the disk (generally) the two pops you heard were the prop colliding with the rotor and possibly the rudder striking. This is generally a very high speed accident. In the older VW direct drives with shorter narrower chord blades this was less common but with the advent of light high power machines like the aircommand and larger rotors it started happening more often. Many of these happened in strong winds turning tight circuits from downwind to upwind. The gyro flies relative to the wind but when turning from a downwind to upwind you drift and many pilots instinctively turn too tight, the lift vector now almost sideways requires greater power and back stick. In the old machines you'd just stink in 583 with 25ft 8 inch chord rotors it could hang on. Now he turns up wind and the now massively spun up rotors are flattened out what will the machine do? It'll climb like anything, the big heavy blades have loads of inertia so as you push forward the lift vector is even more vertical, you should cut power and wait but our hero is setting up to land so he pushes the already shallow disk angle further forward. Bang rotor unloads machine flies straight through the disk bang bang bang your blades are now stopped all control has gone. Of course the solution is correct training, people actually understanding the rotors. Helicopters will do exactly the same thing. One accident down my way had a picture of a kid holding the severed tail of a jet ranger that crashed doing a similar manoeuvre. Why don't we see this in choppers as often? Better training. Look zi really hopes this works but few of the fatal unloading happen high enough for this to work, however if it saves someone great. But if like horizontal stabilisers its claimed as a cure all and the machine is blamed again and the poor quality training is not, I predict like the numerous gyros fatally unloaded with large hs on the back (just google them) i fear we'll use this as another failure to address the appalling training record. I have flown in the aircommand dual and it was a sedated pussy-cat. My instructor was extremely good and we didn't fly it fast best ld was claimed to be 50mph by fetters we found 35mph was its actual best ld. Fetters claimed it could be flown at 100mph my instructor told me to never fly it above 60mph. Basically it was a great machine oversold had fetters put a 60mph vne o it I believe few would have crashed. Had the students had decent training many more wouldn't have crashed. Nothing wrong with sky wheels other than breaking you back trying to lift the heavy buggers up onto the rotorhead. Training,training, training.

@@cameronlapworth2284 I dont think that in this particular case this was actually the cause. At least not the overspeeding rotors. It happened mid to late downwind and while i didn't see the actual strike, I do know it happened. At some point because the propeller and rotors were badly damaged at the point of contract. Puzzling to me was the fact that the trailing edge of the rotors were torn up but the leading edge was untouched. The prop was smashed on the front. As i recall, it should ha e been leading edge to leading edge. The man had been taught by Marion Springer herself in Marion's own trainer. Knowing her i doubt that he was undertrained. Although he Was certainly inexperienced. I personally suspect flutter. But here is no proving it. I spent several hours discussing it with Martin Holman. And that was his belief which i am unqualified to dispute.

@@MrPanchoak hi Marion certainly had an excellent reputation so I suspect you might be right. I was not suggesting overspending the rotor is the cause, even in the scenario I explained which was most common here (on turning final) the problem is not so much that the going fast its more that commonly people would get into trouble over responding. From memory Marion uses a single seat bensen as a single seat transition machine. While this had an excellent power to weight ratio unlike a lot of the vw and Subaru engines many of us flew the sky wheels was 8 inch chord compared to 6 & 1/4 inch chord, so you have a machine that at any given airspeed will be flying with a shallower disk angle and thus more prone to unloading. The only thing you could be certain of is the machine was unloaded. Interesting that Holman thought do you remember if he thought the chordwise balance was wrong on the rotors?

@@cameronlapworth2284 That is what Mr Holman thought. He also wrote about them being too far aft balanced. As far as training with Mrs Springer, I do know she had a two seat glider at the time. And I believe that she was also using an Arrow powered two seater. But the incident happened over 30 years ago and i dont remember clearly all of the particular circumstances surrounding it. It scared me, such that i never began training in a gyroplane. And only recently aquired a couple hours instruction. And have just finished up a Gyrobee. Ive stuck with fixed wing and ultralights over the time. But a gyro now fits my needs best. And i cant get them out of my blood.

@@MrPanchoak hi. I live in Australia so never met Marion Springer but was highly impressed by her approach, glider two seat ground hack as she used to state. This was almost unique at the time. My training was similar only my instructor didn't have a single seater to go solo in. However he would test fly all our machines for us and wouldn't let us fly them until he considered them safe. At the time I met him I asked him how many different gyros he'd flown he told me he'd stopped counting them after 200. I my time training with him I saw him test many (over 20) and he'd been an instructor for a couple of decades before that. So he like Marion understood the various issues. I leaned to fly on wooden rotors which you need to chordwuse balance. If you read the Bensen design manual you'll find a section were he talks about when they used gyrogliders at NACA to test different profiles and configurations. He explains how slightly overbalancing will result actually increased stability but over 30% chord would lead to weave. Under balancing would lead to flutter. Before I built my own rotors I was a gyroglider instructor for our club. We lacked funds and were flying on borrowed metal blades. I was worried about being responsible for wrecking the members rotors or a solo student smacking them in so one of the club members build a set of wooden blades. I test flew them and they had issues (not because they were wood I learned on wood rotors and consider them superior) the guy had balanced them at about 28% chord and they were tremulously stable. We hit a thermal that topped the hall gauge at 80mph+ barely effected. A little overbalance can be protective too much is disastrous. However I have also flown on skywheels and found them fine. I didn't pilot them beyond 60mph but my instructor gave me a good demo of what the aircommand could do we hit 80mph before a wing steep climb and wing over (all +g). I doubt it was the blades but wouldn't surprise me if they were not properly chordwise balanced. They were very stiff. I have a cross section from a wrecked set. They were massively thick. So not very flexible chordwise. Even if too far overbalanced you might not get the negative effects as a result. Note propellers are not chordwise balanced nor are aircraft wings but the rigidity stops this being an issue, but I'd rather not tempt fate. My own experience leads me to believe a flexible rotor with a slightly overbalanced rotor but below 30% might make a more effective training blade that could be replaced with a sports blade might solve some of our issues but nothing replaces good training. The aircommand over promised on performance and IMO the blade size co pared to power to weight was dangerous at higher speeds. A 20ft 7 inch chord rotor on a lightweight machine like that would have had the broad speed envelope fetters wanted holding the bigger sky wheels back for two seat work. The price you pay for bigger blades is safety at speed. When Wallis broke the speed record he had 19 foot 6 1/2 inch chord rotors on his Mac powered machine. He also had an in flight adjustable head offset I believe and a adjustable tail to keep the airframe level at speed. Speed is not you friend in these machines. Consider this. HS are I believe oversold. Try this thought experiment. Bolt your machine to the ground facing into a 40mph headwind. Do the same to a fixed wing beside you. Now in the fixed wing push your stick full forward and backward. What happens to the wing? Noting because its fixed to the fuselage. The stab on the fixed wing slows the wings response because its connected directly via the fuselage to the wing. Now on the gyro assuming your blades are spun up. Push the stick forwards and back. Any resistance? Can you stop it from unloading? No because even if the airframe can't move one inch you can still unload the rotor because its not fixed. So HS cannot be as good as directly bolting the frame to a slab of concrete. The answer is to then keep the disk from being too shallow to the relative airflow and to fly the disk not the airframe. Be gentle and keep the speed down and you'll be fine. Also don't think you need a massive set of rotors. I know a guy who flew 18 foot rotors on a great little light chrome molly gyro. He had a 503 on it the frame and engine was one piece the axles came off, as did the short mast, nose, tail. Desinged to slide into his station wagon. He'd bolt it all together in an hour or so. The blades spun up quicker he got off just a quickly the machine could fly just as slow. Anyway the bumble bee looks like a great machine do loads of strip runs after the dual training hours balancing. Do the small hops, bigger hops etc. After dual as a light single seater if going to be massively different to dual machine. If you can find a gyroglider the feel will be identical solo to a light single seat machine. All the best

That actually sounds a very neat solution for gyroplanes. File the patent this time next year....

The Italian Zefhir uses a top of rotor ballistic parachute. The below video is real life remote controlled test. It would be great it Galaxy tested their system similarly. kzfaq.info/get/bejne/iJ-XY69p2qysfYk.html

Be firing through a rotor travelling at hundreds of rpm.

@@cameronlapworth2284 that's what it's doing now according to the video. If it were a tube containing the chute with the rotor on a ring hub, the mast tube can extend past the rotor disk and the chute and rigging would not interfere with it when deployed.

@@TheArmchairrocker the masts are tiny 50×60mm the head would need to be designed to fit the parachute through the middle. Could be done but all the blade manufactures would need to adapt etc. Another solution could be some sort of sensor the fired in time. Honestly though this system seems the best I've seen. There was one that was mounted on top of the rotor head. Or just wait for the rotor to stop. Gyros fall like a parachute anyway in a vertical descent it's only really if you unload your rotor that it's beyond saving at which point a parachute could save you it takes all of 2 or 3 seconds for the rotor to stop fire after that?

They HAVE done it yet. Italian technology company has landed a remote-contled full sized heli over a year ago. They are gonna repeat that demo this year in the States and are busy setting up a subsidiary company in North Carolina for future production and servicing

Engage brain before operating fingers..

Então ,parou é só cair né?

I agree with that logic. I have a BRS-5 mounted under my Pitbull & tethered to the tail. If it's going in the dirt, it's going nose first with the 5 point seat belts working at their best angle. I've crashed enough race cars to know how I prefer it!

Hi all - I'm not an agent for the product and am merely communicating its existence however what I would say is that this wasn't the work of 5 minutes and if I was to buy and fit one to my own gyroplane [and I would but I don't own one currently because of the virus interruptions] I'd install as per the instructions. On the mast failure I think Galaxy are aware of that potential because they suggest you run a kevlar belt from the top fixing to the main frame of the gyro. But otherwise I do hear you and follow the logic.

@@gyrocopterflyingclub6148 In my application the mass of the engine is in front of me, not behind where it could slap me in the back of the head while I'm eating dirt but either way you are looking for the best scenario in a horrible situation so it's not going to be pretty if you have to sacrifice everything around you to not be a statistic.

Did the guy in Utah have enough hight? Most fatal unloading happen near the ground turning onto final usually in windy conditions. In his case I'd think it would have been touch and go to deploy in time. Needs 300ft? Did he have 300ft. But I know one bloke how would have survived elthougb he was determined to get his machine to 105mph. Several of us directly warned him he risked fatally unloading his rotor, he brushed us off because he had a high thrust line vs cg and a large hs (true) I spoke to a daughter of the farmer whos property he crashed on she said he was flung out of the cockpit leaving the lower part of his leg in the instrument panel. The gps confirmed he'd been doing 98knots stopped abruptly. His body was about 50m in front of the cockpit. It wouldn't have helped him. His seatbelt was ripped out of its sockets (this may have been poorly designed). Anyway I hope they work but wouldn't count on the saving you all the time. No substitute for proper training.

@@cameronlapworth2284 There are certainly many scenarios where a chute might not save your ass. There are three things that stand out to me in that recent crash in UT, sudden pitch up, full right rudder & power still on all the way to impact. All actions you would expect from a right handed pilot during a heart attack but it could have been as simple as a left rudder control loss & pilot panic. We'll just have to wait forever for the official report on that one. If I ever have a holy shit moment, I'm going for the Jesus handle now that I have one!

Yeah....but..... nobody can make a mistake?

Precisely

It’s a good question but one addressed by the system where they recommend and supply a Kevlar rope that runs from the rotor head to the main body of the aircraft

On the website they say from 60m to 110m depending on the forward speed.

Rotor damage usually comes as a secondary / effect from something else, usually pilot mishandling. That said I can think of 4 fatal gyroplane accidents in 2020 where a BRS could have saved all lives. 477AG, G-CKYT, 11TG, 261MD.

I don't know about the rest of the world, but in New Zealand the acquisition and frequently illegal use of UAV's/drones is exponential - even near airfields. Regrettably, the yobbo factor here is substantial. Ergo; perceived risk of meeting one of these mid-air.

For crop spraying only, long, thick, and wide blades, will give a lot of lift, and make the gyrocopter fly slow, but for spraying, that is fine.

Hello - I've no idea. The best people to answer such questions would be the manufacturer where Google is your friend. Cheers, Phil.

Why ? You always keep an eye on a suitable place for a dead stick out landing, which is a standard manoeuvre. It's not difficult to do. And you can use the aircraft again next day.

Yes but then you have a lot of weight more high up so that isn't ideal for normal flying. there is an italian helicopter with this high system in this link - zefhir.eu

If you feel like you need this for your car, you probably shouldn't be driving 😂

It's a pretty shitty parachute no matter which metric you'd care to consider it by

It would save you from a bad pushover when the rotor strikes the tail..as a gyropilot myself, I probably get a lot more people willing to fly with me too if I had one! :)

​@dsdy1205 How so ??

А причём тут уверенность в себе, если это связанно с неуверенностью в летательном аппарате, что он выдержит приземление.

@@YaShoom я имел ввиду, что пилоты , не уверенные в себе, ТОЖЕ поставят себе такое устройство. Например, человек знает, что у него может случиться внезапное ухудшение здоровья, возможно даже с потерей сознания или ориентации. Чтобы не рисковать, он может просто использовать посадку на парашюте. Не у всех есть кнопка "Авто возврат на базу".

@@user-tm4rz2jp8z понятно, значит "неуверенные в своём организме". Просто выражение "неуверенные в себе" имеет однозначный подтекст, связанный с социальной оценкой, оценкой своих возможностей в обществе.

@@YaShoom ну я не совсем был не точен. про организм-это пример. Хотя и основной. Может быть ещё человек, (опять же например-женщина, девушка) который "права за сало купил", сомневается, осилит ли он посадку в сложных метеоусловиях (боковой внетер, туман). А уйти на запасной может не получиться... Эт я уже фантазирую. Основной посыл у меня был конечно про организм. Это я из-за личного автомобильного опыта написал. 5 лет назад я в ноябре ехал за рулём с юга в Питер по новой трассе М-11. Ночь, уже около часу, машин 1 на километр, У меня старая (6 лет) лысая, летняя резина, температура опустилась до -1 град, ни одной заправки, бензину в обрез, и вообще нет ничего на трассе, она новая, не оборудованная, голая, идёт через леса и болота, фонари трассу освещают, но темень по бокам, машину начинает "водить", и чтобы меня добить окончательно у меня начинает кружиться голова, а в глаза как будто песок насыпали -позвоночник! вопчем "тааам в степии глухооой..." Об этом я и вспомнил, увидев парашют).

Да, предполагается, что все работает отлично по результатам тестирования

@@gyrocopterflyingclub6148 👍

Hi - happy to if you give me some colour on what you think is wrong...

Yes but I did say there was some caveat / devil of the detail.... I think what Cirrus claim is that when CAPS has been deployed successfully... i.e. not outside of the limitations of the system . The AvWeb film explains it better than me [see the description for the link]. I think generally and especially for the guys who just really don't fly enough to stay fully on top of things and for those who come to aviation late [so the basics just haven't really locked in enough to be puked out automatically i.e. R/T and basics around flight planning, met etc] then a BRS seems likely to be a nice thing for them to have in the pocket - and the rest of us who are not immune! I used to fly with an aerobatic instructor who never wore a parachute on the basis that his view was that the use of one likely created its own problems in terms of movements etc and that for the most part the decision to use one or not likely meant you hit the ground anyway. I elected to use one on the basis I knew 100th about aeros that this guy did and so my mistakes were likely to be more fundamental and I'd hate to be at 1500ft wishing I had one as I rode an accident all the way in...

Well there are two things to say here. The first is that all mature aviation nations have strict control and airworthiness processes which cover the fitment of any systems and it’s likely their engineering experience is more than robust. The second is that you would only ever use such a recovery system if your safety is any way imperilled so I guess at that point you don’t get too picky about how it’s been tested as long as it pulls your fat out of the fire??

Please post a link when you have managed it.

@@gyrocopterflyingclub6148 We're still waiting for him . . .