AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2020 - 70

colder than that requires bulky gloves that
don't allow him the manual dexterity
needed to operate the controls.
Don't skip leg day if you plan to climb
into a gyroplane. You step onto the strut,
and then onto the seat, but there's nothing to grab onto to pull yourself up, so you
need to rely on lower-body strength to get
you where you need to go. It's almost-but
not quite-as bad as getting into a Piper
Super Cub.
For this flight, I was in the backseat
and Noe was up front. He'd be up front
if flying solo to offset the weight of the
engine, much as you'd fly a Piper Cub solo
from the backseat.
Once situated and belted, I noticed
the rear seat has access to the magneto
switches. Noe has wired these shut so that
nonpilot passengers don't accidentally pull
them in flight.
We started the engine and taxied to the
runup area, but the rotor remained stationary; it would not come to life until we were
on the runway.
SHORT TAKEOFF

Cleared for takeoff, Noe trundled the
gyroplane onto the runway and activated

ON THE MARKET

What are the price points for
owning a gyroplane? You can
purchase a kit and build it yourself; purchase a gyroplane built
by someone else; or buy a new
(certificated) gyroplane.
In 2019, the top three sellers
of gyroplanes in the United States
were AutoGyro, TangoGyro, and
Magni, according to the number
of aircraft registrations as listed
on ByDanJohnson.com.
AutoGyro (autogyrousa.com)
MTOSport 2017
Base price: $70,000 (kit); base
certificated price $80,000
TangoGyro (tangogyro.com)
Tango2
Base price: $43,500 (kit)
Magni (magni.com)
M-16
Base price: $66,700

70 | AOPA PILOT January 2020

the pre-rotator. For this aircraft, pre-rotation was accomplished with the stick full
forward at 200 rpm. Noe then disengaged
the pre-rotator and pulled the stick all
the way back, which placed the rotor at a
17-degree angle. Power was added slowly,
and as we started moving, air was flowing
back up through the rotor, and energy was
being transferred to rotation.
With the stick all the way back as the
thrust and forward motion accelerated
the rotor, the nose wanted to come up at
about 15 knots, and Noe eased the stick
forward a bit so that we continued down
the runway with the nose about a foot
off the ground and the mains still touching, now at 30 knots. Noe waited until
we had enough rotation to fly in ground
effect, and he accelerated in ground
effect to 55 knots indicated. We were off
the ground in well under 300 feet.
"That's my everything speed," Noe
said. "Descent, climb-it's a good, safe
speed." He'll generally fly a fixed-wing
pattern, but if the airport traffic is
unusually busy he'll fly a helicopter pattern. For a cross-country flight, he'll plan
65 knots in cruise.
LOW DOWN

Noe wanted me to see how maneuverable
the gyroplane is, but all I wanted to do
was take in the scenery from 1,000 feet
over farm fields.
A brown heron flapped below us, and
we noticed how the recent rains had swollen the streams near the airport. In an
enclosed airplane if you're flying at 1,000
feet, you're likely climbing or descending.
In a gyroplane you're lower and slower.
Noe often flies low in familiar areas, but
when traveling cross-country he will
never go below 200 feet agl over open
water or sparsely populated areas. It's

easy to see why: Power lines are almost
invisible against the green fields.
The stick and rudders operate much as
they would in a fixed-wing airplane, but
the gyroplane is capable of much tighter
turns-tap the rudder and the aircraft
almost pivots. This makes the machine
highly capable during an engine-out situation-you can turn almost on a dime to
find a good place to land. Noe showed me
a zero forward airspeed descent, in which
he pulled the power to idle and held the
stick back. With the rotor angled at 17
degrees, "you're just kind of falling and
your descent is what's keeping the rotor
spinning, not the forward motion," Noe
said. He recovered by lowering the nose
and getting the forward motion back, then
adding power and climbing.
Returning to the airport, Noe demonstrated a regular approach and landing.
The touchdown was as soft as a feather.
The gyroplane was stopped within a few
hundred feet. "I've never had a really
tough landing," Noe said. "It's very forgiving. It seems like it wouldn't be, because as
soon as you start to flare you start to lose
rotor energy, and it's hard to get it back."
You can't stall a gyroplane, but you
want to avoid negative G or zero-G situations, Noe said. "You always want to keep
a load on that rotor," he said. "If you were
to push the nose over and add power at
the same time, you could go into a low-G
condition and the rotor will slow down
too much." You can recover by pulling the
stick back, but it's not a place you want to
be, he said.
WHERE TO FLY

With quieter engines and wallet-friendly
gas consumption, gyroplanes are more
widely flown in other parts of the world.
In the United States they are somewhat of
a novelty, and the rules that prohibit the
commercial operation of experimental aircraft limit access. But there's good news on
that front: German manufacturer AutoGyro
(autogyrousa.com) now makes three typecertificated models: the MTOSport 2017;
the Calidus; and the Cavalon. Kit versions
of these models remain available. As more
certified models work their way into the
United States, expect to get an opportunity
to fly one.
AOPA
EMAIL jill.tallman@aopa.org
http://www.ByDanJohnson.com http://www.autogyrousa.com http://www.autogyrousa.com http://www.tangogyro.com http://www.magni.com
AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2020
