When does life get this good? Always loved the AutoGyro performance

http://bulldogautogyro.com/

Bucket list has a few hours in one of these with an experienced CFI.

Looks like a really classy way to make a smoking hole in the ground....

Fake.

Radial engine and no oil dripping on nice wood floor.

Mike C.

I'm gonna wait until version 2.0 when they have a wing on there. For 'just in case'...

John Miller Loved these birds

The shape doesn't look right - it doesn't seem flyable, BWTHDIK. Jack Tiffany, who started my Davis restoration, restored one of Juan de la Cierva's Pitcairn Autogiros. I believe Jack sold it to Fantasy of Flight before he passed away. Very cool flying "thing" and Jack said it was quite stable considering its vintage.

It had the same Kinner engine as my D-1K.

That cantilevered mast looks like a structural nightmare. And no photos of it in flight.

Very cool looking but, autogyros have an issue with low speed control. I see no yaw control device, no rudder. Most had big barn door rudders or rudders on long booms for yaw leverage. What am I missing?

Look closely. The rotor support is basically a big fin and there is a rudder control surface built into it at the back.

Mike C.

John Miller: Aviation Pioneer, Barnstormer
John Miller bio

Looks impossibly nose heavy to me.

Just read Captain John Miller's Bio or better yet, anyone in aviation should buy his book of story's, available from the ABS store.

Captain Miller use to do aerobatics in a Killet/Pitcairn autogiro, much like this one, also delivered the mail from the roof top of the Pookepsie, N.Y. Post Office, or something like that, and many other Great storys.

They are actually pretty easy to fly. Most have a prerotator. Engage it until you get full pre-rotate speed, pull back the stick while you accelerate to get to full flying rotor speed and when you get enough speed the machine will lift off. Simply ease the back pressure as you begin to climb.

Since you are auto rotating you need forward relative wind to stay aloft at altitude, so if you want to come down you ease power and if you want to go up you increase power. Of course, just like a helicopter cyclic movement will also do both and move speed in either direction; however, unlike a helicopter you are unable to change collective, so airspeed must be maintained or you will settle.

Just like a helicopter you do not want to do anything but positive G loading.

Unfortunately, while they are fun to fly for a short time, they really are not much fun (IMO) after you fly them a few times. They have all the bad qualities of helicopters and airplanes with few of the good qualities. A small helicopter like the Helicycle I previously owned is much more fun and not much more money.