Everything you need to know about gyrocopters can be learned by searching "gyrocopter girl". Here is something to get you started:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGQH7sxkQLg

Cliff, I just came across this thread so I thought I’d offer my input.
I built a Benson B-8 in the late 70s. It took me about 5 months part time in my garage. I taught myself how to fly it ( did not use their suggested tow-it-behind-a-car technique ).
I made a few taxiing runs w/o the rotor blade...took a break... mounted the rotor blade and did a few practice runs with rotor blade under load down the runway....took a break... built up my nerve/said a prayer and launched ! Stayed in the pattern doing takeoff & landings.
Very stable and easy to fly even on windy days. I flew it for yrs and did demo stuff w an Eastern Airline Capt at shows who had one as well. Nothing remotely compared to what Ken Brock would do back in the day.
I paid ~ $ 5-6K for plans and materials and 72 hp McCulloch drone engine.
Of coarse the gyros today are light years ahead with much more reliable engines and advanced technology w a significant price increase.
I have pictures w Igor Bensen next to it, but there’re in some box probably never to surface.
It was some of the most fun I ever had flying, particularly at tree top levels !
I donated it when I got married good luck !!! Tim

I used to obsess over Benson copters, Folbots and later Scorpions in Popular Mechanics as a kid. As far as ai ever got with those dreams was a 5hp Briggs and Stratton Li’l Indian mini bike!

One thing I’ve always wondered but never researched is whether the Gyrocopter has any advantage over conventional ultralight wing configurations.

a gyro will tolerate a great deal of wind, whereas an ultralight does not

gyros penetrate turbulence much better than a fixed wing machine of similar weight

interesting. makes sense.
seems like it would be better to transport too?
is there much of a current gyrocopter population?

Very true, the ultralights would stay on the ground ( back then, maybe different now ) but I’d go fly.
20 kt winds would have you in the air in the width of the runway and land in 0-5'

Tom, the German manufacturer “ AutoGyro “, has a dealer at the Bay Bridge Airport ( W29 ) near Annapolis, Md. The Calavon is quite a machine but Pricey

Transport: Unbolt one Jesus Bolt, place the entire unit on the ground and unbolt one blade from the Hub Bar, then put everything on/in the trailer....

http://www.autogyrousa.com/

http://www.autogyrousa.com/images/autog ... valon3.jpg