G'day Chuck E.
How is the battle? Mine is a little tough at the moment as you probably know, BUT my new project is now on the go at 100%.
The best thing that could have happened!!!! I just miss the folding stuff. I told my wife to get a second job and nearly wore the rolling pin!!!!!
Posters, I have almost 3000 hours in Rafs and my Raf derivitives. I had around 2000 hours before I got my Raf in 1997, and was the Oz agent. That 2000 previous gyro hours probably saved my life. The Raf sales pitch and brouchure is a bunch of lies. The machine is downright dangerous for a beginner. Luckily on the UK you have a large number of dual hours required for a pvt licence and I believe that this is the only reason that the fatality rate in the UK is behind the rest of the world.
There was one US Raf agent who had his gyroplane rating withdrawn by the FAA because he had something like 4 fatalities of people that he trained without a h/stab. He told them not to fly in winds above about 5 kts, but they did and died. Geez in a correctly set up gyroplane a newly licenced pilot can fly in winds of up to 20 kts during their first few hours.
A Raf is not a correctly set up gyroplane, and relies entirely on pilot skill to stay alive. Anyone interested in the modifications that I have tested to make a Raf stable can email me privately. I conducted 2 years of stability testing which I reported to the US sport gyroplane stability committee. Stewart Houston is aware of my involement with the Raf stability issues. It was great fun to take a dog of a machine and turn it into something that is very user friendly. It is just as easy to buiold a gyroplane correctly as it is to build one incorrectly.
The challenge is to know the difference!!!!!
Anyway enough for the first post. I feel so sorry for you people in the UK. Not to be able to improve a defective aiecraft is rediculous, but you all know that.
Paul.
