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Old 7th Aug 2007, 07:11
  #120 (permalink)  
Whirlybird

The Original Whirly
 
Join Date: Feb 1999
Location: Belper, Derbyshire, UK
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I did a trial lesson and a bit more - about an hour and a half total - in gyrocopters some years back. I thought they might be a cheaper alternative for a helicopter addict...but I decided they wouldn't do and went for my CPL(H) instead. They are, however, great fun - a mixture of f/w and rotary flying that I really enjoyed.

If you do a search you'll probably find more up-to-date info than I can give. Back then, there were only 7 instructors in the UK. I went to Roger Savage at Carlisle. I wasn't impressed, but that was mainly for personal reasons; he virtually asked me if my husband knew I was out, and implied that as a mere woman I couldn't possibly have earned enough money to pay for my own flying!!! I decided I couldn't learn from someone like that.

There is a chap somewhere in the South-West who has his own machine and own website who was incredibly helpful, as are all the (tiny) gyrocopter community, in my extremely limited experience. Again, Google can probably help.

You might want to note that gyrocopters don't have a good safety record. Most people think that this is due to lack of regulation in the past, but no-one is certain. And engineering types who know far more than I do about such things say not to touch the extremely pretty RAF 200 with a bargepole - definite stability problems, I believe.

Hopefully you'll get some more definite info soon.
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