I've had a couple of trial lessons with Roger Savage up in Carlisle; yes, they are lots of fun. Need hardly any distance for takeoff, and can land on the spot if there's almost any wind at all. Engine failure is no problem; you just float gently down to earth. Landing I managed on my first lesson; take-off is a bit harder, but I can't remember exactly why. Main disadvantage is they're very noisy. Also, there are only 7 instructors in the country, so you might have to travel quite a way to find one.
They're basically fairly safe, and most of the accidents were in the early days when there were no 2-seater gyros, so people learned by an instructor talking to them from the ground; not the case any more. But there have been a couple of accidents recently, which have started the whole safety discussion off again.
There's loads of stuff on the Internet about them; do a search. The best is Mel's Gyro Page; a chap called Mel Morris Jones who flies gyros and lives somewhere in the West Country.
I was originally looking for a cheap alternative to helicopters, and gyros didn't quite make it as they couldn't hover, but they still fascinate me.
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Whirly
To fly is human, to hover, divine.