Yes I fly autogyros: one of the PartT manufactured ones. It is a more affordable form of pleasure flying. I confine it to nice days. I usually fly by myself (sad) but it leaves me with greater margins and fuel in the tank. I am careful and keep well within the aircraft limits. Open cockpit is great, if you have not flown it before. I very rarely take it to the mountains (hills really) we have here, cos it is too light (which is a shame because I just love mountain flying).
I also flew R22s (about 2000 hrs). Really enjoyed that too. When i was in good instructing practice I really used to enjoy demoing and teaching EOLs etc, bearing in mind sensible limits. I was very careful to avoid serious turbulence. Had 1 eng failure: still here & so is the aircraft.
Moved onto bigger RW. Nice to get someone else to pay for that. Great privilege.
After more than a decade, found myself in an R22 a while ago. Horrible little thing; everything flaps and rattles [But it got me into the best job I ever had]
Also a PPL(A). About 300 hrs. Boring and pointless unless you need to get somewhere a fair distance away.
All IMHO.
The real question is the balance between risk and benefit/cost.
For most things you use a hele for you can't use a FW. I bet the FW accident rate for confined areas would be higher than for RW, but you know what, we will never find out.
Last edited by Helinut; 4th Jul 2012 at 10:26.