Irish businessman proposes to circumnavigate the world in an autogyro

[lotusexige]

I don't know if this should be here or in the rotary wing section.
Irish businessman to circle globe in autogyro - National News, Frontpage - Independent.ie (http://www.independent.ie/national-news/irish-businessman-to-circle-globe-in-autogyro-2097798.html)

[burylad]

Some adventure....! :ok:
Do you have a project website; maintaining a weblog etc ?
Would be great to be able to escort you out/in with other MTs.
Hope not too many headwinds.;)

[bingoboy]

Look forward to updates on this adventure.

['India-Mike]

Like all the gyro people I've met, a few cards short of a full pack. Crackpot

[fisbangwollop]

Spoke to him on my frequency today at Scottish information heading back to NI. Also spoke the other day as he headed across the Irish Sea towards the UK mainland....seemed a long way over the water to me in one of those but I guess just as safe as any other single engine aircraft.......glad I was in my nice warm and dry ops room though....wouldnt swop places!! .....good luck anyway from Scottish Info..:cool::cool::cool:

['India-Mike]

Despite the significant advances in accident rates over the past 15 years the fatal rate remains several orders of magnitude worse than the fixed-wing GA rate. It's not helped by people doing things like flying them beyond MPD'd limits, imposed by CAA for very sound reasons:

http://www.aaib.gov.uk/cms_resources.cfm?file=/RAF%202000%20GTX-SE,%20G-CBCJ%2003-10.pdf

[Chuck Ellsworth]

Using an RAF2000 with no horizontal stab as an example of gryo safety is not really a fair statement on gyro safety in general.

[IO540]

On the plus side, he has not been on here asking if anybody can donate charts, days before the flight. I'd be somewhat worried if that happened again...

[G-KEST]

I wish him the very best of luck. The epic will launch, I believe, from Duxford in the near future,
If the rotor induced vibration levels are anything like those I found on a flight in one of the Magni variety a few years ago he will be well shaken if not stirred. A female might well find it a pleasurable experience.... but round the world.....!!!!

Cheers,

Reaper 69
:D:D:D:D

[rokami93]

Right now there is a German couple flying in an autogyro around the world. They are in Australia already, so the Irish guy needs to fly a bit faster if he wants to be the first to round the earth in an autogyro.

Personally, I like the Irish approach better as the Germans made quite a lot of fuzz about their trip:

Round-the-World Trip - Worldflight - Round-the-world trip with a Gyroplane (http://www.worldflight.tv/index.html)

[GyroSteve]

"Although the Round-the-World Trip with a gyroplane does not comply the exact definition of a flight around the world it is definitely the longest journey with a gyroplane on five continents that has ever been done so far."

Sounds like Norman doesn't have to catch up with them after all!

[rokami93]

Gyro-Steve,

also, I am not quite sure what leads me to believe that it is not a flight around the world, rather than flying in many places around the world.

Well, they do have a profile on facebook Weltflug.tv | Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Weltflugtv/196658052531) and it really seems they did fly from Germany to Australia so far.

Unfortunately, they don't publish the more interesting details of the trip such as the length and duration of each leg or how they got they managed to get the fuel at each stop.

What I find funny is the fact that many times they do these flights for a purpose, charity or a very honorable goal instead of simply admitting to do it for the pure joy of flying.

['India-Mike]

Despite what I said earlier, he's doing rather well

SPOT Shared Page (http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0M3Zb2VvSqGOOKr8faf6ltSR80lVr0C4h)

Jeddah already:D

[rokami93]

Definitely, an interesting trip so far.

I am curious to know who has done his overflight handling and how he got permissions to file VFR, especially Iran and India should be quite difficult to handle.

[mutt]

jeddah already

He then got caught in a Saudi sand storm and had to land on a road. I'm sure that he had fun trying to explain that to the authorities.

Considering that most of Saudi is experiencing wide scale thunderstorms and sand storms this week, the guy is crazy for even attempting to cross the country VFR.



Mutt

[rokami93]

He then got caught in a Saudi sand storm and had to land on a road. I'm sure that he had fun trying to explain that to the authorities.

Considering that most of Saudi is experiencing wide scale thunderstorms and sand storms this week, the guy is crazy for even attempting to cross the country VFR.

I suppose very often it is not craziness, but lack of information. This gap is then filled with wishful thinking and an attitude "it'll turn out alright". (At least this is my case)

This guy will experience many more things like these. The hardest ones aren't sandstorms but paperwork and authorities who don't like these kind of adventures at all.

I remember that the last attempt to round the world with an autogyro ended in Bangladesh in a monsoon. He couldn't fly on as he had to wait for the rainy season to end, but his gyro was flooded when he came back a few months later to continue.

The first one to round the world in an autogyro will definitely be in line other aviation pioneers. I wish him good luck.

EDIT: He made it to Mosqat/Oman and is now crossing some water towards Iran or Pakistan.

[rokami93]

Our adventurer crashed and walked -uhem- swam away from the scene. Friendly Thai helpers pulled his Gyrocopter, Dollar-bills, passport and other floating stuff out of the water and 2 hours later they had the engine running again...:ok:

The damage might be repairable and they are now trying to figure out what needs to be done to continue. See the full story http://gyroxgoesglobal dot b l o g s p o t d o t com/:}

[SNS3Guppy]

While I wish the intrepid adventurer every ounce of luck in the world, his mishap certainly doesn't appear to be the stuff of adventure, or the result of a long journey. His own description is one of poor takeoff planning, takeoff obstacles, and the gyro equivalent of a stall, coupled with too much weight for his density altitude.

“I was trying to take off into the wind and really I didn’t get the correct amount of lift as I was flying. At the end of the runway there were power lines which I had to avoid and meant I couldn’t go on and set it down on the other side of them.

I couldn’t turn right because there was a grove of coconut palms. On the other side there was a shallow lake so the best option was to try and go over the lake. We just did not have the energy in the rota to stay above the water and the aircraft tumbled over and ended upside down. I came out like you would from a canoe.”

“I have never had an accident before so it was quite interesting. “One second I was flying and the next thing I was upside down in the water. But once I got my head above water that was fine. The water was warm so at least it wasn’t like plunging into the North Sea or something and I am fairly used to the water. It wasn’t really that panicky — it sounds a lot more dramatic that it actually was.”


Complacency kills. Not in this particular case, but allowing one's guard to be let down certainly can end unfavorably.

[rokami93]

Yep, "density altitude" is the magic word here...

Reflecting a bit about this avoidable accident, I would think this gentleman will need a lot of luck to circumnavigate the world. He has already proven to be gutsy.