Free Gyrocopter Plans S

GyroplanesBlade Resonance article in December 2008 issue of ROTORCRAFT by Martin Hollmann. Free download, 4.7 MB pdf. File.Letter from Sportster pilot: Marty, I am thankful I learned to fly gyros in your Sportster design.

1. Free Gyrocopter Plans Download

Free Gyrocopter Plans Download

Jerry Blaskey.Letter from SAA: I read the comments from various people relative to the use of the horizontal stabilizer and of course the need for one. It certainly makes sense in reading it and in your comments as well as those of others. Paul Poberezny,Letter from Piasecki Aircraft Co:Your book “Modern Gyroplane Design” is simply a pleasure to read and you have made a very tough subject very understandable. In helping to explain our performance numbers in our solicitations, we would like to include a copy of your book as supporting documentation for one of our reports.

We feel strongly that members of the board who will be evaluating our technical report could make great use of your text. We are quoting it routinely in the body of out text. Chuck Jarnot. Unfortunately for me I put my gyro interests on hold for a while since the gyro community seemed to be confused about the horizontal tail issue. Had I studied your materials harder, I would not have needed to. I am building on a fixed wing but can also start the Bumble Bee as it doesn’t require much hanger room. Bill Shamblin.Aircraft designs, Inc.

Sells plans for two gyroplanes, both have an excellent safety record. Flight reports of the Sportster and Bumble Bee are presented in. For those interesting in designing gyros, the book is the only book in the world on this subject.The Sportster is the word’s first two place, experimental, gyroplane. It first flew in 1974.

The Sportster is powered by a 160 hp Lycoming 0-320 engine. It is enclosed and designed to carry two large people. Seating is side by side with dual controls for flight training. Many Sportsters have been built and hundreds of people have learned to fly in the Sportster or derivatives of the Sportster.

Structure is bolt together aluminum. The Sportster has the safest flight history of any gyroplane in the world. Price for well detailed plans is $535. Plans include drawings for tow hitch, prerotator, and rotor blades.For a free copy of Hollmann’s Master Thesis, “DESIGN OF THE ULTRALIGHT TWO PLACE GYROPLANE,” Florida Technical University, FL, 1974.

File,Seth Hedstrom tells of his 1,600 km flight in his Sportster in the upcoming issue of PRA’s Rotorcraft magazine. This 2 place gyroplane designed by Martin Hollmann was built by Helga Swenson in Sweden about 12 years ago and Seth has been made a number of improvements to it. On his trip he averaged a TAS of 81 mph on the 13 hr flight and burned 9.2 gph fuel. At the airports he landed many people came to see his Sportster. (reminds me of when I fly my Sportster.

I have had as many as 20 aircraft wait for me to take off) Congratulations Seth on a great job. Martin HollmannThe recent picture of the Sportster on the left was taken at the South County Airport, CA Fly-In, on May 5, 2001. A number of improvements have been made which include a new Matco nose wheel with a hydraulic brake and a better rotor blade adjustment hub. The last time the Sportster was flown was 10 years ago. The Sportster first flew in 1974.

It has been copied by others and is also known as the Shadow and the Avenger.For a free copy of the Sportster Stress Analysis, 12.8 MB PDF file. Jeana Yeager flying the Sportster. This is before she met Dick Rutan. Jeana joined came along to the Chino Airshow to help me promote the Sportster. There she met Dick and the rest is history.

But Jeana loves helicopters, gyroplanes, horses, and yes-airplanes.The Bumble Bee was designed, built, and flown by ADI in 1983. It is the world’s first ultralight gyroplane. The Bumble Bee is one of the few ultralight gyroplanes on the market. It uses a prerotator to spin the rotor blades up to 300 rpm on the ground. Once the blades are up to speed, the take off distance is 230 feet on a calm day. It is powered by a 40 hp Rotax or Kawasaki engine. Flight speed ranges from 15 to 70 mph.

Construction is bolt together aluminum tubes. Price for plans is $250. Plans include prerotator, blades, and trailer modification to transport aircraft. For a free copy of the BUMBLE BEE PERFORMANCE AND STRESS REPORTS. 2.2 MB.pdf file,The Bumble Bee at Hollister, CA in 1983. Plans are rotor blades are available for the Bumble Bee. This gyroplane is the first ultralight gyroplane with a prerotator and instrument panel.

Others such as the Honey Bee and the Gyro Bee are Bumble Bee clones.On the left is Martin flying the prototype Bumble Bee and in the middle is Allen Tatarian test flying the first Bumble Bee at Hollister, CA.Murray Goossen from Canada just (2008) sent a letter stating that he now has 650 hrs on his BB. He writes: The machine is now settling in as far as maintenance is concerned. Their are things that wear but this is normal.

The nose wheel lock is a little awkward. Rotorhead and pre-rotator very good – the belt tensioner pivot was beefed up some time ago about 70 TT. Its a little loose now and will need some attention. Empennage is trouble free. Brakes were changed to Gerdes hydraulic before the first flight and remain unmodified.

The throttle quad was doubled up to inlcude carb heat, is twice as fat and works well. Your designs have a simple elegance to them and it appreciated. Regard – Murray Goossen.

Martin,Over the last few months, I have taken advantage of all the information one can find on gyrocopters and the industry over the last thirty plus years. I have read your publications, books by Paul Bergen Abbott, PRA magazine, and many of the comments on the web’s Rotary Wing Forum. I have found much good information as well as opinions, egos, rivalries, self-appointed gurus, etc.

But, through it all, you are the only one in the past 40 years that has written a book specifically on small gyroplanes and has designed, built and flew both of them, plus still offering a class on gyroplane design.This puts you in a unique position to further advance the gyroplane into the 21st century, which leads me to why I am writing this email to you.As a new gyroplane enthusiast, you have the only plans-built, two-place, side by side enclosed gyro on the market today. Yes, there is the SparrowHawk, RAF 2000 and Air Command, but these are kits. The SparrowHawk is $50,000 with a used engine, the RAF 2000 is dangerous without modifications, and the Air Command is underpowered and not enclosed. Sportcopter in Oregon is coming out with a new side by side model, for a whopping $60,000 without the engine.Many of us don’t want, or cannot afford a $50,000 to $100,000 gyroplane. EAA and PRA have moved away from the basics of building from plans.

I have built two airplane fuselages out of 4130 tubing and enjoy working in that material. Plus, the new generation of gyroplane pilots are demanding stable, safe machines. I would rather have steel tubing around me than composite.I want to build a Sportster that combines old technology with what we now know about stability, safety, and engine and material choices for the homebuilder.I believe that many more like myself are craving for a plans-built, two-place, side by side enclosed gyrocopter that incorporates the new design parameters and selection of materials. Rich NuttallMartin Hollmann designed the Kerry Gyroplane in June 1989 as shown on the left below. Many years later, Don Farrington produced a gyroplane called the Twin Star.

As can be seen, the empennage of the Twin Star was a copy of the Kerry Gyro.

ABOVE: Bruce Spence with the wrecked early Bensen-style gyrocopter from the movie Mad Max - 1Gyrocopters were once seen as dangerous. Modern versions are anything but!Did you know there are many commercial pilots that fly those big A-330's as well as many other 'people carriers' across the globe. Yet on their days off, instead of staying on the ground, they choose to strap into their gyrocopters and have fun blasting around the sky.With the freedom of a gyrocopter, you can fly a little bit lower, it's open cockpit, and you can slow down and have a good look around. It's best described like being on an aerial dirt bike.The best thing about flying the gyroplane is that it's a fun, responsive aircraft and you have a great field of view. Legally (in most countries) you can fly at 300ft, even lower if you have the permission of the landowner.

You best get some training on low level flying first though as there is much to consider! Then, it's just the feeling of freedom.It's best described as being like a motor bike. If you want to go touring you buy a touring bike, if you want to go bush bashing and have fun, you buy a dirt bike.

That's why the gyrocopter is often described as the 'dirt bike of the air'.The introduction of factory-built gyrocopters has seen an increase in the number of pilots flying these aircraft. ABOVE: The is one of many new, sleek high performance gyrocopters hitting the market - especially from the European nations!Gyrocopters are nowhere near as hard to fly as a helicopter though and they are definitely cheaper to fly and maintain than a helicopter. The only similarity is that they both have rotor blade systems.

Past that they are two completely different beasts to fly.You can be a very good gyro pilot and still not be able to fly a helicopter whereas a fixed wing pilot can transition to a gyro fairly quickly.Flying a plane is definitely a different experience to any gyrocopter. On a typical modern gyroplane, after starting the engine, the pre-rotator engages to spin the blades up.The swishing overhead is a little disconcerting at first then the RPM reaches around 220 smoothing things out, the pre-rotator disengages and take off roll begins.Typically lift-off is around 30-50kts depending on your autogyro and some forward stick is required to accelerate and prevent a high angle of attack situation developing. Rotor RPM varies between 320rpm and 370rpm depending on model and weight.Once airborne, a gyrocopter is incredibly maneuverable, often referred to as an aerial dirt bike because of their sheer fun factor. Landings are another fun part, with steep approaches and almost zero ground speed touchdowns possible, no-where near as nerve racking as any fixed wing touchdown. If you're a fixed wing pilot, transitioning requires a student to learn more-so the limitations of the gyrocopter rather than the aspects of flight.

This usually takes about 10 hours for theaverage fixed wing pilot to feel comfortable flying a gyrocopter. You have to unlearn some things you take for granted in fixed wing flying like pushing forwards at the top of climb.In a gyro you reduce power to reduce the climb, the nose naturally drops and then you retrim to maintain altitude.Spanish engineer Juan de la Cierva set out to create an aircraft that could fly safely at slow speeds and the autogyro was first flown on January 9, 1923, at Cuatro Vientos Airfield in Madrid. De la Cierva's aircraft resembled the fixed-wing aircraft of the day, with a front-mounted engine and propeller in a tractor configuration to pull the aircraft through the air.ABOVE: The concept gyrocopter. Fast, agile and with a big fun factor - travel in comfort at speed.The gyrocopter is a modern tool of the flight, which besides of diverse characteristics: low operating cost, special flight abilities etc. Build your own gyrocopter, design your own gyrocopter, fly your own gyrocopter.Gyrocopter DesignPusher props, pullers, gyro gliders, jump take-off - VTOL style, drop keel, Vibration Isolation System gyrocopters. The list goes on with new designs and ideas continuing to evolve.Gyrocopter EnginesFortunately we now have a huge selection of engines to choose from for our gyrocopters.

The selection ranges from your typical two stroke, a four stroke, electric, turbines and Mazda Rotarys.Gyrocopter RotorbladesOne of the most important parts of a gyrocopter are the wings! Yes, you heard right - rotorblades are the wings of a gyrocopter. This is why they are also known as rotary-wing-aircraft.Gyrocopter PlansVisit our download store for instant access to some of the classic and modern gyrocopter plans and designs.

You can build from these plans or modify to create your own design.Gyroplane Training - What’s the difference?There’s a few extra tricks to learn when taking on the sport of gyro flying. None are difficult but they are important to ensure aircraft and pilot longevity.