Gyroplanes Swarm in Florida
The Annual Bensen Days fly-in welcomes rotorheads.
- By Bill Wilson
- Air & Space magazine, July 2012
Roy Davis, flying a Dominator, plummets to land on the proverbial dime from 200 feet.
Bill Wilson
The annual Bensen Days fly-in, held in Wauchula, Florida, and sponsored by the Sun State Wing and Rotor Club, honors Igor Bensen, father of the personal gyroplane, who in 1962 founded the Popular Rotorcraft Association. The PRA now represents 1,600 gyroplane owners, pilots, and enthusiasts across the globe, and plenty of them trailered their craft, stuffed them in pickup trucks, strapped them to cars, or even flew them to the 39th Bensen Days gathering last March. Bensen Days also welcomes powered rotorcraft, parachutes, and paragliders.
Today’s gyros are safer and more comfortable than the “hang it all out” designs of Bensen and his contemporaries. Gyroplanes use pusher propeller engines to spin up unpowered rotor blades, which generate lift. Gyros can’t spin or stall, are easily controlled even if the engine quits, and take off and land in just a few yards. Thanks to designers like Ernie Boyette of Rotor Flight Dynamics, gyro engines have been repositioned to provide centerline thrust, and with a horizontal stabilizer behind the engine, they are no longer prone to pilot-induced oscillations.
During the festivities, German manufacturer AutoGyro kept its MTO models, sold as experimental in the United States, in non-stop demo and training mode, emphasizing their cross-country transportation capability. Roy Hanan, an MTO dealer whose district is the U.S. southeast, thinks his gyro will be among the first to which the Federal Aviation Administration will grant Light Sport status, which would enable buyers to purchase factory-built gyros Stateside. (When the FAA created the Light Sport category, gyroplanes missed out because the industry couldn’t agree on the criteria for inclusion—along with other controversies.) To compete with imports, Jim Fields of Hastings, Michigan, will soon offer his own kit: a HoneyBee G2 gyro with a full enclosure. Fields also gave rides in the first iteration of his new machine.
Still, plenty of rotorheads are in it just for the thrill of flying their open-air, highly maneuverable kit-built gyros. They tore holes in the sky over the orange groves of Wauchula and wowed crowds with heart-stopping drops from 200 feet to spot landings. Roy Davis, an American Airlines 767 captain, built his Dominator gyro some 10 years ago and flies it during airshows. “These things are pure freedom,” says Davis. “I fly it whenever I can.”
Comments (3)
http://www.magnigyro.it/
I'm so sorry you forgot the Magni Gyro, Italian made. It's not so polite. Ciao dalla Roma eterna!
Ludo
Posted by Ludo MassimoLancellotti on May 21,2012 | 03:21 PM
In the early 80s, I flew a lot in these gyros (Bensen B8-M) here in São Paulo, Brasil. Powered with McCulloch drone engines (modified) and, more frequently, with Volkswagen 1800cc automobile engines (also modified). Lot of fun! All the 4 gyros I've built and flown were maid on Bensen designs and specifications. Two of them Bensen kits. Very good machines. Easy to build and fly.
Posted by Daniel G. Fiorotti on June 24,2012 | 06:05 PM
Hi guys, love looking at any gyro videos. I built a bensen from scratch with plans and is now ready for testing! First one I built was in 1958 but had to abort due to lack of funds AND knowledge! Best wishes from South Africa!
Posted by Jan van den Steen on August 10,2012 | 11:39 AM