by Sid Sideslip » Thu Jul 21, 2011 7:00 am
I have flown and built Bensen style gyrocopters. They are a death trap and should be banned IMHO. I saw way too many crashes, one fatal, when I was into them. The design has some serious flaws (apart form their basic inefficiency) namely negative G rotor instability (think wildly flapping rotors destroying themselves by chopping off the rudder or hitting the prop) and especially "power push overs". The fact that they usually fly so low, can't be fitted with ballistic parachutes, or, even if you are high enough, easy to bail out of (not that the pilots bother to wear 'chutes) makes them an accident waiting to happen.
Fun to fly, but I was relieved to get rid of mine unscathed.
Funnily enough, the original AVRO Cierva C.30 was a far safer design and it was ten years after their introduction before there was a serious crash.
What goes up...better bloody stay up (until I say otherwise).
