On 2/17/2012 8:07 PM, Sean Fidler wrote:
Tom,

Why do any gliders have gyro's at all?

40 years ago, almost nobody did, because they were expensive ($1000 for
an AH when gliders cost $20,000), drew an amp, and were big and heavy,
and most people didn't have a real use for it.

Now, they they are cheap ($500 when gliders cost $100,000), use very
little current, and are small and light, so even though people don't
have any greater use for it than 40 years ago, they like the look of it
and think it might help some day. Some power pilots seem to feel naked
without them, having had one for hundreds or thousands of hours in their
airplanes.

I used to have a gyro T&B in my panel, because I got it dirt cheap, and
it looked prettier than the empty hole in the panel. I thought, maybe
some day I'll get stupid or have some really bad luck, and maybe it
would help me descend through a wave cloud that closed in. I never
worried about being sucked into a cloud, though.

And some people use them to cloud fly, illegally and legally.

--
Eric Greenwell - Washington State, USA (change ".netto" to ".us" to
email me)