"Stuart & Kathryn Fields" wrote in message
.. .
boB:
BTW squared, In the process of doing the PRA magazine we met and spent
some
time with Comander Ken Wallis who is the UK gyro king. He did all of the
flying for the James Bond movie that had the "Little Nellie" gyro. He
doesn't share the statements that both horizontal stabilizers and center
line thrust are a must. At least in his experience, and I might add mine
(both my wife and I self taught in a Benson back in the late 60s and never
dinged the ship and flew in a variety of conditions). This is not to say
that some ships with an abundance of body work forward of the mast can't
benefit from both things tho. I think that the two seat side-by-side
gyros
like the RAF and Sparrohawk would certainly fly different in gusty winds
than the skimpy single seat Benson that I used to fly.

--
Stuart Fields
Experimental Helo magazine
P. O. Box 1585
Inyokern, CA 93527
(760) 377-4478
(760) 408-9747 general and layout cell
(760) 608-1299 technical and advertising cell

Not trying to start any arguments here, there's been too many of them on
this subject through the years, but....

I believe you when you say that h-stabs and centerline thrust are not
necessarily a must. I know that many folks have flown gyros without these
features for years without incident. I also know that in my first 5 years
as a PRA member, it seemed like every time I turned around I was reading
about "another" member who had killed themselves in a high thrust line gyro
and "many" of these folks were not low time beginners. They were well
established members of the PRA who's opinions and experiences were very much
respected. Not all of these incidents were directly related to the high
thrust line issue but some of them were, at least many folks seemed to think
so.

In the past few years, there have been a number of people who have converted
a high thrust line gyro to centerline thrust and/or added a horizontal
stabilizer and in each case, there have been nothing but "glowing" reports
on the improvements in the handling of the aircraft, especially in turbulent
air. I've read hours upon hours of posts and information and waded through
heated arguments and respectful conversations on the subject and I firmly
believe that, while an experienced pilot can safely handle a high thrust
line gyro, I think a beginner or relatively low time pilot will be
infinitely better off in a centerline machine w/h-stab. I'm not a gyro
pilot so maybe my opinion on this isn't worth squat but I know what I've
seen and I know what I've read and I firmly believe that a pusher style gyro
should have a h-stab and the engine thrust line should be as close to
centerline thrust as possible. JMMOC, FWIW!

Respectfully,
Steve R.