![\"\"](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/IMG_4938edit.jpg\")
Such was the case this year when I was offered the\nopportunity to do a photo flight in a gyroplane by Greg Gremminger of Magni USA\nbased out of St. Genevieve, MO. \nIgnoring all of the \u201cwarnings\u201d about gyrocopters that I had received\nover the years from other \u201cfixed wing\u201d pilots, I threw caution to the wind and\naccepted the offer. My son Chris and I\nwere covering the Expo for Midwest Flyer Magazine and I thought that perhaps a\nlittle aerial photography might be a nice added touch. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Both of us, armed with cameras and radio equipped helmets, climbed aboard two Magni gyroplanes to \u201cbreak the surly bonds of earth\u201d and take some pictures. Greg was my pilot\/instructor and we flew a tandem seat dual control M-16 with a Rotax 915 turbo engine. Chris was riding in a Magni tandem seat front control only M-22 with a 914 turbo Rotax owned by Dr. Henry Konzelmann, who incidentally was his college roommate when he attended Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The M-22 departed first with Greg and I following them in\nthe M-16 shortly thereafter. After an\namazing 250\u2019 lift off run, we climbed at approximately 500 ft.\/min. However, with the larger engine, it could\nhave easily doubled the rate. With its\nincreased speed, it didn\u2019t take very long until we caught up with the other\ngyro. We throttled back and began taking\npictures of each other\u2019s aircraft in flight. \nEven though we were travelling around 70 mph, Greg indicated that our\naircraft would normally cruise over 100 mph.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When we finished taking photos, Greg decided it was time for\nme to learn more about gyroplanes and specifically the Magni M-16. Taking the controls, I noted how stable the\naircraft handled. In fact, when it was\ntrimmed out, it needed little pilot input. \nTaking it a little further and hands off the controls, he asked me to\nturn the aircraft by simply placing my arms in the slipstream\u201c\u2026.and walla, it\nbegan a gentle turn. Besides doing\nclimbs and descents to specified altitudes, we also went through a series of\nstandard rate turns and practicing turns around a point. Every pilot has to demonstrate turns about a\npoint, but doing it without \u201cwings\u201d as a reference\u201c\u2026made it a whole new ball\ngame.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With sunset in the not-too-distant future, we headed back to\nthe airport. We slowed somewhat to allow\nother aircraft to land in front of us and then Greg began our final\ndecent. If you\u2019ve experienced a decent\nand landing in a helicopter it\u2019s more or less pretty standard. However, to a fixed wing pilot cutting the\npower at several hundred feet over the numbers and landing an aircraft before\nthe first turn-off is nearly impossible without having to complete an FAA\nreport! <\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/IMG_4932edit.jpg\")
Amazingly enough, the aircraft rolled a little over 100\u2019 after touching down although, if you were really trying, Greg said that it could have been closer to 25\u2019. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
After returning to the ramp, we continued our discussion on\nthe capabilities of gyro aircraft. Greg\nexplained that there have been tremendous advances in engines, materials, and\ndesign that have contributed to increasing safety. The addition of \u201ctails\u201d alone has not only\nincreased stability, but reduced the number of \u201cphugoid\u201d (oscillations) type\naccidents that previously plagued gyrocopter aircraft. This phenomenon seems to be closely tied to\nolder gyrocopters when being flown by fixed wing pilots. Perhaps that\u2019s why gyros have been so\nmaligned. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you have never had the experience of flying a gyroplane,\nI highly recommend it, if nothing other than to understand its\ncapabilities. I think that you\u2019ll\nprobably be pleasantly surprised. If you\nwant more information, you\u2019ll need to talk with a pro like Greg\nGremminger. His website at Magni Gyro\nUSA (magniusa.com) provides a lot of great information about flying gyroplanes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Author\u2019s note: <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n If you\u2019d like to know more about the 2020 Midwest LSA Expo, please read my article and see Chris\u2019s pictures in the Dec 20\u2019\/January 21\u2019 issue of Midwest Flyer Magazine which is now available on-line at no charge. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Jim Bildilli With nearly every aviation show cancelled this year, I was pleasantly surprised to find that the 12th annual Midwest LSA Expo was going to be held at the Mt. Vernon-Outland Airport (MVN) in Mt. Vernon, Illinois. Previous Expos have always been informative and offered the ability to see and learn about the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":17298,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[116,115],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17297","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-front-page-slider","category-national-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/DSC01989edit.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17297","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17297"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17297\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17302,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17297\/revisions\/17302"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17298"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}