After buying a Gyroplane I contacted Craig McPherson of Blues Skies Autogyros for training and took a week of leave from work.
This week I have flown for four hours so far in his MTO Sport trainer pictured above. It has been quite an experience and very different than the hour I spent with Steve McGowan in Georgia back in 2009.
The MTO Sport is very fast and responsive. Craig challenges his students by going beyond the typical syllabus. We have done the usual touch and go landings, but, rarely do we do them the same as done during the previous session. For instance, most CFIs use a powered approach and land the gyrocopter more like an airplane. Craig however, started me off with power off (engine at idle) approaches to simulate engine out situations.
At first the approaches were similar to a normal pattern with down wind leg, base leg and final. Then in a later session we started doing very short finals. Next we did an approach from a vertical decent, then a powered on standard approach.
More to follow, we are about to get back in the air and I will later describe the other training techniques that were incorporated with the touch and goes above.
Happy Flying,
Tom
Tom
ReplyDeleteJust saw your blog. Am planning on acquiring a gyro this year. I like the variations in approach as that was atypical for my fixed wing training. Do write more on your training.
Mike
Mike,
DeleteThanks for the encouragement. I have taken a break from Gyro Training and writing. I will get back to it soon.
Regards,
Tom