Quote:
Originally Posted by aerohead
1) with a gyrocopter, pay attention to doppler radar advisories.
2) A friend's dad was a very experienced, high-time gyrocopter pilot, however, bought the farm in a micro-burst downdraft.
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From what I've seen (thanks to Google, so take it for what it's worth) is that a lot of autogyro accidents have more to do with a bad aircraft design than autogyros in general. It has to do with a rear mounted propeller. With the engine and propeller behind the pilot there are certain advantages, like being able to blow right onto your rudder giving you better yaw control at slow speeds, but it also makes the line of thrust much higher than the center of gravity.
Apparently if you fix this and put the line of thrust exactly along the center line of the vehicle through the center of gravity then control issues are solved. But this ususally means the propeller has to be mounted on the front making the vehicle longer and doesn't give you that yawing advantage at slow speeds.
Juan De la Cierva invented the autogyro to make a safer aircraft. Ironically he died in an airplane crash.