Gyro laws

[El Hunga]

Hello everyone, :rot:
Im looking for laws that dictate what you can & cant do on a gyrocopter. :confused:
Info such as where you can fly.
Can you fly within city limits.
I have seen in US & Germany that they are using Gyro's for police work.
Do you have to get some kind of endorsements for that? DCA?
Any info would be very much appreciated. :f:
Thanks

[louww]

Abang,

You may want to join ASRA to get your info pak with all the dos & duns on gyro, if you are going to start flying in Aust.

Forget of DCA approval on gyro flying. It's not going to be easy!!! You still in KL? Should consider getting yr PPL (H) there...:mrhappy:mrhappy

Lou

[El Hunga]

Hey Bro,

Im in KL & I intend to fly here.
I was requiring info so I can submit to the DCA over here so I wont have any complication.
Does a Gyro have to be endorsed to fly with a passenger???
Does it need certification from a governing body???
Can you fly a Gyro within city limits???
Thanks

[JAL]

The short answer is you cannot fly over city, town or populous area in a gyro (same as a LSA and experimental aircraft)
The US only use the fully certified gyrocopter (A18)
The german police force have only been conducting trials and apparently the police pilots are not to happy about it and are threatening industrial action so that looks like it is going no where.

[El Hunga]

The short answer is you cannot fly over city, town or populous area in a gyro (same as a LSA and experimental aircraft)
The US only use the fully certified gyrocopter (A18)
The german police force have only been conducting trials and apparently the police pilots are not to happy about it and are threatening industrial action so that looks like it is going no where.

Thanks for the info amigo.
Is there any way around this??? :confused:
Maybe registering the Gyro under something else?
How is it possible for the German to use them then???
How is it possible for Helicopters to fly within the city limits??? :anger:

Thanks

[JAL]

If you are trying to determine whether you can operate a gyro commercially in Australia, US, UK, NZ or Canada (these countries have almost identical regulations and all certificates etc are recognised across each juristriction) it is very difficult. A common thought is to use it for aerial photography, traffic reporting etc but the rules are clear for commercial operations:


You need to use utulity certified aircraft

you have to have a commercial pilot license

you need to have a air operators cerificate (AOC) which is a legal document outlining all your procedures, maintenance, operations manual etc and has to be administered by your chief pilot

Your chief pilot has to be approved by CASA and is the person who is responsible for all flying activities. There are a bunch of conditions a pilot must obtain before he can be put for forward as a potential chief pilot and they are set out in the regs.

There is only a couple of fully certified gyros in the world and they are as expensive as an equavalent FW. Also the FW aircraft perform much better therefore there is no commercial advantage in using one except for training commercial gyro pilots.


There are no commercial gyro pilots in Australia and there is no where you can train to be one because there are no certified gyrocopters in Australia that CASA will allow for commercial gyro training.


Helicopters can fly over cities because they are full certified just like you can fly cessna, pipers etc over the city because they are all fully certified. You cannot fly an experimental, gyro or LSA of populated areas because they are not certified to same category.


You will also find that Governments will issue wavers to this rule for certain experimental aircraft (under strict conditions) if the aircraft is being assessed for its suitability for a particular role (Law enforcement, defense etc) and there have been many examples of this worldwide. If the government feels that the aircraft is suitable then they will place an order under the condition that the aircraft is delivered fully certified. What happens in just about every trial is that while the government is happy with the trial it determines that the final cost and the time it takes for the aircraft to be delivered is unacceptable when there is already a certified aircraft that will do 90% of the job and are available right now and without delivery risk. It takes a very special aircraft to clear that hurdle and must deliver a crucial function that cannot be replicated by anything else.


The rules in Germany may be a bit different because on youtube you can see trikes, gyros experimental aircraft flying over towns and cities all the time. In spain you can use experimental aircraft for a lot of commercial activities, the same for some South American and African countries as well.


Here in Australia you can use the gyro for training and you can also use it for conducting your own work (mustering, checking bore & fences etc) as long as it is on your own property. But this is the case for all classes of aircraft.


The reason why aviation business in Australia is expensive (and you know you could do it a lot cheaper particularly when not passenger carrying) is just the cost of compliance. Setting up a commercial aviation business is not for the feint hearted and even the most basic commercial operation has significant entry barriers, mainly due to buearcacy. If you were a cynic this is deliberate to protert existing commercial operators from being overrun by competitors, especially in some cases were there are safer and more efficient ways of doing business than the current status quo but you can see why it is like that, you can't have every Tom, Dick and Harry starting a business it would be a disater.


You know a second hand fully certified aircraft can be purchased for less than than a new MT03, magni or ELA (and any of the new LSA plastic fantastics for that matter) and you can use them for a commercial operation.

[El Hunga]

WOW that was a fantastic in depth detailed information.
I really appreciate you taking the time to wright it out for me.
Luckily living over here it is a bit easier if you know someone at the top.
Looks like we better look into this from every angle before spending on something that might not materialized.

Thank you for the info.

[louww]

:chuckel::)

[Muzza]

thanks for the information but i've read about a bloke who is a contracter comercially musters stock in a gyrocopter in australia