niquenaque

Have a look at this one fellas:


Interesting video, but I think we may be reading about this bloke 'coming a gutsa' in the future, near or far dependent on the reliability of his engine.

This bloke flies over some interesting scenery sure enough, but in some instances he is over water, over / approaching trees and over very rough ground with very little clearance above either obstacles or terrain to effect a safe landing, if his engine quits he is / could be history - especially over the water, the impact could render him unconcious to the point where a splash of cold water won't wake him up.

If the temptation strikes you please don't do what this bloke has done, you will be at grave risk of serious injury or death through sheer stupidity. Unless you are a flying legend - like birdy - your chances of walking away unscathed both physically and financially will be infintesimally next to zero.

There are similar videos of things such as 'river run' [put river +gyro in the youtube search engine] where the pilot is all but 5' over the water, I recall a bloke in QLD did that and was decapitated for his trouble by a power line that he obviously missed checking on. It is just so not worth the risk.

Do a search on this in youtube: 'ultralight +crash' and you will see what I mean about engines quitting with nasty consequences - always be mindful of it please.

Cheers,

Nick.

Drifter

On the face of it you'd probably agree that there's a risk. But how does one measure a risk?

For example Nick suggests that "if one is a flying legend like Birdy", is not such a risk. I'd suggest that gshawnadams is better known as Rotorhead on the american forum. The question that comes to my mind is, has Shawn sufficient flying experience to conduct this type of flight? Its not as if he hasn't any experience in flying is it?

Whilst I can understand the intent of the OP post, it does seem that more information is required before we could apply a carte blanch statement condemning this type of flight. After all we don't have all the facts in front of us do we?

Drifter

Birdy2

You make sum good points Nik.
Specialy in a margional machine like that one. I only heard the 2banger chang rpm twice the hole time.
Be'n on full tap [ at s/l] headn for a line of anythn you shouldnt land on is suicidle, coz itd only take abit of sink just before wotever it is, and your buggered.
Its abit different wen you gota get critters outa scrub, coz its the job, but if im just putn along, i always give meself more room than normal.
Iv communtcated a few times on the yank forum with this bloke, and i recon if i told him how many times in that flic wen he had no chance, he would be a firm beliver of ingnorance is bliss till you find out.
Nuthn against the bloke, but i dout he'd have much of an idea bout inertia managment if the noise stopped.

Like drifter said, IF you KNOW you are good enuff to do a 180 at anytime in that flic, then yes, youd probably git away with an engine out, but im not sure bout this bloke.
[ why a 180, coz engines NEVER go quiet wen you hav an easy out.]

EI-GYRO

Shawn has about 450 hours.
I like his videos, but I dont trust engines like he does.

Sonnyj

Well
I'd have some smart arss remark on this subject, but I'm afraid of puttin the MOJO on meself:eek:

Sonny intraining.

__________________
The most dangerous thing about gyro flying is when you think your no longer a student

Brian

Its what you dont know is what causes the problems and Birdys "ignorance is bliss" is right on.Of course, its not untill something does go wrong that we get to understand the consequences.

__________________
Brian Reid
Pooncarie
NSW

Mitch

I Like Shawn, he is a real nice bloke. I have to say the promotional material that Shawn has produced as in Video and Pictures is first class and far reaching. He has been instrumental along with fellas like TimChick in the USA, in producing gyro videos and posting to public sites like YouTube and others in order to advance the exposure of the gyro sport flying .

Shawn went solo around the same time as me. And I have 25 hrs and Shawn has 450 hrs....wow! I reckon he's putting on 200 hrs each year.
Fantastic stuff.

I do agree that much of Shawn's flying seems to indicate a 'faith' in his rotax two stroke engine, that I do not share. Birdy, I think if anyone was to approach Shawn about his flying, it would be better coming from you or Brian or similar style fyling pilot, as the advice would carry far more 'weight'.
Please, I would rather hear you spoke to Shawn and failed rather than not have cautioned him at all.

Lets hope Shawn flys safe and continues his great work.

Mitch.

EI-GYRO

I dont think anyone would be telling Shawn anything he didn't already know.

He does seem to keep up a pretty good speed in flight, so maybe he has
more in reserve than we think.
Particularly on the River low flight, he seems to have plenty of speed.
If he had an engine failure he could probably pull up a bit, bleeding off the
speed and helicopter it in.?

A lot of what he flies over is unlandable by virtue of groundslope, anyway,
so maybe you just learn to trust your engine.

After all, fixed-wingers do it all the time.

Birdy2

I never have, and never will trust my engine.
I trust my ability to handle the situation ill be in wen the noise stops, so every risk i take is calculated by sumthn i KNOW, not on suthn im waitn to happen.
Yes, he dose keep healthy AS at all times, but ask him how he'd fair if the noise stopped at a given time, not by his choise, and i recon he'd conceed there are a coupla times where he'd think itd be abit tight.

Best way to test yourself in sudden EO situations is to have sumone else make the call. Have them tell you wen the engine just died, where you have to chop power and land safely. [ obviosly if your not guna make it you still have a tickn engine........... you hope] You mite be supprised just how often your in that 'sticky situation'.

Brian

Basically, its the pilots ability to rescue the situation, whatever it is EO etc . I always say that when I hear people talking about how good this pilot is, that you do not know how good they are till something goes wrong, then you see very quickly if they have the instinctive reflexes and knowldge to make the correct decision.

Its very easy for a jockey to look good 10 lengths in front in the Melb cup with 100 yards to go but put that same jockey 10 lengths behind with 2 furlongs to go in the Melb cup and you will see just how good that jockey is !! [and the horse]

Now, Birdy is going to have a distinct advantage being about 75 kg's!

In Shawns case, dificult to tell with the camera as angles /distances / heights /airspeed can be deceiving.

End of the day, its a trade off between known risk management and the black hole, the unknown factor!

__________________
Brian Reid
Pooncarie
NSW