Celerity
Well-Known Member
So of you may remember, or even be part of, my daily Helicopter discussions.
I want to own 2 helicopters before I die. A Hughes / MD 500 and a Bell 222 or 230.
Yes. Airwolf.
The reason actually has little to do with helicopters. I want to become a Helicopter Owner. You see, as a helicopter owner, your finances are set. You're not a working stiff. You're not employed, you're an employer.
Getting checks to pay bills doesn't really matter. It's a whole different level of reality.
While still being in some reasonable stage of maintenance, a Hughes has an operating cost of about $500 an hour (Super cheap, really) and a purchase cost of about $500,000.
The Bell has an operating cost of about $2000 an hour, and a purchase cost close to $2,000,000. A licence costs about $20,000.
Think of where you would need to be in life to own a helicopter. That's where I wanna be.
But that's pretty hefty. I'm doing a start-up now, and I keep pouring my money back into the startup and eating ramen. I hope that someday my efforts will pay off with a good salary where I don't even have to really show up to collect it. Get more time to myself and my stuff.
So to keep myself enthused about working my ass off for like $2 an hour, I shop for helicopters online. Just to keep my edge sharp. But recently a friend of mine in Australia mentioned "Gyrocopters". Lots of people tell me about ultralights and gyrocopters in an effort of lowering the bar. My point is only half based on the fact that I want to fly. I want to get in a machine and cover great distances in a short time, yes - but I also want to be a helicopter owner.
Then he says "Dude, you have no idea what they've been doing with Gyrocopters lately, do you?" And he showed me this:
AutoGyro - Cavalon
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vc_WyeTqbhM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1s8qCMgh9H4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=059HF_fZ1Go
The style of the gyro is neat, but there are also little things that people have been doing to improve Gyrocoptering over the past years.
These things now have limited collective inputs. You can clutch up a gyro to re-spin the rotor (About 150 rpm). The weights at the tip of the rotors store a ton of energy, and when you spin up the rear propeller, you can actually hit a lever that will just jam the collective into a brief (Like 15 seconds) period of lift. In essence, it jumps off the ground and when you're in the air, you jam the throttle forward and take off. You can also slow down to a "Stall" (Gyros can't stall) and slowly engage the collective to "hover" (Again, for a few committed seconds) and lower yourself to a helipad.
Of course, once you commit to the launch or landing, you can't abort. There isn't any energy going into the top rotor.
Now here is the best part of this: The costs. Flight school for a gyro is a couple hundred bucks. It's a 5 hour flight / 5 hour ground with a 10 hour log and 2 test cert flights. Gyros themselves cost a few grand to build (The airframe styles that I hate) or this new carbon fuselage model costs $100,000 (Fully loaded)
They'll still sell you the kit for experimental certification.
And it takes 27 gallons of pump gas (Like my old Firebird) and runs for 5 hours at 90-100 mph (Unlike my old Firebird). They taxi easily, and an aero-repair cert is easy to get for them to do your own work too.
So, this or an Ariel Atom ?
I want to own 2 helicopters before I die. A Hughes / MD 500 and a Bell 222 or 230.
Yes. Airwolf.
The reason actually has little to do with helicopters. I want to become a Helicopter Owner. You see, as a helicopter owner, your finances are set. You're not a working stiff. You're not employed, you're an employer.
Getting checks to pay bills doesn't really matter. It's a whole different level of reality.
While still being in some reasonable stage of maintenance, a Hughes has an operating cost of about $500 an hour (Super cheap, really) and a purchase cost of about $500,000.
The Bell has an operating cost of about $2000 an hour, and a purchase cost close to $2,000,000. A licence costs about $20,000.
Think of where you would need to be in life to own a helicopter. That's where I wanna be.
But that's pretty hefty. I'm doing a start-up now, and I keep pouring my money back into the startup and eating ramen. I hope that someday my efforts will pay off with a good salary where I don't even have to really show up to collect it. Get more time to myself and my stuff.
So to keep myself enthused about working my ass off for like $2 an hour, I shop for helicopters online. Just to keep my edge sharp. But recently a friend of mine in Australia mentioned "Gyrocopters". Lots of people tell me about ultralights and gyrocopters in an effort of lowering the bar. My point is only half based on the fact that I want to fly. I want to get in a machine and cover great distances in a short time, yes - but I also want to be a helicopter owner.
Then he says "Dude, you have no idea what they've been doing with Gyrocopters lately, do you?" And he showed me this:
AutoGyro - Cavalon
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vc_WyeTqbhM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1s8qCMgh9H4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=059HF_fZ1Go
The style of the gyro is neat, but there are also little things that people have been doing to improve Gyrocoptering over the past years.
These things now have limited collective inputs. You can clutch up a gyro to re-spin the rotor (About 150 rpm). The weights at the tip of the rotors store a ton of energy, and when you spin up the rear propeller, you can actually hit a lever that will just jam the collective into a brief (Like 15 seconds) period of lift. In essence, it jumps off the ground and when you're in the air, you jam the throttle forward and take off. You can also slow down to a "Stall" (Gyros can't stall) and slowly engage the collective to "hover" (Again, for a few committed seconds) and lower yourself to a helipad.
Of course, once you commit to the launch or landing, you can't abort. There isn't any energy going into the top rotor.
Now here is the best part of this: The costs. Flight school for a gyro is a couple hundred bucks. It's a 5 hour flight / 5 hour ground with a 10 hour log and 2 test cert flights. Gyros themselves cost a few grand to build (The airframe styles that I hate) or this new carbon fuselage model costs $100,000 (Fully loaded)
They'll still sell you the kit for experimental certification.
And it takes 27 gallons of pump gas (Like my old Firebird) and runs for 5 hours at 90-100 mph (Unlike my old Firebird). They taxi easily, and an aero-repair cert is easy to get for them to do your own work too.
So, this or an Ariel Atom ?
