Airgyro Aviation blog

Here is the latest training video. I really like sending the video camera up when Bill is here because his gyro is built so solid and  the sound quality is better than our training one. So here it is:

I wanted to share this video clip from a flight training lesson. It is of a landing and some explanation from our instructor Mike.

The most recent training video is a lot of takeoffs and landings. It’s a long one, good luck!

And here is a good lesson on controlling the your pitch on takeoff. It’s a short one…

Here is the most recent flight training video we took with our nflightcam. Glenn is here getting trained so he can start flying his Butterfly Gyroplane. Mike flew it a couple days ago and said it was a blast!

We have been doing a lot of gyroplane training here at Airgyro Aviation. I took a quick video of the Sparrowhawk gyroplane that we are training in. October is scheduled up, no more dates available, but November is still fairly open. Usually we have good weather until the very end of November, so let us know if you want to get training in before it snows.

Here is the first half of a recent gyro lesson that Mike gave to Bill. I will post the second once it uploads.

And here is the second half. Sorry the camera turned off before the end of the flight.

So Bill is out here and doing some more training. I thought we would get more video of his instruction. Hopefully those thinking about getting a gyro or getting gyro flight training can see what it is like. This was a normal hour long lesson so I broke it up into 3 sections to make it easier to deal with. So here is the first section. The next two should follow soon.



Update* Part 2

Update* Part 3

Youtube is now letting us post videos that are longer than 10 minutes, so I can now start to post flight training videos. I have only recorded one so far, but will continue to post more as we have more lessons in the gyroplane. Here is the one that I have posted:

And just for fun, here is a shorter video taken from a Sparrowhawk of a Sportcopter Lightning:

Who is looking forward to Oshkosh 2011? We are too! Make sure you come visit us if you are going. We will be in booth 9. Once you go in the main gates, turn left and we are one of the first booths on the left side. We should have some cool aircraft in our booth. Unfortunately we probably won’t have any wireless headsets there because I am going to be holding down the fort back at Airgyro. We are working really hard to get our improved second version finished and tested. I really wish we could have them at Oshkosh but the timing just was not there. We are making good progress and look forward to showing you what we have done soon.

I hear that there are going to be Gyro Demo-Flights at Oshkosh. Make sure you ask Mike or Nate about that. They are hard to get these days so don’t pass up the opportunity if you are there!

I have been out here in Lakeland Florida for the Sun ‘n Fun Airshow. We have a booth inside Hangar E where we are selling the Mach 5 Wireless Aviation Headset. I say we, but I (Jake) came out alone this time since we have a lot to do at Airgyro. So far the weather hasn’t been very conducive for an airshow. We have had BAD weather. Especially today! I feel very lucky that we are set up in a hangar and don’t have an outside booth. My heart goes out to the people and businesses who own the aircrafts that were damaged today.

There was a severe thunderstorm that came through the Airport here at Sun ‘n Fun. The severe part passed through fairly quick, but left behind a lot of damage. According to the news there have been at least 4 confirmed Tornado sightings in the area.

I have never been through weather anywhere close to this. I thought that the micro-bursts that we have every couple of years in Utah were really bad, but they won’t seem so bad after experiencing this storm. It was raining some this morning when I drove from East Tampa where my hotel is to Lakeland to get set up for the day. I had heard that there was a Tornado watch the night before and that there would be one for some of the day today.  But it really didn’t look like it was going to be that bad of weather so I didn’t pay much attention to it.

A little before Noon things got pretty weird with the weather. I was pretty busy talking to prospective Mach 5 Headset buyers and didn’t notice until things outside the hangar doors got super dark. It looked like it was the middle of the night outside. I couldn’t believe how dark it was. Real soon after that the rain started to come down. HARD. The wind started to pick up fast. We had to close all the hangar doors because it started to get real bad. From there it was just sounds and a little shaking. Luckily we were in a steel beamed hangar that is supposed to withstand hurricanes so there wasn’t much reason to worry, but there were some kids and girls crying that were scared. The rain/hail/thunder was really loud. The lights flickered some, then went out. It was fairly dark, but there are sky/storm windows in the ceiling so we could still see all right. It lasted for less than 15 minutes but it felt like a lot longer. When things died down we took a look outside and were pretty surprised at what we saw.

Hangar E is pretty far away from the other hangars and aircraft displays, but there were some big trees around us that had blown over, one on a van. The large display tents were all collapsed. But the real damage was out where all the airplanes were displayed. Unfortunately it wasn’t spread out evenly but a few businesses had several aircraft destroyed or damaged really bad. Aviat Aircraft (they make the Husky Airplane) got hit really hard. There was a Husky on Floats that was upside down. Three Air Cams were either destroyed or damaged really bad. In total the reports say there are over 40 aircraft that were damaged or destroyed. I have a couple crappy pictures that I posted on the Airgyro Facebook page and the Airgyro Twitter page. I posted a news video below that gives you a lot better idea of the scene soon after the storm hit.

There were reports at that point that another storm cell as big as the one that just hit was going to come through in half an hour to 45 minutes. So we headed back to the hangar and hung out for a while longer. Luckily that one seemed to pass around us and we just got a little more rain a wind, but nothing like what had just hit. After that there was just a lot of rain.

Here is that video:



The good news is that the Sun ‘n Fun Airshow will go on. They are opening back up tomorrow bright and early. The Volunteers have been working really hard and cleaning things up for tomorrow. The weather is supposed to be nice for the weekend so hopefully we can have a good show for the rest of the time.