Airgyro Aviation blog » Flight Training

DA-20 returning to Service NEXT WEEK!

Jake — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 16:43:33 +0000

Finally some good news….We are sending Mike to go pick up our Da-20 Eclipse (Katana) airplane tomorrow (Thursday). We should be back in business on Monday of next week. So those that have been waiting for this plane to return, to either finish your private license, start or work towards your instrument or just to rent and have some fun, give me a call. We are excited to have it back in service.

On another note, the Outback 2 Light Sport Airplane is down for it’s annual inspection. That might take a week or two.

Still Here

Jake — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 19:15:11 +0000

I realize I haven’t been very active in keeping this blog updated, so I am going to try and do better. The only problem I have is that there aren’t really any good updates at the moment. Hopefully soon though. The Latest is that we sold our SparrowHawk that we have had on our site to Tony from Texas. He also had us order him an awesome decked out Trailer. I think he will really enjoy this machine.

That does leave us without a training machine for a while to we figure out something else. So the best option for training is if you have your own two place machine, Mike is willing to travel to train you at your place.

The best recent news is that Nate is getting Married on Saturday! We are all excited for him.

Utah Rotorcraft Association BBQ and Gyro flying!

Jake — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 17:01:13 +0000

We had a great time at the Utah Rotorcraft Association (PRA Chapter 2) get together this last saturday. We had SIX gyros there. I thought that was quite the accomplishment. Four of them were flying around after the BBQ. Some of those that joined us traveled from pretty far, so we appreciate being able to spend the day with them. We have some beautiful Gyros here and I think everybody who attended had a great time.

Click on any of the photos to see them BIG.

This next picture is Airgyro’s SparrowHawk flying around. For those who were waiting, it is now ready to go. So call us to get on the schedule to recieve flight training.

Below we have Mike Brownly and his Butterfly Aurora gyroplane, Brian Bird and his SparrowHawk, and Curt Pitman and his Modified RAF.

I thought this shot was pretty cool of our sparrowhawk flying through the clouds.

Mountain Flying in Utah Valley

Jake — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 19:41:53 +0000

Short video I took while flying in the beautiful Utah Valley. This shows the Spanish Fork -- Springville Airport in January.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4HmQgzhCQg

Air to Air video of the SparrowHawk Gyro

Jake — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 00:24:29 +0000

Here is some more footage that was taken that same day of the same gyro.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dm9b1i2r9dI

A cool SparrowHawk Gyroplane video!

Jake — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 00:57:20 +0000

We found some video we took of a SparrowHawk Gyroplane that we built and sold to one of our customers. This video is of our customer flying his Gyro around Spanish Fork Airport. There should be a few more videos to follow in the next week or two.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbP3Hly9mEc

Congratulations to Thomas, Airgyro’s newest Student Pilot

Jake — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 21:23:44 +0000

Thomas just turned 10 and for his birthday he got an introductory flight at Airgyro. He flew with Mike Burton in the Outback 2 Light Sport Airplane. It was a really nice day and I believe they had an excellent flight (I concluded that after seeing the big smile that Thomas had as they came in after their flight). Thomas got a logbook and logged his first flight and officially became a student pilot. From what I hear, he is in negotiations with his Dad for when his next lesson can take place!

Thanks to Bill, Thomas’s Dad for the great pictures…..

Getting Ready to GO!

Thomas taxiing into takeoff position

Flying around the Spanish Fork Airport

Thomas doing his first landing in the Outback 2 Airplane

Thomas finishing up his intro flight

Thanks for flying with us Thomas! We hope to see you again soon.

DA-20 C1 Eclipse Maintenance (and Snow!)

Jake — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 20:25:32 +0000

January 5, 2009

January 7, 2009

Just wanted to make everyone aware that the Katana (DA-20) is going to be down for the next couple of days. It should be back up on thursday I believe. It is time (AD) to replace the engine mounts. We thought we should do it now while there is supposed to be some bad weather. But just incase the weather gets better real quick and someone is really wanting to fly, we do have our Outback airplane as well as our Gyroplane up and running.

Light Sport Aircraft

Jake — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 22:12:39 +0000

Light sport aircraft are relatively new to general aviation. The FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) created this category back in 2004 and since then there has been an explosion in new light sport airplanes. Since then there have been at least 87 airplanes that have been manufactured here in the US or imported under the special light sport aircraft certification (for a current list of light sport aircraft and manufacturers/importers visit www.bydanjohnson.com. “Special Light-Sport Aircraft” means that they are 100 % factory built compared to “Experimental Light-Sport Aircraft” which is at least partly amateur built.

Why has there been this incredible growth in general / sport aviation? Well there are a few reasons why:

1. First of all the process to get a light sport aircraft certified is much easier and less expensive than a normal FAA certification. For this reason there are a lot more engineers and business men that are willing to put up the money to manufacture light sport airplanes. There is less risk involved because of the quicker and less expensive process in certification.

2. It is easier and less expensive for people to get their sport pilot license. Because of the restrictions placed on a licensed sport pilot it is easier and quicker to obtain the license. There is a minimum required flight time of 20 hrs prior to obtaining your sport pilot license. This includes at least 15 hrs of dual instruction (with a certified flight instructor), and at least 5 hrs of solo flight time (under the direction of a certified flight instructor). The restrictions placed on sport pilots are that they can only fly light sport aircraft. They are also not able to do any night flights. Light sport airplanes are limited to 2 seats and are limited to a empty weight (890 lbs), a max gross weight (1320 lbs) and are also limited in the speed that they are allowed to be flown (max 120 knots (138 mph)).

3. Along with #2, being easier to obtain a light sport license is that there is no medical certificate required to fly in the light sport aircraft category. This means that you do not initially have to obtain a medical certificate. The catch to this is that if you have gone in to a aviation medical examination to obtain your medical certificate and have been denied, then you are not able to fly solo, which means you can not obtain your light sport license. So if there is any doubt that you may be denied a medical certificate then don’t try, just get your light sport license. Also for older people who have health issues come up or think that they might be denied getting a renewal medical certificate, they don’t have to apply for one and can obtain their light sport license and fly without a current medical certificate. We have seen many older fellows who thought that they would never be able to pilot an aircraft again come in to obtain their light sport rating and fly once again. You do need to have a current drivers license to be able to obtain the light sport license.

One area that creates a lot of problems is the aircraft insurance companies. Lets face it…they are the ones that are really in control of the aviation industry. One restriction that they have put on our light sport airplane training (with the Australian Lightwing Outback 2) is that if the person receiving training is over 65 years of age, then they are required to have a medical certificate. So in a way they are defeating one of the purposes of the Light Sport Aircraft license.

At Airgyro Aviation we sell and train in light sport aircraft. We have an Outback 2 light sport airplane at our location in Spanish Fork, Utah. We have been training in it for a couple of months and it has proven to be an great trainer. It is easy to fly and our students and instructors all really enjoy flying it. And I have to say, being the financial guy at Airgyro, I really like it as well. With the Rotax 912 ULS engine in it, it only burns about 5 gallons per hour and we are able to fill it with automobile gasoline. So it keeps our costs low and we are able to provide training in it for less than any other flight school in this area. The purchase price of the Outback 2 is only $89,995. This means we have a brand new airplane for less than 100K that has a very low operating cost. Perfect situation for flight schools.

We also rep the Sport Hornet light sport airplane. This has been our best seller. It is the most economical way of flying that I know of. The total purchase price of the sport hornet is under $60,000. It also sports the Rotax 912 ULS engine. This aircraft is more exposed so the maintenance is even less expensive than any airplane that I know of. It has a very strong build and comes standard with an air suspension landing gear system. This means it can take a beating including bad landings and such and hold up incredibly well. We are having a hard time getting one in our location because they keep going straight out to our customers. But I believe we will have one here by the end of this winter or beginning of summer. We are very excited about that.

We have gyroplanes that we have been training in as well. Our main Sparrowhawk gyroplane does not qualify for light sport training because it weighs a little too much. But we do have a second Sparrowhawk gyroplane that we are in the process of putting a new engine on that will qualify for light sport training. I am not sure when that will be ready though. Our real hopes are that we will be able to certify our new Gyrocopter, the Sportcopter 2, as a SLSA. This will take some time, but I think we will be able to eventually accomplish this.

For any questions or for more information please check out Airgyro Aviation for more information on light sport aircraft, gyroplanes, flight instruction or any other aviation related questions.

www.Pilotco.com – Airgyro’s Online Pilot Shop

Jake — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 21:53:43 +0000

Introducing Airgyro’s new online aviation shop. We have some great deals going right now. Check out the Cyborg X Joystick and the Flight Simulator X Gold Edition software!