I'll see if I can remember a couple of true stories from the past - only the names have been changed to protect the guilty.

"Fred" was doing a bit of mustering one day when he was rudely awakened by his left "footrest" suddenly falling forward. He noticed that the cable had become unattached (or broken) at the pedal so he relaxed the other foot. The rudder was fairly well trimmed so he decided to continue. If the gyro wasn't quite straight come time to land he would just drag the tail wheel first (like he usually did) and that would kick it straight. No problem at all. A tie wire join would see him good until he could get time to effect a proper repair. The nose wheel was connected to the right pedal so he worked his left toe across behind the right pedal so now he had good right rudder, and left and right ground steering once he was down. What could go wrong?

He was at about 300ft and half a mile from the camp returning for fuel and the temp repair when the prop got hungry and picked up the errant rudder cable. The cable caught the bottom re-drive pulley, wrapped itself around it, severed the re-drive belt and pulled the rudder on full left lock. At 300ft you barely have time to think but he quickly tried a side slide to stop the spinning without success so just levelled the machine, put his feet up on the keel and waited for the impact.

Fred had a few interesting incidents so if I remember correctly it it just bounced and remained upright. He always carried a spare belt so I think he was back in the air within a few hours.

Thanks - great idea - keep them coming...

Cheers
Erik

One of my most 'memorable flights' was returning from Lake George via Gundaroo to my home strip, where I hangared my gyro in an old sheering shed at Gunning.... I spotted an eagle doing a bit of thermalling so I decided to join it.... I was like on the other side of the circle to it and I could see it looking at me with a 'WTF is that' look on its face.... enough of that, I started to turn out of the turn and head for home, about 5 miles and I looked at the temp gage.... yup... off the clock DoH!!

I could nearly see the home strip when the poor old EA81 began to slow.... I was looking for landing spots ahead, but I figured the motor was toast, so, what the heck. By the time I got to where I could reach the strip comfortably, I was at about 200' agl and the motor was only a bit over an idle (at full throttle) so I switched it off and landed in front of the sheering shed.....

I waited about 10 minutes, then slowly opened the radiator cap.... no coolant, but no smoke or stink.... so I topped up with coolant (about a gallon )

I switched on the ignition and gave the prop a good pull.... nearly fell over with the follow through .... I was expecting some compression there was none.... and the prop turned over about 10 times from one flick.... DoH!! it was toasted.... Gawwwwwwn

In those days, we could buy an ex Japanese EA81T from EKW auto wreckers in Melbourne... complete, for $AU395.... so I just ordered another one

The replacement was the one the day I tested it, on the video you have seen where the boost pipe blows off and I land before the fence. It was actually about 1996, but who's counting... That motor lasted for years.... the ex Japanese motors were lucky to have done 10,000 miles, they were just run in. The video was taken by Sam Polyak, we had just finished installing the motor and went for a test blast Someone hadn't done up the rubber boost pipe to turbo coupling

Where did you get your 'Subaru's Tim?

So this great looking guy I know, well call him Neb decides.he is going to be a studly hero to his wife and her girlfriends annual camping trip buy air dropping Jack in the Box Breakfast Sanwhiches to all the girls out in the desert!
He flies out over the campsite, pulls out a Breakfast Jack from the bag and drops the first one. It instantly unwraps itself and goes all over the desert floor. Decidedly uncool.
So he picks a spot on a Malapais to land, puts down his bird and is greeted by a swarm of appreciative women with machine guns! There Neb is basking in the glory of being the coolest Hubby on the planet, so he decides to take off and get back to some flying!
As he starts up his engine in front of all the women, there is a sound of a bang and the engine starts SCREAMING! He instantly kills the motor and turns in his seat to see the prop slow down...except he doesent see any prop!
After unbuckleing he sees his prop and hub laying on the keel like a magic hand had placed them there! Not a scratch on anything! Just six snapped prop bolts!
He trudged over to the gals who were all giggleing and had to ask for a ride back to the hangar....wife said it made him look a whole lot less "cool" having to tote him back for spare parts...

It just so happens I know a lot more Neb gyro tales...
That guys sure did a lot in his gyro......even fell asleep at 2000 feet once! Woke up in a downward spiral!
Got back and called Sportcopter to bitch Jim Vanek out for making the seat so comfy!!!

That is a great story about "Neb" did you ever see the video that Nicholas posted? some Gyro sandwich restaurant was delivering gyros by gyro (MTO or other) It was hilarious, they tried about 6 times to hit the table where the guy was sitting .

Poor Nebs.... oh well, at least he is still good looking

Fred again. This particular time Fred had just taken off to muster a paddock when one of his astute ground crew radioed "Ru... Er.., Fred, there's something hanging down under your gyro. Fred looked down and saw his LH suspension had let go at the top of the upright, and was hanging vertically down with the upright sticking straight out. (The top of the upright screws onto a 1/2" bolt 7" long with rubber donuts on it. Once the upright is screwed up a locknut is backed onto it to lock it in place). Somehow the locknut had come loose and the upright threaded end had been working on the bolt thread for some time until the thread had worn away.
Fred decided that it might be a little awkward to do a good landing with this configuration so for safety he decided to continue with the muster to run his fuel down to the bare minimum, just enough to get back to camp. He recons that he probably missed a few head because he spent some time considering ways to get down safely. We always carried an occy strap around our waist to secure the blades during temporary stops so Fred thought that if he could snag the errant leg then he might be able to pull it up, grab the upright and slip it back onto the bolt and hold it there while he landed. Several attempts failed until finally the prop snatched the occy strap away from him. He was on his way back to camp at this stage and only 10 minutes out and low on fuel when one of his ground crew said "Can you circle around till we get there, we'd like to see this. He wasn't particularly amused at their request so didn't seriously consider it.
There was a "road" running towards the camp with two fairly deep wheel tracks and it was into wind so this was chosen as the site for his impending "landing". Fred had heard the old adage "fly the aircraft as far into the crash that you can", and from past experience he knew that he could land slower with some power on than power off so as he started his nose high flare he kicked a bit of left rudder in, which dragged the wayward wheel out, and then straightened the gyro just before ground contact - with one hand ready on the kill switch (the prop wasn't very old). The gyro bellied out on the high centre between the wheel tracks, almost at standstill. He felt a little jolt in the joystick before he realised that he was at a standstill and still upright. He quickly put his left foot down on the ground (no mean feat because he had short legs) and moved the stick a bit to the right and forward, then rolled a durry while waiting for the rotors to wind down. The rotors did caress the high centre of the road behind, leaving a slight ripple in each blade.
The words that spring to my mind are "pilot performance - par excellence".
The last time I asked "Fred" he had something in excess of 20,000 gyro logged hours, in a bit over 23 years. His contract mustering for one of Australia's biggest landholders often kept him away from home for up to three months at a time, and his biggest day was 13.5 flying hours, including 4 fuel and leak stops. He amassed many good stories in that time but unfortunately I have forgotten most of them. I will try to recount a few more.

Hi Tim,
I was talking to er.... "Fred" today.
He said that he had 23,470 hours, in bit under thirty years flying.(he probably missed counting a few hours, but is not worried)

Fred had 14,000 hours up when you told him he had better get a licence.

Seven of his nine gyros were a write off. I asked him about the one in the tree.
He said that he was hanging upside down in the seat tank, fuel was dripping out. All he thought of was catching on fire. He used a pocket knife to cut the seat belt, and climbed down from the tree. He never went back. Probably still in the tree. One of the wheels was caught in a fork in the branches. He thinks someone later climbed up and took the wheels of to make a oxy' trolley.

That wouldnt happen to be 'rusty' by chance?

very astute Murray.