Don Gabel aka Dynodon Build

Leigh & Stewart Allison's Hornet_DUDU-N567LA

Denis Schoemaker_N821LD

Denis Schoemaker_N821LD continued

Last but not least....Don Shoebridge....the creator of the Hornet!!!

I have had the pleasure of talking to Don at Mentone. Nice guy. I always liked his design.

That does bring up something in my mind...

A collapse-able mast.

Something I thought a lot on last year... and discounted as too much work for a greenhorn.

Maybe after the Subinator is flying... and I do a 'winter upgrade'... I will revisit it again.

Being able to take it into an average residential garage (about 7.5 ft) would be nice.

Many thanks to the person that directed me to this forum and this thread. I've downloaded quite a lot of the files here, however, about half of them get flagged by my Antivirus software as potentially dangerous as malware, spyware, trojans, etc. Why is that? Of course I stopped the download of those files. Can someone shed some light on this for me?

Gil

Hey Gil. You are welcome. Those are obviously false reports from whatever protection you are running. We can not upload nor store anything that has virus, malware or adware on our server. You will most likely trigger false reports by PDF files. For some reason Acrobat is flagged as virus quite often by the popular virus protection. I don't know why..... Either way. It is your choice of course but I would not worry about those false triggers much. Besides! If you are running a protection program it will get rid of them on the next scan anyways no? I have downloaded the files myself and non of them has any boo boo
Welcome to the forum.
Ask questions and ask often. There are a lot of experienced builders on this site.

Thanks again Gabor.

I read a lot of the documentation in the original Gyrobee plans and it stated that it was not recommended to install an engine larger than a 503. Is that a grayhead 582 on Don Gabel's in the picture at the top of this page? Is the Hornet stable with a 582?

Gil

It's the pdf extension that does that sometimes...they are all good files...no malware or virus's.

I am Hornet Flyer II at the other forum. Download to your hearts content without worry.

Gil it seems that it is a gray head 582. The recommendation for 503 was that it is air cooled therefore you don't carry coolant around so the weight is kept as close to 254 lbs as possible. But that is old school. Nowadays people have decided to go for heavier and safer machines and pretty much simply not caring about stupid FAA regulations. Because that's exactly what they are. Stupid rules that endanger one's life. So the trend is pretty much build something safe and screw the FAA. I agree with the trend 1000000000%! Your life is worth more than some idiot bureaucrat's imaginary number he feels your aircraft ought to be. The 582 is a way better engine than the 503 and the extra ponies that come with it can safe your bacon when things go wrong. So if you ask me I will say go 582. Hands down. The stability is not dependent on the type of engine. Stability comes from the size and the location of the stabilizing surfaces.

I'd put an air cooled Hirth 2706/3703 65hp engine on it.



Having a liquid cooled engine on an aircraft is like having an air cooled engine on a submarine.

Hirth????? Bwahahaha

I think that the MZ 202 is 625cc also, and around 60hp, the only thing I do not like about the MZ is the battery ignition.
But it does not use fan belts and a separate fan like rotax and hirth do, so that is a plus.
BUT even with the electric start the MZ is lighter than the rotax and hirth.
I would love to see a pullstart magneto version.

Reading this thread and others has really gotten me excited to build a gyro. I'll be ordering the raw material in a week or two. I think that I'll be building 3, one for me, one for my wife, and one for one of my best friends who also flies a powered parachute. And we'll be using Rotax 582 engines. All of our current ppc's have the 582. I'm very familiar with the 582, so that will make it much easier to install and maintain.

I'll keep you guys posted. Thank you all very much for all of the help so far, and for the help I'll need in the future.

One last thing. We're going to need some training. All 3 of us are certificated sport pilots, therefore, we'll only need training from a CFI and then a CFI Proficiency Check. We live in central Kentucky, is Mentone our best option for training?

You could look up Gary Goldsbury in Indy, He is a CFI, Or come down to macon Ga......There might even be someone in TN.
and Ohio.

Your Welcome and please post your build thread here on the forum and when you are done I will add it to this archive for you....with your approval....OK?

There are a lot of talented builders and CFI's who are here so you will get all the help you ask for.

Good luck and welcome to the world of Gyro's!!

OH and don't forget.....

When Stuart and I decided to build a gyro I began doing my Gyro PPL in England on a Bensen. It weighed 330 lbs with a 503 driving a 52' 3 blade Ivo prop, 250lbs of thrust, 22' set of RotorHawks no prerotator. I weighed 200lbs. It was fine for wheel balancing low and high hops but when I got to circuits I struggled to get above 500' in our mild summer temps mid 20sC from a field elevation of 700'.
We put on an old 582, changed the prop to a 52' 4 blade Arplast, a thrust increase to around 290lbs. I could now go out into the practice area and get up to 3,000' amsl without too much problem. This did worry me a bit about our Hornet since in Stu and I had bought new DC DI Rotax 503 with oil pump. We had 23' Dragon Wings, electrical prerotator from Aviomania, and a 3 blade 62' Warp Drive prop.
Although we initially aimed for Ultralight we ended up certifying. It ended up around 358lbs with two five gall fuel tanks. We managed to get 319lbs of thrust prior to the initial test flight

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=IhUDbQxLgOY


The Bensen is a more responsive, but less stable machine, the one I fly having no horizontal stab. I actually like that, though having flown our Hornet would say it was a better machine to learn on being more stable and the safer of the two.

I flew just over 10 hrs on her before we moved her down to Wauchula, which we also had as an airfield to do the 40 hrs from for full certification. Sadly due to Stu's family problems we are now looking to sell. She has her own trailer which we custom built for her with it's own rotor hoist. The major parts on her, Rotax 503 DC DI Engine, RFD Rotor Head customised for the Aviomania prerotator, RFD 23' Dragon Wing rotors, 3 blade 62' Warp Drive prop, Black Max wheels and hydraulic disc brake set-up with parking brake valve, Westach quad EGT CHT guage, trailer, hoist alone would be worth over the $10,000 we are asking. It sucks but then life has a habit of going up and down. Anyone interested let me or Gabbor know. We have the log books, papers etc along with some Helmets and assorted bits and pieces. I will also try and post some more pictures I anyone might be interested.