I noticed a tendency of everything becoming bigger and bigger.
I am in the Motorcycle and Powersport Business and for years Bikes gotten Bigger, more Hp and more cc and so on. With it off course also went the weight and prices.
Same thing happened in the Boating world.
I sailed around the world twice in my little 25 footer and had a blast on a very small wallet.

Now it seems that the Motorcycle Industry has realized that they have neglected the smaller Bike market and the Chinese swooped in to it. But 2014 was the beginning of back to the basics and all the big shots are now putting out again a variety of 250 - 500cc Bikes.

I notice the same issue in the Gyro and Ultralight World.
New to this world I was looking for an less expensive way to fly and was especially intrigued by the Gyrocopters.

Looking to purchase a new UL or Gyro and I was shocked by the stickers on them. Wow! And all of them are big with big engines.
It seems that everyone thinks one needs over 100hp to fly. Uhmmmm... Yes if you have a huge machine and a 2seater and luggage and so on?

Wait a minute, I just want to have a little bit of inexpensive Fun. If I need to get somewhere, I use my 185 or the 210. Not a Gyro or UL.

So in my looking I found a very inexpensive used (34 hours) Air Command with a 532 Rotax (for a few thousand dollars) It even came with the dual seat setup in addition to the 1 seat.
Let me tell you people!!!!!
Get back to the basics. It is great fun to sit in an open Aircommand and cruise at 80mph.

Then I got "lucky" and found a 133 hour old Challenger clipped wing special with the rotax 447 in it. Single seat with the full cockpit and even has doors that I can install in the winter.
Again I am flying very inexpensive! Again I only paid a few thousand for it and again I have the time of my life!

My newest find is a Quicky 2. Yeah, yeah, I know! Lots of people say their dangerous and so on blablabla.
Any Aircraft is dangerous if the pilot does not pilot correctly.
Again I paid only a few thousand for it. (all 3 Aircrafts together cost me under 15 grand)
Let me tell you..... A little plane like that with the Revmaster 2100D in it and I am going 186 mph. When I cruise her at about 140-145mph I get better than 2.4 gallons per hour out of this plane and I can keep her up there for about 8 hours on my 20 Gallons of fuel and cover almost 1200 Miles and have a sh..load of fun while doing it.

It is inexpensive, it is a 2 seater and parts are also very inexpensive (2 valvecovers for 44 Dollars)

So to the point of this very long winded post!
I think we all need to take a step back and start looking in to the smaller Aircrafts again. Think back when you flew that small thing. Did you not have a lot of fun and was it not so much cheaper?

I am looking in to expanding my Import and Distribution Business (in Canada) in to the UL and Gyro market, but I want small Gyro and small UL like the old (1986) Aircommand or the "old" (1987) original one seat Challenger.
Does anyone know of any good Aircraft Manufacturers that offer this king of Aircraft?

Now with our own Airport (www.cef6.ca) we sure have the possibilities extended to our Business to possibly work on our own Importation.

Any Ideas and suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
If you want to email me directly I can be emailed at sven@cef6.ca
Thanks for reading such a long post

I loved my Air Command gyro. Flew it from Illinois to Mentone for the 2003 convention.

That's great Sven.... Talk to Ernie at RFD about carrying Dominators maybe? They are awesome machines

Have you had any visitors fly in yet? Any action at your airport?

I agree with you also... bigger is not always better.... especially heavier, is not better than a lighter gyro.... other than for a dedicated cross country machine....

Sven very good post.
Two things that I see driving the direction of the gyro world.
The first one would be cost the second would be the purpose.
Cost of the gyros with the introduction and abnormal hype of Eurogyros (strictly business based) have raised the price of all gyros.
I know I know. There is a lot of good deals out there but people seem to have a number in their heads and that's what determines the price.
Recent advancement of the internet also creates a backlash for stick gyros.
We have pretty loud uninformed and absolutely determined folks to destroy the good ole' American achievement the "stick gyro" phenomena trying to rewrite history and make folks believe that gyros got popular and safely produced only in Europe.
Of course that is bullshit!
But you'll find them spreading the word even though they are not true.
They go as far as posting every stick gyro accident and leaving one wonder about safety.
Of course it is all calculated and agenda driven.
The second reason is purpose.
The positive thing that came with Eurogyros is the ability to fly distances and spread the word about gyros.
Being able to fly to Fly Ins.
Stick gyros are cheap fun machines.
Eurogyros have become the ambassador for modern gyros and the ability to show up in places spreads the word of the safety factor and the versatility.
I think it's time for a gyro revolution and establish a new American standard that will include the reasonable price and the ability to fly distances with a trustworthy engine,comfortable seats and easy and safe handling.

Gabs, well said, but we need a MEGA/MULTI like button..... it only lets you press it once! Not enough for that post

Heck.... have all of these

I think the recession (which was the most sever, since the depression of the 30's) more or less cut short many folks 'hobby' $$$.
Now we are crawling out of a down economy, and folks have some disposable income to spend on things...

IMO we will see growth in hobby aviation... which will spill into gyro's.

I agree we need American made gyro's, with dependable engines, that can be flown XC... Some of these will be 'Euro style', some will be stick built with a nose and windshield. IMO there is a market for both designs.

Be interesting to see how this works out... I think we will see a lot of innovations the rest of this decade and in the 2020's.