Loftus- Craig is a good example of what I am talking about. He could make his MTO operate to its edges of the envelope. He won the pylon race by knowing his machine and not doing crop duster turns,...but hammering it and cranking and banking.

Watch some of Birdies video. There is one hell of a pilot I dreamed of becoming. He could land on his famous G spot all the time by doing an aggressive turn...loading the rotors up..and using that extra stored energy for that last second of bringing it to a stop.

Forced landings with more and more of that type of practice will increase the likelihood of no damage doing a forced landing out in the boonies....

I was much better than I was when I started, but Birdy was and still is one of my heroes. Anyone that flies down in the dust if cattle with strong varying winds ...and high DA to add to it....has got to be observed for getting ideas for advanced maneuvers.

Yeah, both are pretty awesome flyers, birdy particularly. Personally I have no desire to push my flying to that degree - there's just such a low margin for error and I'm too old.
I plan to spend some more time with both Craig (hopefully at BD) and Greg Spicola. Nailing spot landings for emergency landing purposes is more important to me than pushing the envelope close to the ground. I know my type of flying is pretty boring to lots of gyro pilots. Sort of like enjoying a day out on the Harley rather than scraping the leather off my knees on a crotch rocket.

LoftUs- You fly more like a professional pilot, and I mean that with a lot if respect. I would not want to fly like Birdy does, but he has to and after years of mustering moos, he just is one with his machine.

I have tried over my gyro career to pick up any tidbits from many experts and try to incorporate them into my type of flying that I flew.....down in the scenery. This comes with more thrills...at the price of more risk in case that engine went quiet. Well, my engine went quiet way too many times...had no damage or scratches to me.....but it proved two things....
I was a piss poor engine mechanic....but good enough at the controls to make up for my mechanical ineptness!

I am better off preflighting my pistols.

Keep churning the skies over Florida.. You will "probably" never have an engine out with good maintenance and the proven track record of Rotax engines.

There are those who are gifted and great natural sticks.
They are the ones who push the limits for others to follow.
Yes Birdy and Awad and Greg Spicola are awesome sticks and therefore what they do should not be repeated unless one has a total understanding of the physics behind them particular maneuver.
You know the saying. "Kids don't try this at home".
I am also sure that any of those three could tell you stories that had happened to them and their natural instinct saved their butts.
They are special talents and that is why they get away with bunch of shit average or less than average guys like me could never pull off.
Knowing ones' limitation makes a great pilot. May not be a great stick but great pilot!

Gabor- Very well said....as I sit here swabbing out a gun bore!

Here is a video of a guy in a dominator style gyro doing a reasonably steep approach, you can see he flares the tiniest bit too early and starts the flare, then has to lower the nose a tiny bit just before landing with a small roll. I was saying to Lofty, when you do a steep descent, the hardest thing is trying to flare a little later than you expect.... when you think "I have to flare now" it is usually too early How I got myself to do it at the right time, was when I had the urge to flare, I would think to myself "not yet stupid" then flare... that .97364836 of a second was just enough time to not drive it into the ground and not have to let off the flare and do like a 'stair case' landing or add power.... so the mains are about 18"off the grond as the rotors peak out and you sink on .....

Kudos to the pilot, he obviously knows what he is doing, I bet it was the camera that stuffed him up I hate cameras at the best of times, but used to always do my worst landings if there was someone with a camera

So few people actually get to know what their flying machine can do.... to me, it is sort of like we as humans only use 10% of our brains, I think, as pilots, often we only know 10% of what the machine can do as well.... take a look at this video, I reckon this guy has discovered a lot more than his 10% worth of what his plane can do

its Bob Hoover ,a top pilot ,i think he call this energy conserving

Stan, I have all 20 of Birdys videos, that is all I could find on youtube...... yes, his flying is excellent (if you like ground level flying, which I am not keen on) and he certainly flies in a beautiful (and treacherous) part of the country, I have never met him, myself, I am sure he is a top notch bloke and a very good friend to people he knows and likes.

I don't understand where the 'legend' status comes from tho? We have many gyro pilots, including Mitch (RocksFly) and we used to have guys like Wayne 'mad dog' Morgan who's flying is and was as good if not better... also, the newest video from or of Birdy is over 3 years ago, most are 5 years ago or older.... so we don't know if Birdy still flies? I know he had the Wasa for sale a while back, maybe he just keeps the feral just to get about in? I don't know, nobody knows

I just find it amazing that people want to fly like Birdy, or as well as Birdy.... when no one knows if he even flies much at all any more.... I personally would love to fly as well as your Roy Davis

It is funny how the world works?

http://www.asra.org.au/smf/index.php/topic,4924.0.html

Ok, so it looks like he parted out the Wasa, so maybe he still has the feral.... not sure.... Maybe he had to stop posting videos because of the mustering shenanagans over here? I have no idea who knows?

I know but wont say publically. Birdy is a legend to me because of what I have seen and heard from others. I am sure there are other legends out there just as good.....but I haven't seen or heard from others about them. Roy Davis, Greg Spicola are heroes to me, and if they had to muster cattle day in and day out like Birdy....they would be legends also.

I just have observed how Birdy can extract most of the available energy out of a rotor....and use it for times of real engine outs and be able to land in the tightest of places. I have watched his techniques when I was flying gyros to help me learn how to extract more energy out of my own rotor when needed.

I would only be a pimple on Birdies butt in comparison....but became at least a bigger pimple with practice.

Stan, I am sure you are a MUCH bigger pimple than you think

I would like to see the videos of this energy extracting techniques Stan, which videos are they in? I will take a look

Madmuz- It wasn't specifically one video...but just sections of several videos...and mainly from various discussions on the RWF over the years discussing him landing on his G spot.....how he does a tight wind up turn storing energy from those extra G's....and retrieving that energy at the last few seconds. Then I watched other natural sticks like Ron, Roy, Steve, Greg, and several others use these in their aggressive manuevers. I would go practice myself to help me become better.

I specifically had one engine out where I had to go an.immediate 180 to turn back into the wind....touched down in a waterway just as I ran out of altitude and got my groundspeed to 0 and landed without incident. It was at that time I realized the importance of my practicing such a scenario should it ever occur. Had I not....no doubt I would have balled up my gyro and been hurt...possibly hurt badly. This was back in 1986 when there was no internet and no known instructors except myself. This incident is in my logbook along with my 19 other forced landings.

Yes.....I try to learn from my heroes.

That's great Stan, it is good to have heros, I bet you are hero to more people than you ever imagined (me for one) you have done more than most can hope to achieve.

Yes, forums can be good.... you can learn from reading posts, if the person writing can get over to the reader what he is describing.... that is why my posts (of any substance the factual ones)
usually dribble on a long time, because I want the reader to have enough facts to imagine they are in the picture I want to put forward.... I know that many just skip my long posts saying "more shit from that clown" but I have received so many PM's from people who have read my posts and learned something, or are in agreement, but it is not Kuuuul to be seen to agree with me in public ....

But I don't care.... if one person learns something from my waffle every now and then, then I feel it has been worth while.... the fact it is more than one and more often than every now and then, makes me feel I am achieving a little success

I would suggest that if you have not already, get a flight with Steve McGowan, talk about SKILLS!
In Macon is is not unusual for Steve to fly around the hangar and land right in front just like Birdy does, but in that Parsons trainer!