Can anyone identify this machine ? I Sighted today over Adelaide metro beaches.

Looks like a AutoGyro Cavalon or Cavalon Pro

www.auto-gyro.com/en/Gyroplane/AutoGyro-Models/Cavalon/

Thanks it looked like it flys well. Like a mosquito!

Looks like a coffin?

Agreed. I personally witnessed an auto gyro crash out of control at an air show at Tyabb, Vic, when I was a kid. If you can't afford a real helicopter, reconsider whether you really need to fly...

It's a chemtrail machine
it videos everyone and uses facial recognition technology
thats why we have to wear masks
so it can't see you and you don't breathe in the chemtrails.

See that , chemtrail, facial recognition, covid and mask conspiracy all in one...... I just changed your lives

There are serious limitations of gyrocopters
They can't hover, the overhead rotors are not powered.
Like musorianin I also witnessed one crash as a child, but at the Farnborough International Airshow in England
While I think they may have come a long way since then I think there are way safer Sport Light Aircraft out available

i thought they were one of the safest light aircraft available with the highest glide coefficient? Some debate they are the safest aeroplane.
They look allright to me. Any plane can crash. I reckon I'd like to take up recreational aviation when i'm 60. Stakes are less

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IanR said..
There are serious limitations of gyrocopters
They can't hover, the overhead rotors are not powered.

If the rotors were powered, it's be a helicopter

Fixed wing aircraft can't hover either... so what?

Little Nellie? Pilot error was the decision

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myusernam said..
i thought they were one of the safest light aircraft available with the highest glide coefficient? Some debate they are the safest aeroplane.
They look allright to me. Any plane can crash. I reckon I'd like to take up recreational aviation when i'm 60. Stakes are less

Depends on the design -- they can be prone to pilot induced oscillations which get messy.

But you can't stall them. So there's that

i did some reading after i posted.
One guy was saying that the worst thing is to unload the rotors and go over the front. usually fatal. It has the same controls as a plane (and the same license)
safety overide in a plane is to push forward and give it gas (to avoid stall) the exact opposite in a gyro. IN a gyro you pull back and dump power and you will just float down to the ground but if you nose dive you unload the rotor and can do a front somersault which you are never coming out of? seems some of the issues are not being trained ccorrectly. i daresay the better ones would make this scenario harder with some built in design features? All of these hobbies seem to me to be a good thing from 60 - 75. When you are probably too old for a lot of other sports but still young enough not to kill yourself or others. Kids flown coop. lived a reasonably full life already. Less tragic if something goes wrong.

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myusernam said..
i did some reading after i posted.
One guy was saying that the worst thing is to unload the rotors and go over the front. usually fatal. It has the same controls as a plane (and the same license)
safety overide in a plane is to push forward and give it gas (to avoid stall) the exact opposite in a gyro. IN a gyro you pull back and dump power and you will just float down to the ground but if you nose dive you unload the rotor and can do a front somersault which you are never coming out of? seems some of the issues are not being trained ccorrectly. i daresay the better ones would make this scenario harder with some built in design features? All of these hobbies seem to me to be a good thing from 60 - 75. When you are probably too old for a lot of other sports but still young enough not to kill yourself or others. Kids flown coop. lived a reasonably full life already. Less tragic if something goes wrong.

That's why you need specialist instruction. Funny that

reckon it looks pretty easy.
IN the US you dont need a license to fly ultralights

reckon a few teips wouldnt hurt but. maybee even a brief lesson

I've flown a lot of model aircraft, I have an autogyro in the hangar at the moment. That thing is the hardest one out of all of them to fly, bar none. Every control affects at least two axes, it's so much of a weird hybrid of plane and helicopter that it's often hard to tell exactly what to do at any time. Lots of fun, but... I can see why they crash. In fact this is the only model I've crashed in the last 5 years. I usually last only a minute or two of intense concentration before I have to land it. Other models stay in the air for hours.

For what that's worth.

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myusernam said..
reckon it looks pretty easy.
IN the US you dont need a license to fly ultralights

reckon a few teips wouldnt hurt but. maybee even a brief lesson

It's easy until you have to do things that seem wrong.

Or experimental aircraft. There's a French ultralight called "Cre cre" or cricket IIRC. Basically a seat with wings, canopy and two little mower motors. Looks a hoot.

Think you mean Cri Cri
A friend of mine is obsessed with them but I find it hard to get over how ugly I think they are


Personal I have all ways wanted to fly one of these



The plane John Denver died in
The Rutan Long EZ

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IanR said..
Think you mean Cri Cri
A friend of mine is obsessed with them but I find it hard to get over how ugly I think they are


Personal I have all ways wanted to fly one of these



The plane John Denver died in
The Rutan Long EZ

That's it. Looks pretty bad but a cheap ride, and good visibility. Aren't they a little acrobatic too?

Yeah I've heard other things about that plane that indicate design issues but I forget what they were... Mast even be wrong but they are pretty.

I'd still love an autogyro. Just something unique about them. But the nice ones are pricey...

Actually what I really want is a Cri Cri scaled P-47

Dreams are free...!

Flying a plane is reasonably straight forward for someone with the right aptitude, as long as nothing goes wrong. A lot of the training is for when things do go wrong and you need to react instantly without thinking.

I want one of these and with missiles to take out the odd kiter

Don't think I have seen pictures of a P-47 Thunderbolt in a microlight. The original had a massive radial engine so don't know how it would look
I have seen a P-51 Mustang as a microlight and they look cool, as does the spitfire replica
A P-38 Lightning Cri Cri would be cool
Any of the warbirds with paintball cannons would be fun to chase down sailboarders

Harrow
I have heard pilots describe flying as 99% boredom 1% sheer screaming terror

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IanR said..
Don't think I have seen pictures of a P-47 Thunderbolt in a microlight. The original had a massive radial engine so don't know how it would look
I have seen a P-51 Mustang as a microlight and they look cool, as does the spitfire replica
A P-38 Lightning Cri Cri would be cool
Any of the warbirds with paintball cannons would be fun to chase down sailboarders

this guy designed his own 2/3 P38

www.grayeagles.net/ARTICLES/Jim%20O%27Hara%27s%20p-38.html

Wow fjdoug
That looks so cool. The P38 is my favourite American WW2 Warbird.
To design and build it self is just awesome
I wonder weather he would sell plans

i was going to mention the rutan long ez. my passing interest in home made / light planes was sparked by this plane...theres one in the darwin aviation museum and its specs are impressive. after my post i googled.
didnt know about john denver. would have thought hed be able to afford a more expensive plane


www.planesales.com.au/details/Listing/LSA-Experimental/5946/1994-Long-EZ-Aircraft

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myusernam said..
i was going to mention the rutan long ez. my passing interest in home made / light planes was sparked by this plane...theres one in the darwin aviation museum and its specs are impressive. after my post i googled.
didnt know about john denver. would have thought hed be able to afford a more expensive plane

He could; he had a Learjet too.
Denvers longeze crashed when he ran out of fuel and he was unable to switch tanks. He had just bought the aircraft and the previous owner had relocated the fuel selector switch from where the designer had it to a bulkhead behind the pilot. John Denver could not reach it and figured he would reach it using vice grips. He took off without much fuel and when one tank ran dry he tried switching to the other, while he has reaching behind he inadvertently pushed on one of the rudder pedals and sent the aircraft into a spiral dive, he was flying low at the time.
at our local airport there are 2 longezes and 2 variezes (though only 1 longeze and 1 varieze have been flying in recent years)

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IanR said..
Don't think I have seen pictures of a P-47 Thunderbolt in a microlight. The original had a massive radial engine so don't know how it would look
I have seen a P-51 Mustang as a microlight and they look cool, as does the spitfire replica
A P-38 Lightning Cri Cri would be cool
Any of the warbirds with paintball cannons would be fun to chase down sailboarders

That's why I want one :D

P-38 was my second choice. Mustang would be just so gauche

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kato said..
I want one of these and with missiles to take out the odd kiter

Odds are good it'd get you before you got any kiters. I think they crashed all of those...

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kato said..
I want one of these and with missiles to take out the odd kiter

You don't need Missiles, If you want to take one out just buy them a couple of shandies

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IanR said..
Harrow
I have heard pilots describe flying as 99% boredom 1% sheer screaming terror

Apparently even more so for Air Traffic Control. I had a friend who used to do that and quit. He was paid a lot more than I was getting as a young engineer and he had zero academic qualifications. I asked him why would he leave such a high paying job when he had no prospects of getting paid even half as much.....he gave me the 99% 1% line, and said he couldn't take the stress of that 1% any more. That was back in the early 90's when they had antiquated equipment that kept breaking down, probably a lot better now.

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Harrow said..

IanR said..
Harrow
I have heard pilots describe flying as 99% boredom 1% sheer screaming terror

Apparently even more so for Air Traffic Control. I had a friend who used to do that and quit. He was paid a lot more than I was getting as a young engineer and he had zero academic qualifications. I asked him why would he leave such a high paying job when he had no prospects of getting paid even half as much.....he gave me the 99% 1% line, and said he couldn't take the stress of that 1% any more. That was back in the early 90's when they had antiquated equipment that kept breaking down, probably a lot better now.

I've got a friend who left ATC recently for the same reason. I don't think it's any less stressful now

its a certain aptitude also. need to be able to run a few things at once. doesnt sit well with everyone.