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Bensen B-8 Gyrocopters?

cliffy

By cliffy
in Miscellaneous Aviation Talk

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cliffy Grand Master

cliffy

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Thinking of doing something different[  anyone really into gyrocopters, Bensen type?

I actually have an old set of plans on the shelf somewhere.

thinwing Grand Master

thinwing

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I took a test flight in a two place gyro...it was lots of fun ,but I keep seeing videos of dynamic roll overs when pitched up at to low an airspeed...results do not look pretty!

Simon Collaborator

Simon

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Take a test flight in a Robinson 22 first.  That might just cure your curiosity, or take you to the dark side.

It worked for me!

Baxsie Apprentice

Baxsie

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Sounds like a case  "When you have flown everything worth flying, you start flying the things that aren't."

Long ago, one of my coworkers had a Bensen. We took it out on the salt flats west of SLC. We took turns towing the autogyro behind a jeep into the wind - motor off. It was a training technique according to the owner of the Bensen.

The cable was not very long, so maximum altitude was ~50 feet. One exercise he had me do was a box pattern. Frankly it seemed to fly very easily and predictably, quite responsive.

His Bensen had one of the 2-cycle, 4-cylinder surplus McCulloch drone engine. He had it running, but  I do not know if he ever got to the point where he flew it under its own power. 

Just my tiny $0.02 brush with gyros. 

 

 

 

cliffy Grand Master

cliffy

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I go back to the early 60s looking at them and most of the accidents were caused by lack of training and experience. Folks who didn't have hour 1 in anything tried to fly them and folks with 1,000s of hours thought they  knew how to fly them. 

You can still find Bensens video training course for self taught pilots on utube

steingar Grand Master

steingar

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What I've read is the Bensons didn't t have much of a horizontal stabilizer, and the thrust line was quite high.  If you powered up at the wrong time it could easily lead to disaster.

thinwing Grand Master

thinwing

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15 hours ago, N201MKTurbo said:

I have about 1/2 an hour of stick time in a Cavalon. the hardest thing I ever flew. That thing was hell bent on destruction. Makes a helicopter seem easy.

I'm sure a few hours and I would get the feel for it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AutoGyro_Cavalon

 

I flew its tandem brother calidus...I was impressed with the handling ,and didn't find control inputs especially sensitive,but I trained in a r-22 for my heli license and have a lot of time in a Bellm47.It was advertised for about 90 k as I recall and had a pronounced 1 to 1 blade slap...someone on here at MS has one I recall...much more refined than the Benson with a far better rotax engine

N201MKTurbo Grand Master

N201MKTurbo

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1 hour ago, thinwing said:

I flew its tandem brother calidus...I was impressed with the handling ,and didn't find control inputs especially sensitive,but I trained in a r-22 for my heli license and have a lot of time in a Bellm47.It was advertised for about 90 k as I recall and had a pronounced 1 to 1 blade slap...someone on here at MS has one I recall...much more refined than the Benson with a far better rotax engine

I was exaggerating a bit. After three times around the pattern I pretty much got over the PIO and was able to do takeoffs, climb, level flight and landings. None of it really good, but if the pilot was to keel over I could have gotten us both on the ground alive.

thinwing Grand Master

thinwing

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The thing I came away with is they are not really stol like in there t/o and ldg as I was told or expected...a tundra tired carbon cub has it all beat

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