Been having a long hard think about the next project.
Over the weekend the local air-strip had an Open Day which we dropped in on.
Trial flights for not mucho in a Gyrocopter, latest generation of auto-giro.
Such a buzz - half way between completely cr*pping yourself and euphoria - floating above the ground at a few hundred feet with little to nothing obscuring the view.
Self-build possible for a single seater and syndicates for owning a twin seater.
Maybe, just maybe.....
Cheers, Pewe

I’d recommend you look at flexwing microlights instead. Their far safer and they still land at stupidly low speeds i.e 35mph

I looked into the Gyrocopters and all I found was crash reports, seems they’re very easy to tip stall the rotors which isn’t recoverable without a lot of height. A Flexwing on the other hand will always try to self recover from a stall. I use to own one, think it only cost £3000 and only had 500hrs on it with new wing covering. Keep meaning to go back to it…when I ever get enough time

Another alternative is a powered paraglider, again very cheap and the wings are a lot more stable than they use to be. Nice not to have hanger fee’s either

[Edited on 1/9/09 by Mr Whippy]

Interestingly son had a flexwing flight on Sat. and was totally taken by it.
Suppose my instructor was biased as he flies helicopters for Thames Valley Police full-time.
In comparison to a helicopter's "accident waiting to happen" or "in-side out food mixer" status gyros must seem safe!
Cheers, Pewe

I got into it when I went up to the local club for a shifty and got asked if I wanted to go up (they have such a high power to weight ratio they fly better with a passenger). I think I spent the whole time just laughing it was so much fun, basically like being on a flying motorbike with the passengers legs hanging out the side. Really is great fun and totally different to being in a plane, I was learning to fly Cessna’s at the time and immediately gave that up to do the microlights. Mine was a two cylinder one made by Pegasus, it was around 400cc and even that took off at 45 degs with only me in it best of all it has a foot accelerator like a car so speed and height control is very easy. I could assemble the wing and lift it on to the trike by myself, not bad for only being 5ft 5in tall

Oooh, sounds interesting, although I'd go with whippy and think about microlights or Paramotors.
I did most of my lessons for the first but illness/money forced a stop to that - it was the best fun ever though!
Bought a Paramotor after that and really should get out there and fly it!
Either way, fast cars/bikes are the most fun you can have until you discover going skywards IMHO - go for it