Xplane11.31 Xplane11/VSkyLabs Gyrocopter

[John_Cillis 2,406]

One of these days I will be back to P3D4.4, lol, but I am still enjoying the Microlight collection I purchased last month.  This Gyro flies exactly as a gyro does.  To take off first you engage the clutch to prerotate the blades, then you disengage the clutch once the blades are up to speed for a smooth, slow, rolling takeoff.  On this flight, between Casa Grande AZ (former home of the Copperstate Airshow now held in Buckeye AZ) and Maricopa AZ a short hop away, I chose to land dead stick in Maricopa to see if it can be done, like a real gyro, using autorotation.  The answer is yes, and one can touch down at 5-10 mph if one does the final right, as I did on this flight.  Just like a real Gyro it handles chop very well.  If you like Xplane11 whether with photo scenery or full autogen, and like short hops or an hour's flight, this is an enjoyable hand flyer which can fly hands off once trimmed.  Thanks to the forum member that posted this aircraft and recommended it.

John

[P_7878 6,701]

Your description seems to me easier said than done....I also read that taking off and landing (on the helipad) is quite a bit of a challenge!

But it looks like you are getting rather proficient with it...

 

[John_Cillis 2,406]

On 2/5/2019 at 4:20 PM, P_7878 said:

Your description seems to me easier said than done....I also read that taking off and landing (on the helipad) is quite a bit of a challenge!

But it looks like you are getting rather proficient with it...

 

I believe so much depends on the flight model, but gyrocopters usually take off and land on runways, very hard for a gyro to do a hovering takeoff as forward thrust needs to be provided from the engine and the prop to get enough lift on the blades.  Landing is a bit easier because one can cut the thrust and autorotate in, but still requires some forward room that a helipad cannot provide, it may be able to be done if one is ready on the brakes and engages the clutch to kill lift in the blades.  My first few takeoffs in this gyro were disasters because I forgot to disengage the clutch before takeoff, which caused the gyro to spin.  There was one gyro modeled for MSFS that worked fairly well, but so far the slowest non rotor aircraft in takeoff I have known is my own ultralight single place trike here in Avsim's library, which works from FS9 all the way to P3D. 

I made custom XML gauges for it for forward compatibility which obviously was good planning, as it worked in P3D4 and I downloaded the bitmaps off of the web, looking for the right ultralight gauges that modeled two stroke rpms, and used mph as that is more commonly how ultralights and some microlight airspeed gauges are calibrated.  Every microlight and UL I have flown in real life had their airspeed gauges calibrated in mph (I guess to give the illusion of going faster, lol)...

John

[P_7878 6,701]

19 hours ago, John_Cillis said:

...but so far the slowest non rotor aircraft in takeoff I have known is my own ultralight single place trike here in Avsim's library, which works from FS9 all the way to P3D. 

I made custom XML gauges for it for forward compatibility which obviously was good planning, as it worked in P3D4 and I downloaded the bitmaps off of the web, looking for the right ultralight gauges that modeled two stroke rpms, and used mph as that is more commonly how ultralights and some microlight airspeed gauges are calibrated.  Every microlight and UL I have flown in real life had their airspeed gauges calibrated in mph (I guess to give the illusion of going faster, lol)...

John: Picked up your Ultralight Trike referenced above. Works like a charm in FSX-SE. The last time I flew a Trike was many moons ago! So, it was exhilarating to try this aircraft. I made a separate post of my experience/flight with it.