#2: So you’re thinking of learning to fly in a gyro?

Why do people learn to fly? Often it’s because they want to be able to travel from A to B, ideally quickly and in air-conditioned comfort with luggage. If this is what you‘re looking for, then gyroplanes are not for you. With a maximum speed of around 110mph, gyroplanes are comparatively slow, and they can either hold two people with very limited baggage or one person with a bit more. So a family of four with luggage is not going to go somewhere in a gyro.

But another major reason for learning to fly is the joy of simply being in the sky and experiencing the world from up there. For pilots, “being in the sky” is a powerful drug and something we come to love and wish for. But not all forms of flying are created equal in this regard. I have tried most of them, and for me, there is nothing to touch gyroplanes for the experience of being in the sky.

What do you need to know if you’re planning to learn in a gyro? Well, for existing (fixed-wing) pilots, you already know a lot. Most of what you need is about the primary differences involved in flying a gyro. How they work, what the dos and don’ts are and the limitations of a gyro. Most pilots converting over find that gyros fly in a very similar way to their normal aircraft, but with some important differences, mostly around takeoff and landing. 

Takeoffs are actually the hardest part of learning in gyros, unlike for fixed-wing aircraft. In an airplane, the wings are already there and fixed in place. All you essentially have to do is point down the runway, accelerate, keep it straight and get the speed up to the point where the airplane lifts off – it’s fairly straightforward. In gyros, you do all that too, but first you have to get the rotor behaving as a wing. This means building up its rotation speed using the airflow of the takeoff run. Keeping the gyro heading straight down the runway involves using the feet; first steering the nosewheel, then when that lifts, steering by means of the rudder, but all the while using your hands on the stick to ensure that the increasing energy and lift generated by the rotor is not pulling you to the left or right. It’s the aviation equivalent of patting your head and rubbing your tummy and takes a few lessons to get comfortable with. 

By contrast, landing is very straightforward. Landings involve flying an approach, rounding out, flaring and settling and pilots are usually delighted to find how little runway is needed for the landing roll. Because a gyro cannot stall, the requirement to fly a good, stable approach is much less – you can get away with maneuvers in a gyro that cannot be done in a plane, but that doesn’t mean that getting into bad habits is a good idea, This is particularly true if you intend to continue flying planes too. 

Pilots need to learn the gyro’s gotchas – for example, we can fly very low in gyros (a few feet off the waves over a deserted beach, perhaps) or we can fly very slowly (zero airspeed without stalling in a vertical descent is peaceful and great fun) but you never, ever want to try to do both at the same time. 

What about new pilots? Well you will need to learn a lot, just like you do for any kind of flying license. There’s aircraft theory and systems, airspace, weather, regulations, and so on. It’s not that hard, but there is a lot of material and it’s beyond the scope of this article to explain it all. You will need to go through what the FAA calls a full ground school syllabus. There are plenty of these available, many online. The good ones will give you a certificate at the end which allows you to then take the official FAA knowledge test which is a big step on the way to gaining your license.  

New pilots need to find a flight school and an instructor who can teach in gyroplanes. There are not many of these in the USA and being close to one is important if you want to get the flying training done in a reasonable amount of time. And by the way, you do want that. If you allow the process to take a long time, the knowledge you acquire on previous lessons will become stale through lack of use and you’ll spend a lot of flying time and money recapping material you’ve already covered before. 

When you’re checking out a flying school, you need to find an instructor that you “click” with. The relationship between student and instructor is very important – you’re going to be putting your lives in each other’s hands on a regular basis and both sides need to feel the relationship works in order to build the necessary trust. Your instructor needs to have a full grasp of their subject and be an excellent pilot, but just as importantly, they need to be able to explain it all to you. They in turn need to be convinced that you’re serious about embarking on training, that you’ll stick with it during the inevitable challenges in scheduling, weather and any episodes of frustration caused by finding aspects of the training difficult to master. Communication will be key between you, so find someone who you feel you can really communicate with. 

Even if you’re doing ground school online or at a local ground school class (colleges and airports often offer these), you will still find that your instructor needs to help you understand some aspects that you find difficult, and to check you’ve really absorbed the knowledge and can apply it appropriately. 

Consider setting aside time and budget with a goal of completing the flight training in a time to be agreed with your instructor as realistic. Some instructors can set aside significant blocks of time (multiple slots in a week) and this can be very effective. Others have more limited time as they have normal jobs too and can only instruct at weekends or certain evenings. Early on in your flying, you will task saturate quite quickly, so trying to do multiple hours of flying consecutively is not advised. But getting regular lessons twice a week, for example, is. 

Meet with your instructor, or with several if you’re lucky enough to live in an area which has a few. Find out how you click with them. Do an initial trial lesson, usually called a “Discovery Flight”, to make sure you like the experience and can communicate with the instructor effectively. Verify that the brand of gyroplane they train in is one you want to fly – chances are that you’ll stick with the brand further on once you’re comfortable with it. Understand how the costs are going to work and add up before you commit to this path. Nothing worse than getting 70% of the way there and discovering that you misunderstood some aspect of the training and suddenly need to find a lot more money in order to complete. No instructor should ever commit to completing your training in a certain number of hours, but after they have met and flown with you, they ought to be able to help you estimate costs. 

And think about the goals beyond the initial training. There are people who simply want to get the qualification for bragging rights or their own personal satisfaction, but most people will plan to train on the basis that they want to fly afterwards. How is that going to work? See the next article for more on this topic.