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the words every pilot should commit to memory
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. . .Dare
to dream, hope, believe, seek, find, build and fly.
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Serbia Has Written Test For Gyroplane Pilots
Living in Belgrade is the first person in Serbia to take and pass
the Gyroplane Pilot written exam.
Friday, November 17, 2006, was a great day for Krsta Mandic who was the
first to pass a gyroplane written exam in his country's history. Before
Krsta's gyroplane made it into the air, there was no reason to have such a
test. Like many other countries, there were no gyroplanes in Serbia.
Hopefully, because of Krsta Mandic, there will be many more pilots
learning to fly gyros over the beautiful land of Serbia.
For a flight video taken during one of Krsta's flights, see
A low
Altitude Flight - Serbian Style |
Krsta Mandic and his Autogyro |
Congratulations go out to Krsta Mandic of Belgrade, Yugoslavia
On Saturday March 10, 2007 Krsta was the first pilot to fly in his country of
Yugoslavia, or more precisely Serbia and Montenegro, as a licensed Private
Gyroplane Pilot. This privilege was a long time in the making since there was no
such recognized category of aircraft. That was until Krsta along with the help
of other gyroplane pilots outside his country (remember, he is the first inside)
helped him write recommendations to his government policymakers on the model of
their existing regulatory aviation documents. Once all of that was accepted and
in place, he waited out the severity of winter and finally on a Saturday, Krsta
took off as a student pilot, flew his examiner in a yellow RAF 2000 over
familiar countryside and landed as a Private Pilot.
Krsta announced with well-deserved pride of his achievement, “After 6 years of
hard work I got the first Private Pilot Gyro License in Serbia and this area on
the Balkan Peninsula.” (Click on the photo for a 1
minute information video.)
There are many pilots around the globe wanting to fly gyros that can use Krsta’s
achievements of as a model for what they could do both for themselves and
others.
You can tell we are friends because we're always having WAY MORE FUN than it
really makes sense to be having.
Newsletter Sent & Resent - Apology
By
Jim West
I am
installing a new seat tank, a backup fuel pump and moving the navigation
lights to a different location on the aircraft's cabin. Some of the work simply
requires more attention than I can provide at the airport. At the airport,
I stop and enjoy every aircraft's movement where at home I can concentrate on
getting the project done so that my gyro gets back in the air and off to
fly-ins.
The other day, I was loading my gyro on a trailer to bring it home. I
was in a rush because a huge rainstorm was heading towards my hanger. The
storm caught me with the trailer and the hanger doors wide open. Suddenly
the rain was so thick that I could not see out to the runway which was
obscured by rain and hail blowing in multiple directions. The sound of the
hail on the aluminum roof of my trailer and the hanger was frightening. There
was lightning all around the field. I later found out that several people in
town were actually struck by lightning from that storm. Trees along the
road home were downed and water was pooled up in many of the farm fields and
pastures.
After securing the trailer (with precious gyro inside) at home, I sent out
our monthly newsletter. Another storm was moving in. The storm
wasn't as powerful as the one at the airport but it did contain a lot of
electrical clout. During the newsletter send, our server was getting a
strange message back on many of the emails. It turns out that several
recipients that the server thought got no letter actually got several
newsletters. If you got duplicate, triplicate or quadruplicate emails, I
really apologize. I wouldn't fly my gyro in that weather, but I thought I
would be able to send out some emails through it. I was wrong.
RAF &
Pitcairn Gyros on Display at
Experimental Aircraft Winter Speaker Series Program
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by Chuck Lukas
Everything went perfectly for the Pitcairn and RAF2000
presentation at the EAA Museum. I flew N41CL into Pioneer Airport Tuesday
morning. A video was taken by EAA's Zach Baughman of the flyby and landing
and was shown as part of the program. Everyone that I worked with at EAA,
from getting clearance to land at Pioneer, to using the restoration shop for
cleaning and polishing, to moving the gyro onto display, to including the
RAF 2000 as an important part of the presentation, and flying out Friday
morning, was world class. They were very pleased to have the RAF on display.
About 40 people attended the presentation including RAF
Pilots Jim West and Dave Reich along with a host of aviation greats from the
Oshkosh area.
Included here is a picture from the evening which
contains the Pitcairn, RAF 2000, Bugatti Racer and hanging in the background
Charles Lindbergh's Spirit of St. Louis. How's that for a span of aviation
history? If you click on the photo you will view a very large picture
allowing you to drill into the background seeing all the aircraft. (Also
see "What's New") |
2.5 Liter Fuel Injected
RAF Wins
Pylon Race AT 2005 PRA Convention
By Jim WestCongratulations to
Jim Logan, RAF Flight Instructor, on winning the 2005 Popular
Rotorcraft Association Pylon Race held at Mentone, Indiana, USA on
July 22nd.
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Jim Logan |
Jim flew his green and very swift RAF 2000 in figure-eights around
the white banded orange drum pylons with careful precision. Laudable
opponents in the competition where also instructors: Steve McGowen in
his Sparrow Hawk, and Greg Gremminger in his Magni, both accomplished
pilots in competition-worthy machines.
Pylon races at Mentone follow a strict blueprint. Two pylons define
the inside limits of the course. The flight path is a simple figure
eight around the pylons. Each pilot must compete in flying three
complete laps though the course. Entry into the course is flown at a
diagonal to the course-line with exit as a straight-out climb away
from the course. Each pilot is allowed a practice run to become
acquainted with the course and timing around the turns. Pilots can fly
as high or low as they feel comfortable. Only one pilot flies the
course at a time. The pilot with the shortest time in size-class wins.
This was the second year in a row that an RAF 2000 machine took the
Pylon Race. The 2004 event was won by Stan Foster in his red RAF 2000. |
Who are the Tuskegee Airmen?
 Many
of you might already know and recognize the name Tuskegee Airmen.
I have been a pilot for over twenty years and have flown a number
of family-style aircraft, but no fighters and certainly none in
combat. My family now owns a Cessna 172 and a beautiful RAF 2000
gyroplane. Since I was a small boy, I wanted to fly and somewhere
along the way I remember reading and hearing of the Tuskegee Airmen.
It was a long while before I had the opportunity to actually meet any
and on that day February 8, 2005, I met 10 when we were invited to a
reception at the White House in
Washington DC. Jim West |
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| Jim West (pictured above) said, "I'm on
my way to another fly-in breakfast." He just has to love
the attention this little chopper gets when it rotors into an airport
fly-in breakfast. He encourages everyone to attend these events and
support the local airport clubs and organizations. |
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Over the next weeks we will be refitting the
 spring
and hand crank trim systems on an existing pair of stab-less RAF 2000
gyroplanes. Yep. We will explore this latest dynamic rotor trim
device. One ship is upgrading to the Stabilator and keeping the hand
crank system for its roll trim. The other RAF 2000 is getting the full
conversion to electric actuating both the pitch (via the Stabilator)
and roll trim. Look for this story as it unfolds in the
RAF Flyer
magazine.The Stabilator is also flown in South Africa.
Find out
more. |
Unfolding Story - Building an RAF
| Jim Helgenson builds his RAF while you observe
every step. Watch the photo story unfold from month-to-month in the
members only
publications. |
RAF 2000s based in Moscow, Russia
Above - Peter is standing on left hand side and Alexander is on
the right |
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Above - Peter is
standing behind his machines |
| Living it
up, Peter and Alexander are based in Moscow, Russia. The three
RAF gyros where assembled by Peter. Peter is about to accomplish
the construction of his forth RAF gyro. Peter is a lucky man. He
also has to spend time with an R44 Raven acquired last year.
It is a good thing the RAF has heat and
doors! |
Over 4,000 Visits to This Site September, 2009
The RAF pilots website interests pilots worldwide. Over
2,000
individuals visited the RAF Pilots website in September with several of
them hitting the site more than once to push the volume to over 4,000
visits. This website is shipping around 8,000 pages per month across the
Internet to its readers. See
What's
New for information. |
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Sweet British Beauty
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Click on the picture below for more |
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Sharing Experiences
I did the Biggin Hill fly in. It was a terrific weekend, and the
gyro was much praised and admired by all and sundry, particularly
the Italian Air Force display team, who all had their pictures taken
sitting in the cockpit.
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The purpose of the RAF Pilots around the globe is
to share their knowledge and enjoyment of the gyroplane
(or gyrocopter or giro or giroplane) movement.
The RAF Pilots provide a number of resources to these pages and, in
the publications, share their excitement over gyroplanes. For
example these guys having fun at Dannevirke, New Zealand.
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Information to be shared
Members that own an RAF may
submit their stories to RAF Pilots for editing and publishing on this site in part
and in our
digital magazine in full. You are encouraged to
include photographs.
Current Topics
These topics are covered in RAF Pilot digital
newspaper issues for members
Gyro Flights
RAF in flight 1 meg video
 Unfolding Photo
Story of East Meets West
It all started with a normal day of gyrocopter flight training in Northam,
Western Australia during August 2001. I was currently training two
students, Guy Wilson who had clocked up around 25 hours and Dave Pickard
who came from the Middle East to train, clocked up around 15. Both Guy &
Dave were in the stages of progression and enjoyment of flying the RAF
2000 trainer, when one morning I said there was a new student arriving. He
was met by myself at Perth airport and swiftly brought to Northam. After
the paperwork formalities, which were difficult, I introduced him. His
name was “Ping” he was from China and his English was limited to an
electronic translator!! This story
continued inside.
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Hawaiian
Mountain -Viewed From an RAF Gyroplane
The above
mountain is viewed from an RAF. (Photo taken by
Brian Daniel.
His RAF 2000 gyroplane is uniquely suited for aerial photography)
Welcome to the Franconia Notch region, in the heart of New Hampshire’s
majestic White Mountains!
John Christopher of Yankee
Rotors Flies the New Hampshire Notch on his trusty Bensen. This
video runs 9 minutes and is here for you to play in a 2 meg version
(for dial-ups), by clicking on the photo and a 14 meg Pocket PC
version.
Click here to download 14 meg
Pocket PC version This video is part of the trip through
the Franconia Notch in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, USA. The
video is eventually going to be completely narrated as Jim and John
get the opportunity to talk through it. Eventually, you will be
able to watch the entire trip. Keep returning as more
of trip is added and narration is completed.
(Updated 12/18/2005) |
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See what some members are flying |
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