Unreal Aviation Sport Gyro.

Sport gyro is a simple homebuilt with 1930's styling but with a modern engine and rotors (Averso, not modelled here).  Performance is slightly better than a Bensen due to better streamlining.  The pilot comfort and crash protection are better too.


Installing:

Unzip to a spare location and drop the UGyro folder into your Aircraft folder and put the UGyro.cab file into your Gauges folder.


Flying:

Important!  Cycle through the cockpit views at least once (S key three times) to turn on the gauges.

To start the engine and pre-rotate the rotors simply press CTRL E.  This is fine if you are already lined up on the runway but not ideal if you need to taxi.  As soon as the rotors are turning open the throttle, otherwise the rotors will simply stop unless you have a bit of a headwind.

For a normal engine start, turn the fuel on by clicking the switch then press AND HOLD the starter button until the engine fires.  Don't worry that it takes a while to fire, this is normal.  Once the engine fires you can taxi with the rotors stopped if you keep your speed down.  If you taxi too fast the rotors will start spinning anyway as there is no rotor brake.

When you are lined up on the runway, you will need to pre-rotate the rotors if they are still stationary otherwise, you could end up going by road...

To pre-rotate the rotors press CTRL E and open the throttle the moment to rotors are a blur (or just before, if possible) and you will be off the ground in a few feet.

The aircraft will climb steeply if slowly at around 35 - 45 knots and best cruise is around 60.

To land, line up at roughly double your normal approach height and close the throttle.  The glide is steep and slow, perfect for getting into tiny fields.  Aim for 40 knots or so but no slower than 30, especially if it is gusty.  Round out just above the runway to the three-point attitude and hold off until touchdown, which will be around 25 knots.  The rotors will stop when your airspeed drops enough unless you have a headwind.  Turn off the fuel to stop the engine.

Try an engine-off landing:

Switch off the fuel to stop the engine and aim for a gliding speed of 40 knots. The rotors will continue to turn until you touch down and lose airspeed.

Sometime the rotors will keep spinning after touchdown if the engine is running.  This either is because you have some airspeed, say a headwind, in which case turn 90 degrees to it or, because the engine tickover is too high and residual thrust is enough to keep the rotors spinning, in which case blip the throttle.

Caveats:

If there is a bit of a breeze blowing the rotors may continue to spin even after you have shut off the engine (using the fuel switch in the cockpit)...

This is flightsim and as Micro$oft are constantly apologising, it's as real as it gets and so unlike real-world autogyros, this one WILL stall if you slow it down too much or fly at too high AOA.  It is highly stall resistant though and you can really take liberties with it once you have become familiar with its flight characteristics.

For realistic rotor behaviour, I have been forced to use a jet engine.  Unfortunately, this means the prop on the front doesn't behave quite how it should and this is also one of the reasons for the sluggish engine-start.

Although this is a detailed model, it is missing a lot of detail and the full size machine will use Averso rotors that have not been modelled here.


Thanks to:

Peter Dodds who came up with the engine start gauge to do away with the Concorde gauge.


Apologies to:

Peter Dodds for not using his more sophisticated gauges as although they are MUCH better they are not compatible with FS2002.


That's it, have fun.
Kevin Bryan
Unreal Aviation
unrealaviation@uwclub.net
