Dan wrote:
Seeing that there still are people at grass roots level with no playing airliner, no mine’s bigger than yours, mine’s way more expensive than yours, no I’m The Top Gun pilot myself, nevertheless pleased to meet you, etc etc quirks, fills me with joy.
Relaxing flying indeed
It’s also great to see that there are still countries in Europe where such a thing is possible. Wow.
I was looking at the “Jetson” device, which may be a bad example but it is grassroot flying more in the sense that it flies at grassroot level… or cucumber level…
Now, I got that flat roof on my house and the Jetson would fit. Would I have any chance ever to use that thing the way it’s intended to be used? In our country?
I guess I don’t need to answer that in too much depth as the most probable outcome would be “which part of NO don’t you understand” (“Da könnte ja jeder kommen” in German) or (“Da dä da törf” in St. Gallerdeutsch)
Hey @LeSving, thanks for the mini report and the pics. That is mega cool 
Seeing that there still are people at grass roots level with no playing airliner, no mine’s bigger than yours, mine’s way more expensive than yours, no I’m The Top Gun pilot myself, nevertheless pleased to meet you, etc etc quirks, fills me with joy.
Relaxing flying indeed
I guess this is the place to further discuss the road-legal aspects of gyrocopters, Maybe Peter can transfer the recent posts in the ‘political’ thread to here
[ done ]
AIUI the answer is yes and yes. The same or similar group have visited elsewhere.
The problem in some ways is lack of regulation or at least it is here. The road part is simple but a gyrocopter here is a ULM flown on a ULM licence and sadly these machines are too heavy to be classsed ULM..They don’t fit under EASA so there isn’t a French licence for the heavier ones. It’s something I"ve complained about on this forum in the past.
I think these machines are great! Would love to own one at home, drive to whatever nearby field (not necessarily an airfield) and fly off. Pipe dream over here. They are roadable but are they road-legal in Norway? Could you take off from a place other than an airfield?
A few days ago 3 gyrocopters from the Czech republic dropped by out of the blue. A pilot friend of mine met them on the radio and offered them a stay for the night (he owns a camping place). He also has a small strip (250 m), rather special for airplanes (but cool), a big place for gyrocopters. The cool thing about the gyrocopters was they are roadworthy. They have electric motors on the wheels, and can run 30-40 km on an electric battery. Probably the closest thing we will ever get to a flying car. The funniest thing is they are the only aircraft I have ever seen or heard of that has an actual useful and practical electric drive line Here.
I have never seen this before, but the concept is already some years old. This is just an example. I see no reason to bring it up on this site, because it will only end up in a discussion about whether or not these aircraft can be used in “Europe”. They cannot possibly be legal in “Europe”. That they are too small to bring the family (who doesn’t want to come along anyway). They are too slow, too dangerous. The electric drive should at least be capable of 400 km for it to have any use and so on and so forth. That these simple machines opens up possibilities unheard of with the common spam-can, and actually exists, is uninteresting (on this site). But in my community and on “my” facebook group, it is very interesting and fun for everyone
I like it in principle, but cant help but think Id be a little worried about leaving it on a public street or in a carpark.
What about this one? Product that exists, that you can buy now, legal in the air, legal on the roads, the Gyromotion.
Here is a video from a trip of a group of Gyromotion gyrocopters from Czech Republic to Iceland. What I find especially amusing is the way they drove selfpowered to the ferry boat in Denmark to get across the sea. Unfortunately, I found the video only in Czech:
0:01 – introduction to Gyromotion and the fact it can legally drive on the roads
0:40 – it drives to the gas station to refuel, the narrator talks about up to 40km/h roadspeed.
1:15 – from LKPO to Denmark
1:20 – driving to the ferry
… and then flying, plus some driving on the roads.
I met the company owner once at our airport, the flying/driving device looks really impressive.
Here is another video, from LKPO to the one hundred dollar coffee at the busiest place in Praha, Václavské náměstí:
They have a battery powered road drive, plus they work on a real hybrid vehicle with prop clutch and stronger alternator.
Mooney_Driver wrote:
If I have a car which can fly
I guess the idea is more “a flying thing that can drive”. So use case is that you do have the “car” with you that takes you from the destination airport to wherever you want to go to…
Mooney_Driver wrote:
But this video actually shows the transformation.
This video shows a static display model where someone is manipulating something. And then a (badly made) commuter animation of something red flying.
It is neither showing the model that is driving not the one that is flying in the homepage video – that creates the impression that they actually have 3 models: One that can drive, one that can fly and one that can neither drive nor fly but where you can fold out some attachments…
I’m always worried about the condition of my modest Cessna, when I leave it parked at an airport (though it’s only been hit three times in 30 years), I sure would be extremely nervous to take my eyes of a delicate and vulnerable flying car when I leave at the car park and go to buy groceries. The slightest ding, and at best, I can drive it to the aircraft mechanic to have it inspected and fixed. At worst I have to have it towed? And, while my flying car is being made airworthy again, waiting for expensive parts which are not in stock, I also don’t have a car!
Buy a decent car, and a decent airplane, which you park at the airport. It’ll cost you less, and you’ll worry a lot less!
