NEVER TOO OLD TO LEARN NEW TRICKS

Sometimes in a flying career unexpected opportunities occur which emphasise the collective enjoyment of flying as a unique experience and serve to reinforce the fact that you never stop learning.   One such experience happened to me when I was involved in observing the development and certification, by Leonardo Helicopters, of the AW101-612 SARQueen aircraft in Northern Italy, based out of the NH-90 factory at Tessera near to Venice.  The Leonardo Test Pilot, a previous military colleague of mine, mentioned to me, that he had a offer to fly an autogyro after work with one of the company engineering managers and that I was welcome to come along as the offer was also open to me.  Having never flown an auto gyro before I jumped at the chance to accompany him.

We set off after work from the factory north westbound with the lagoon to the southeast on the road towards Jesolo to meet our hosts at the Club di Volo Papere Vagabonde, a small grass strip which sat barely 200m from the north-eastern edge of the Venice lagoon in an area of flat farmland with a few trees dotted around. On our arrival at the quite airfield, mainly used for flight training activities, we met up with our instructor and host Donatella Ricci and were quickly introduced to our transport for the evening a Magni M-16, which proudly proclaimed on its side that it was a world record beater having reached an altitude of 27,556 ft.

The activities started much like any other training/introductory flight with a briefing from Donetella on the various feature of the aircraft, especially in relation to its control set up and procedures.  What was noticeable straight away was this was certainly the smallest aircraft I had ever been invited to fly and there was little to separate the occupants from the outside elements save for some fibreglass and a very small windshield.  The cockpit instruments were very basic with little more than an altimeter, airspeed indicator and some engine instrument displays, but you do not need much more when you’re flying VFR.

Once my colleague had been on his 20 minute sortie it was my turn to clamber aboard the M-16 wearing a jacket (essential) and helmet which would, in addition to protection enable me to communicate with the instructor.  We were soon on our way, taxiing to the end of the short grass runway on what was a clear autumn evening, ideal for flying and enjoying the sites around the Lido de Jesolo. Once full power on the Rotax engine had been checked and the rotor blades spun up using the switchable mechanical pre-rotator, we were off and, in an incredibly short distance, also airborne.  The angle of climb was very impressive as the forward speed of the aircraft was almost completely translated into lift through the main rotor system, this aircraft was certainly no slouch.

Once we had got to about 500 ft the instructor levelled the aircraft and I was able to take-in the impressive view over the Venice Lagoon down towards the Lido.  It wasn’t long however, before it was my turn to take over the controls and start to get used to the responsiveness of the aircraft as we went down towards the coast.  As with all rotor driven aircraft control was achieved by tilting the rotor disc in the desired direction, through control stick inputs, but because there is no drive to the rotor there is no swash plate to speak of, just a simple tilting mechanism in both roll and pitch.  The rotor also has a simple teetering mechanism in the centre to allow for flapping of the rotor but one which like helicopters of similar design cannot deal with negative g.

Whilst we were flying around the lagoon area I was surprised to see a flock of flamingos, something I never associated with either Italy or the Adriatic for that matter, the fact that they decided to take-off as we flew over was all the more impressive.  After a few turns and some basic climbs and descents it was time to return to the airfield, however for a change this was not something to attempt as a novice.

Unsurprisingly the instructor found the airfield very quickly and set the aircraft up on finals for what was to be a very short running landing.  What was more interesting however was the way in which the nose of the aircraft was pointed downwards directly at the end of the runway at what,  I thought was a steep angle, and the throttle closed.  Then, at about 30-50ft, the aircraft was abruptly flared nose up, the speed washed off rapidly and we gently  settled onto the grass runway at a little under 20 knots coming to a stop soon after.  Since it all happened relatively quickly I am not exactly sure what the correct control inputs should have been but it did seem a little like doing an autorotation in a helicopter.  Its certainly something I would like to do again but more formally so I could actually do the landing myself.

Once we had helped to put the aircraft away we went off to have dinner with Donatella and her husband in Lido de Jesolo, where of course we chatted a lot about all things helicopters and aviation in general.  She explained that much of the challenge in achieving her world record had been coordinating the Air Traffic Control requirements since at 27,000 ft, in that part of Europe you certainly need to think quite heavily about other airspace users.  For me the idea of being in the flimsily M-16 cockpit at that altitude would have been scary enough, it certainly was enough for me at 500 ft.