Conception - a friend at work is going for his PPL, and the discussion around that got me thinking about renewing mine.
Somehow the idea has morphed into getting a microlight gyroplane licence, and building a Gyrobee... go figure :)
Sent an email to StarBee inquiring about freight costs to New Zealand, assuming I go with the kitset approach.
Made contact with the only gyroplane instructor in the North Island, about 500 kilometres away. This is going to make life interesting.
Booked a medical for the 24th.
Contact from Laura at StarBee; they're researching the freight costs.
Passed the medical, $65.00.
An interesting conversation with Sue as I left for work this morning:
"Why have we got a pile of airmail envelopes on the table?"
"Because I needed to send a letter."
"To whom?"
"Civil Aviation."
"Why are you sending letters to Civil Aviation?"
"To reserve an aircraft registration."
"What for?"
"'Cause I'm building a gyroplane."
"A what?!"
...
The beast has a name: For the nominal sum of $30.00,
the CAA have reserved the
registration letters ZK-RDE.
New Zealand uses three-letter aircraft registrations. Gyroplanes are restricted
to the RA*, RB*, RC*, RD* and RE* series,
and Romeo Delta Echo seems more pronounceable than whatever combination might otherwise be assigned.
A series of phone calls and emails with the CAA today. Seems single seat gyroplane microlights are treated as Class 2,
not class 1 as I hoped/believed.
Which means the aircraft will need a Permit To Fly, which in turn means it will need some form of Type Approval.
Since this will be the first Gyrobee in the country, the CAA need to be somehow persuaded they're
airworthy. Awaiting instructions re. the paperwork needed.
Huge sigh of relief - the CAA assure me that a Gyrobee would be granted a Permit-to-Fly, based on the number in service
and the demonstrated safety record.
So I have ordered the aluminium tubing for the axle struts; still awaiting a price on the square tubing.
Cost is ~NZ$125 for enough tubing for three axle struts (allowing for one sacrificial test piece). The StarBee pre-drilled components are VERY favourably priced by comparison, but I want to do some of this myself. Current plan is to bend (or get bent), drill, and anodise, in that order.
