Les Smoot of Virginia built his Gyrobee in about a month. Les had previously built several Bensen/Brock machines and here are his comments as posted in the Rotorcraft Conference:
I built my bee in a fairly short period of time (1 month). After building several Bensen / Brocks and flying 2 of the 3 I noticed several things.
- #1 I like the mast being almost vertical, and that the mast is taller than most by a small margin.......I have not come close to a blade hitting the ground (or so it seems) as I did with the Bensen. That kind of thing makes me nervous, as my landings have not always been smooth!
- #2 The seat tank is not real comfortable on a Bensen, really like the fiberglass seat.
- As Mr. Taggart says...the Gyrobee is a floater, things happen in slow motion, making it easy for me to make decisions. I hate to admit it but, I'm a self taught gyro pilot, but not a zero time pilot. With about 45 hours of R-22 time and some 450 hours of fixed wing time I guess I did all you could except for 2 place gyro time.
- The gyro seems to be really sensitive to bumps in the air, not at all dangerous, it just gets your attention due to the high lift / light weight of the machine.
I weight 165lbs and 40 horses on a 100 degree day has been no problem at sea-level.
- Flying a KB-2 with a VW motor, then flying the Gyrobee is like going from a Beechcraft Bonanza to a Cessna 150 or a glider. When I was in the navy I would deploy for 6 months (and not fly) then come home and crawl in a KB-2, it would have been nice to have the Gyrobee to fly helping me get back into the feel of a gyro.
- Watch for corrosion where the stainless steel cheek plates mate with the keel tube and mast...maybe it was the high humidity in Virginia, some paint or thin insulating material would help here.
- I only have about 10 hours on the Gyrobee, it was something a retired navy guy could afford, I'm glad I built it or else I would have gone nuts trying to be newly retired and not being good at sitting still!