GYROBEE PHOTO TOUR

Ralph, looking reasonably calm after a harrowing flight. The cooling shroud on the 447 had cracked, so we decided to fly it free-air, with a fan assist, while waiting for a replacement. Bad move! Despite very cool weather, I was lucky to get it around the pattern and back down without seizing the engine!

For the sake of those building the Gyrobee, not to mention the folks who just want a closer look at the machine, what follows is a series of photos showing some of the major features of the airframe/construction.

The photos were not all taken at the same time, so there will be variation with respect to details and accessories and I will try to note these in each photograph. For example, in the lead picture, the throttle shown is the twist-grip Harley that we used for many years. For the past two years the aircraft has been equipped with a single-lever throttle quadrant from LEAF. Also, the instrument pod shown here is a SkySports unit that was used to house an early (non-computerized) hybrid instrument panel (all the instruments were digital except for a Winter venturi airspeed indicator) I designed.

If you check in regularly, you may note that new images will be added periodically. To make the pictures more useful to potential builders, all the images have been upgraded to 24-bit JPEG files and have had their resolution increased as well. This will increase the load time for casual browsers but I view that as a small price to pay to make them more useful. Thumbnail versions of each image are shown. The small images are not links - use the label beside each image.

Image Compression

In order to minimize the time required to transfer images to your computer screen, most browsers and/or on-line services use image compression. The loss of image quality is very real when compression is used, but the added speed is usually more important. On the other hand, if you want to see the maximum amount of detail in a set of pictures, compression will not let you see the picture as intended. Blotchy, dull colors, "bleeding" colors, and distortion of text (particularly at the edge of letters against a colored background) are all artifacts of image compression. If you don't mind the longer load time, the best image quality will be obtained by turning compression off. In the case of AOL, click on the PREFERENCES icon at the top of the page and then click on Uncompressed Graphics. This will turn compression off. For normal web viewing, where speed is more important, repeat the process but click on Compressed Graphics.