Gyroplane Ground School and the Flying Test

The five exams, and every item the examiner may test you on

Five written exams at 75%, and a General Flying Test in four sections that begins with an oral: at least two questions in each of seven categories, starting with weight and balance. Most schools will tell you that much. Below is the whole schedule, item by item, as the Civil Aviation Authority writes it in Appendix J of Standards Document 44 - itself an extract of the examiner's own form, SRG2124.

Read it as what it is: the list your examiner is working from. The syllabus you train against is a separate document, and we set that out exercise by exercise in the PPL(G) syllabus.

The five written exams

Each is passed at 75%, and the passes must fall within the 24 months before you apply for the licence. The flying test itself must be completed within six months of finishing training.

How the test is conducted

The General Flying Test is flown with a Flight Examiner for gyroplanes, in an aircraft with at least two seats and working dual controls, with the examiner in the seat an instructor would use. You fly it as pilot in command, as though no one else were on board. You tell the examiner the checks and duties you are carrying out, and you use the checklist for that aircraft.

During the pre-flight preparation you - not the examiner - determine the power settings and speeds, and calculate the take-off, approach and landing performance from the flight manual. The examiner takes no part in flying the aircraft except for safety, to set up a test item, or to avoid holding up other traffic. You must have been trained on the same type you are tested on, and recommended for the test by whoever ran your training, who hands over your records.

Section 1: the type-specific oral

At least two questions in each category, pass mark 75%. This is the part students underestimate, and the first category is the one nobody revises.

• Weight and balance
• Performance
• Speeds
• Systems and warning lights
• Fuel
• Aircraft documentation
• Pilot maintenance

Weight and balance means your aircraft, with your weights, from its weighing report - what it can carry, what it may not, and what ballast it needs solo. If it is not fresh in your mind, the gyroplane weight limit works through the sum on the ARGON GTL. Aircraft documentation means the papers that must be on board and current. Pilot maintenance means what you are permitted to do yourself, and what you are not.

Section 2: pre-flight and post-flight

• Gyroplane knowledge: aircraft documents, fuel, mass and balance, performance, flight planning, NOTAMs, weather briefing, passenger safety brief
• Pre-flight inspection and action, location of parts and their purpose
• Cockpit inspection, starting procedure, running up
• Communication and navigation equipment checks, selecting and presetting frequencies
• Pre-take-off procedure, R/T procedure, ATC liaison and compliance

The walkaround is examined, not assumed - the order, the reasons and the parts you are touching. Ours is written out in gyroplane pre-flight checks, in the flight manual's own sequence.

Section 3: general handling

• Taxi and rotor management
• Take-off into the prevailing wind
• Normal circuit
• Landing to a full stop, or touch and go
• Landing, power on, to a fixed point
• Landing, power off, to a specified point
• Aborted take-off during speed build-up, before the climb
• Go-around from an approach to land
• Straight and level at slow, cruise and fast speeds
• Gentle turns onto a specified heading
• Climbing and descending turns onto a specified heading
• Recovery from a slow-speed descent, without power
• Recovery from a slow-speed descent, with power
• Flight into and out of a restricted or confined area
• Practice forced landing
• Recovery from an unusual attitude: nose high, high power
• Recovery from an unusual attitude: roll left, nose down

Section 4: abnormal and emergency procedures

By oral discussion rather than in the air:

• Simulated partial power: flying and landing
• Simulated throttle cable break
• Simulated trim failure, full rear trim, if applicable to the type
• Simulated trim failure, full forward trim, if applicable to the type
• Simulated engine fire in flight
• Simulated electrical fire in flight

Note what is not on the list: entering autorotation. In a gyroplane there is nothing to enter - the rotor is already autorotating, which is the whole difference between this test and a helicopter one.

Passing, and failing

Fail an item and you have failed that section. Fail one section and you repeat that section only; fail two or more and you retake the whole test. In a retest, failing any section - including one you already passed - means the whole test again. Everything must be finished within six months, and if two attempts do not produce a pass in all sections, you go back for more training. There is no limit on attempts.

At the examiner's discretion any manoeuvre may be repeated once, with a single exception: the practice forced landing.

If you already hold a licence

A holder of a UK pilot licence in another category may be credited with up to 15 hours of dual flying towards the PPL(G) - which is where the familiar "40 hours, or 25 if you already fly" comes from. What cannot be credited is the gyroplane time itself: 15 hours dual and 10 hours solo in gyroplanes stand whatever you have flown before. Ground exams may be credited where an equivalent standard was examined, but the UK air law exam is required in every case, and your instructor must satisfy themselves that the knowledge is still there.

The rest of the requirements - the hours, the cross-countries, the timing windows - are in the UK gyroplane licence, and what the whole thing costs is in how much a gyroplane licence costs.

Frequently asked questions