Yes that was me that shed the rotor ! mourn the passing of that DB Autogiro,in a wind you could bring her down vertically and land at your feet,the only criteria is a very strong undercarriage a la the original machines,found that four bladed rotors worked well,regarding flying anyone with some fixed wing experience can handle the DB example,once you have mastered the angle of dangle that she flies at ( ie very nose up ) then you are there,to land just throttle back and aim 45 degrees and let her settle,in wind they will hover and what a sight they make as the tailwheel/skid touches first,these are fun machines with a capital 'F'
by the way loops are great fun,as you go over the rotor stops for a few precious seconds and then picks up as the g-stops,rolls also are possible even on rudder,climb steeply and whack on full rudder over she goes !
Built the Hobbit but never managed to get her to fly,she had a pulley where you wound string around just under the rotor head,the other end went under your foot as you gave her the gun for take off as the rotor in theory spun up,the problem with the Hobbit is that she had a complicated helicopter type head and bi-symetrical rotors,this was also un-usual in that she also had an Hiller fly-bar for rotor dampening,totally un-necessary with autogyros.
Next winter I will build another autogyro but at the moment I am too busy flying,I have plans for one fitted with an Outrunner electric motor now that would be really something !
) Gone all 3D mad at the moment so it could be a while...