Learning to fly the MTO Sport, Calidus or Cavalon will put a huge grin on your face, they are the high performance ‘motor cycles’ of the sky and you will be amazed at how quickly you become proficient at handling these fantastic aircraft.
As with any aircraft, there is no substitute for proper training before you can safely enjoy flying an autogyro.
Gyro training used to be hard work! Students would typically start by flying in their Instructor’s 2-seat machine before completing their training on their own single-seat machine – it was like having to learn to fly twice, only the second time you were on your own!
With the MTO Sport all that has changed. The MT Sport is an exceptionally safe and stable training platform and when the time comes to go solo, your instructor can just step out (though it’s recommended that you land to let them out first!) and send you on your way.
Who Is Approved to Teach You to Fly a Gyroplane
Training can be carried out by any ASRA (Australian Sports Rotorcraft Association) authorized Gyroplane Instructor current on The MTO Sport, Calidus or Cavalon aircraft.
Professional flight training is available with instructors like Neil Farr who operates Liberty Sky out of SkyRanch at Manilla, CFI Paul Mitchell (Evans Head N.S.W.), Peter Coulter (Yamba N.S.W.), Peter Pendergast (Ocean Grove VIC) and Peter Baker (Bunbury WA).
Combined, they have logged thousands of hours in aviation and have a full understanding of the students needs so check out our instructor locations and profiles for the one nearest to you.
How Long Does it Take
The qualification required to fly your MTO Sport, Calidus or Cavalon is an ASRA Pilot Certificate. The precise requirements for this vary according to your qualifications when you start, but can be summarized as Ab-initio (no previous licence held) or Conversion where the students holds fixed wing pilot qualifications.
For Ab-Initio studends, there is a minimum 20 hours of training under instruction which includes a minimum of 15 hours dual, and a minimum of 3 hours solo flying. Of course, there is also the necessary straightforward written exams to be passed as well.
For holders of a fixed-wing or ultralight Pilot Certificate, the training requirements are reduced significantly taking into account their previous experience and require a minimum of 5 hours. Usually it takes about 10 to 15 hours and the mandatory wrtten exams to pass in order to complete the conversion. Generally their endorsements such as cross country and radio are fully recognised by ASRA.
Full details of the requirements can be found in the ASRA Operations Manual via the ASRA website from our Links area.
Listed below are the Auto-Gyro instructors available Australia wide. Follow the links for more information about each.
NSW
- Manilla (SkyRanch) – Neil Farr email: neil@libertysky.com.au
- Evans Head – Paul Mitchell
- Yamba – Peter Coulter
VIC
- Barwon Heads – Peter Pendergast
WA
- Bunbury – Peter Baker
