“Irene the Gyro” was a design I put together while sitting on fire standby in Greece during an unusually wet season so I had time on my hands: I fly firefighting helicopters for a living.
It is a completely self-designed 2-place, single front seat controls using traditional dimensional rules for gyroplanes. The engine is a Yamaha RX-1 with 142hp utilizing a Jenkins adapter to the Rotax E-box spinning a Powerfin prop. Tango Gyro supplied the tail surfaces, the rotor hub was sourced from Gyro-Tech of Poland with carbon composite blades from Rotor-Tech also from Poland. It has full instrumentation including ADS-B in/out and lighting for night VFR. My partner during this whole adventure is Jim “Thumper” Lauer and between us we have storied careers in the US Army.
During the design and building I obtained my Sport Pilot Gyro sign off from Henry Boger at AdventureAir LA in Chino, CA and continued to do my Commercial Gyroplane with Mike Trudell at Orbic Helicopters in Camarillo, CA while constantly learning along the way. Denis Shoemaker with GyroTechnic in Kasota, MN was also invaluable to my constant visits and questions.
I cannot stress enough the proper training I received during this whole adventure.
A very cautious & conservative flight testing will be completed in Spring 2024 after the Minnesota Winter releases its grip.
—Jeff Brenhaug, Minnesota
