Black Beauty

I had several reasons for wanting to buy Viv's attractive little black RAF 2000 autogyro: 

reason one was that if I was going to learn to fly a gyro, it would be a whole lot cheaper to be learning in my own gyro than in a school's/instructor's gyro (as long as I didn't bend it, but that would get expensive irrespective of whose gyro I was flying), and if I was going to buy a gyro sooner or later, before or after training, it might as well be before to save a fair bit of cash;

reason two was that G-BYJA, being an RAF 2000 is a fully enclosed two-seat gyro, and with its tailplane (an after-market addition for enhanced stability), it's allowed to fly with the side doors on, making it much more of an all-weather aircraft than the many and varied designs of open cockpit gyros, though I will still only be able to fly in VFR (visual flight rules) conditions, i.e. within sight of the ground essentially, not into cloud or at night; 

reason three was that  it seemed to be a very tidy craft, assembled and checked by Viv, who really seemed to know what he was doing, and a person for whom safety was always the dominant factor;

reason four was that I hadn't seen many RAF 2000's for sale since my interest in gyros had blossomed, and if I missed this one, I might have to wait a long time to find another example as good as this; 

reason five was that there are other two-seat enclosed gyros around, but not at anything like the price of this one, and even fewer secondhand, also, a new RAF 2000 was not especially affordable either, and I'd have to build it myself. 

So all in all, G-BYJA seemed like the right gyro for me I decided. 

Not having owned an aircraft before, what I hadn't expected was the level of red tape involved, for want of a better description. It's understandable though: the authorities don't want several hundred kilos of aircraft dropping out of the sky onto someone's house, or a bus, or a motorway. Viv furnished me with a significant array of documents, ranging from the building instructions through to all the recent additions such as the radio and tailplane and their accompanying certifications proving their safety for in-flight use. 

What it didn't include was the Certificate of Airworthiness, to be exact the LAA (Light Aircraft Association) "Certificate of Validity - Permit to fly". As G-BYJA hadn't flown for quite a few years, it needed a professional flight test to confirm its safety. 

It just happened that I was at Little Rissington on the 28th October 2010 when the weather was a bit overcast but not too windy for flying, and there was Viv, doing the final checks  of G-BYJA prior to her first flight since 2001: 

Once he was satisfied all was well, and Tony Melody, the official tester was also satisfied, they both got in and after a good loud "CLEAR PROP" started the engine:

I'd got permission from Tony to follow them out in the car onto the airfield, though he carefully briefed me as to where I could and couldn't go for our mutual safety. He lent me a magnetic flashing orange light to put on the roof and so I followed them up the taxiway and down to the end of runway 23. 

Soon enough, G-BYJA was up to full power and accelerating up the runway towards me, then airborne: 

 

I was struggling to get the camera to focus on this fast moving target (probably down to my inability to get the right settings) but at least I got this shot of the first takeoff of G-BYJA for nine years.

A few seconds later, Viv and Tony were fast disappearing into the distance:

That was a very satisfying sight!