Fickle New Machines

This was one of the few times I went against Zingi’s advice – and survived.

I remember him telling me how one of the top South African Air Force chopper pilots had killed himself while evaluating a Minicopter. Not only that, he said that Rusty Russell disassembled one at Tempe by doing a steep turn off the deck and sticking a blade into the ground.

Zingi used these two points to illustrate the dangers of going anywhere near a Minicopter – a South African made autogyro.

I refrained from expressing the opinion that SAAF chopper pilots know as much about autogyros as I know about the moons of Jupiter. I also resisted the temptation to suggest that if Rusty had stuck the wing of a Piper Cub into the ground while doing a cowboy turn at nought feet, it would also have resulted in a disappointing pile of scrap.

So, with Zingi’s warnings ringing in my ears, I took the train to Worcester to secure the Northern Cape’s agency for Llew Strydom’s Minicopters.

Obviously this involved me converting to the dreaded machine. And so it was that in the heat of mid December 1964 I found myself doing “dual" in a single-seat autogyro.

When I say "dual" I mean that a skinny Yank with a belt-buckle and cowboy boots drove alongside me in a WWII Willys Jeep bellowing instructions on how to use the RSU (rotor speed-up unit) and other strange levers. I tried to follow his directions while struggling to keep in the middle of the rutted, dirt runway.

We did this two or three times, with little hops into the air. Then he sent me off to do