Magni's Day 2000

By Gregorio Gremminger

Magni's Day (Friday, Saturday and Sunday) was wonderful! I'm writing this from Italy before I leave. Weather was great! 

There were 30 gyros - 26 Magni's, an Air Command single-seater, two Air Command clones, and a Dominator. Almost all the Magnis and the Dominator flew every day of the event. There were 7 Helicopters flying at the event, including 3 Kompresses with Rotax 914 engines and a Fox - an Angel clone, a Gazelle, a Lama, and something else. The State Police helicopter, several military helicopters and even a couple of military jets made fly-by appearances. Gyros were flying constantly, and five two-seat trainers (M-16s) were flying constantly for daylight hours. Luca and Pietro Magni missed lunch both days to keep up with the demand for rides. There were 12 countries represented - that I counted.

Long line of colorful Italian gyros on Sunny Saturday morning

The traditional "fly-out" was organized, this time with a record 19 gyros (18 Magnis and the Dominator), to a small sport airfield, Gragnano, about 25 kilometers away for refreshments and a visit with friends on Sunday. The flight was organized into 
5 "wedges" of three gyros in staggered trail formation - both to and from Gragnano. Several gyros flew "freelance" with the 
formation to take videos and photos. The weather on Sunday started a bit hazy and overcast, but cleared off on the return flight. Luca took time out from rides to lead the formation in the enclosed M-20. The M-19 flew "freelance" circles around the 
formation taking pictures. Gragnano is a wonderful small grass runway with a clubroom and patio and even a small control tower (for fun). All gyros took off and landed in formation in staggered wedges of three. I got to fly the new M-16 2000 both ways - Grazie Valerio! Ali Torres (Venezuela) flew one of the freelance photo ships. Paulo Lentini conducted the preflight safety briefing (in multi-language) to safely organize the impressive mass formation of gyros - as he has done in past years for growing numbers in the annual formation.

Magni's Day started a day early, just because many people had arrived very early. The Friday night (catered) meal had a large crowd. At the Saturday night dinner and presentations-party, the large hangar could barely accommodate the mass of people. As usual, there were a couple of hours of awards and poking fun - in three languages - including Ali Torre's language confused presentation - Ali and Sonia as the interpreter were totally perplexed as to who was supposed to continue in what language (I never have laughed so hard!)

Gippi Sacchi with his "bright" M-14 Magni and parachutist/gyro pilot, Davide Castelli

We were entertained (or amazed) by some outstanding solo gyro pilots as well. Gippi Sacchi provided his usual inertia defying spectacle, but this year he added an extra twist: Davide Castelli jumped from Gippi's M-14 on both Saturday and Sunday. 
Both Gippi (in his gyro) and Davide (in his parachute) arriving in front of the crowd simultaneously from 5000 feet! (Kids' don't try this at home - both Gippi and Davide are extremely experienced and competent in these areas!!!) Paulo Lentini (747 driver) also amazed the crowd on both Saturday and Sunday with a maneuver I won't identify here so that others will not be tempted!! Paulo, I hope you are not tempted on my flight home over the Atlantic!

As usually, Vittorio was a gracious, if very busy host. Vittorio and his family and staff organized another safe and eventful flying party. There were catered full-course Italian meals (and drink) for both lunch and dinner each day. The Saturday evening party went well into the next morning with a band and dancing and a lot of international frolicking. By Sunday evening, everyone left was dragging bad! Sunday evening, we had a bit more subdued meal and a chance to sit quietly to visit with people from the many countries, all enjoying, and even more enthusiastic about, the sport of gyros.

America was well represented too - with even a few unexpected drop-ins. I'm writing this in hopes many more people from America and around the world will consider attending this truly international celebration of the gyro sport next year. This was the fifth year for the event, and Vittorio Magni is already making plans to accommodate an even larger attendance in 2001.

                Grazie Vittorio and Ciao all!

Vittorio Magni introduces new 4-blade rotor

At Magni's Day 2000 this year, Vittorio Magni introduced his new 4-blade gyroplane rotor and demonstrated it in flight publicly for the first time. The unique rotor hub design, which had been kept under wraps from even his two Son's, Luca and Pietro, for some time, employs a simple but rugged pair of teetering rotor blades. The prototype rotor uses standard Magni 12 ft rotor blades to provide smooth heavy lift capabilities in a short diameter. The rotor hub mounts readily on the current Magni rotor head teeter block.

Vittorio has developed this rotor for applications other than the standard production Magni gyros. Typically, multi-blade rotors are developed in search of the elimination or reduction of rotor and stick shake. The current production Magni Gyros (and the projected enclosed M-19 and M-20 models) exhibit very smooth rotor systems with the existing Magni 2-blade rotor systems. Vittorio was not in search of improved rotor performance for these sport machines. "The 4-blade rotors present some issues that we do not want to be concerned with in the sport Magni gyros. They are more difficult to hangar and they will be more expensive."

The new 4-blade system has demonstrated to have minimal rotor/stick shake - call it "none". That was not the total goal, however. The compact rotor system was primarily developed to provide heavy lift capabilities combined with quick 
maneuverability for applications such as crop spraying, where time lost in turn-arounds is money. Magni has offered an efficient spraying rig for the 2-seat M-16 for several years. The new rotor will make those applications even more attractive.

The prototype 4-blade rotor was fitted to a new production M-16 on Sunday at Magni's Day for the demo flight. This prototype is much more blade than required for the M-16 with only Vittorio's weight aboard. Vittorio said he had to limit the 
upper speed on his demo flight because the rotor is really intended for much heavier gyros.



Magni's Day 2001

Magni's Day 1999 
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