potential. The placement and accessibility of charts, writing materials, and other necessary items must be carefully considered. Gyroplanes with open cockpits add the challenge of coping with wind, which further increases the need for creative and resourceful cockpit management for optimum efficiency. The diversity of gyroplane designs available today yields a wide variety of capability and performance. For safe operation, you must be thoroughly familiar with the procedures and limitations for your particular aircraft along with other factors that may affect the safety of your flight. As pilot in command, you are the final authority in determining the airworthiness of your aircraft. Adherence to a preflight checklist greatly enhances your ability to evaluate the fitness of your gyroplane by ensuring that a complete and methodical inspection of all components is performed. [Figure 20-1] For aircraft without a formal checklist, it is prudent to create one that is specific to the aircraft to be sure that important items are not overlooked. To determine the status of required inspections, a preflight review of the aircraft records is also necessary. The dissimilarity between the various types of engines used for gyroplane propulsion necessitates the use of an engine start checklist. Again, when a checklist is not provided, it is advisable to create one for the safety of yourself and others, and to prevent inadvertent damage to the engine or propeller. Being inherently dangerous, the propeller demands special attention during engine starting procedures. Always ensure that the propeller area is clear prior to starting. In addition to providing an added degree of safety, being thoroughly familiar with engine starting procedures and characteristics can also be very helpful in starting an engine under various weather conditions. The ability of the gyroplane to be taxied greatly enhances its utility. However, a gyroplane should not be taxied in close proximity to people or obstructions while the rotor is turning. In addition, taxi speed should be limited to no faster than a brisk walk in ideal condi- tions, and adjusted appropriately according to the  circumstances. On a gyroplane with a semi-rigid, teeter-head rotor sys- tem, blade flap may develop if too much airflow passes through the rotor system while it is operating at low r.p.m. This is most often the result of taxiing too fast for a given rotor speed. Unequal lift acting on the advancing and retreating blades can cause the blades to teeter to the maximum allowed by the rotor head design. The blades then hit the teeter stops, creating a vibration that may be felt in the cyclic control. The fre- quency of the vibration corresponds to the speed of the rotor, with the blades hitting the stops twice during each revolution. If the flapping is not controlled, the situation can grow worse as the blades begin to flex and As in larger aircraft, cockpit management is an impor- tant skill necessary for the safe operation of a  gyroplane. Intrinsic to these typically small aircraft is a limited amount of space that must be utilized to its 20-1 COCKPIT MANAGEMENT BLADE FLAP TAXIING ENGINE STARTING PREFLIGHT Figure 20-1. A checklist is extremely useful in conducting a thorough preflight inspection.