During EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2025, we were grateful to see many of our valued customers from over the years who have been flying their American Ranger 1 (AR-1) gyroplanes. One such member of the SilverLight Aviation owners’ community was Jason Horne, who was kind enough to provide a detailed testimonial on his experience and opinion on the AR-1 gyroplane both as a pilot and a mechanic. The video and transcript of his conversation with Abid Farooqui, Founder and President of SilverLight Aviation, are below.
JH: Hi. My name’s Jason Horne. I have an AR-1, serial number 13. I fly it all over the place. I’m from New England. I fly it to Florida for the winter, and then I fly it to Oshkosh, and it’s been a wonderful machine.
AF: Jason, I know you bought the AR-1 used.
JH: I did, and it had about 550 hours on it, and I’m coming up on 900 hours now.
AF: Wow, awesome! So, you’ve been flying the crap out of it.
JH: I love it! And that’s been over about two and a half years.
AF: Now, I know you are mechanically inclined. You have done your preventative maintenance with just doing the preventative maintenance. How has it been?
JH: I took the class at Lockwood for Rotax, which I’d highly recommend anybody that’s flying with a Rotax do that, even if you’re only going to change your oil and kind of avoid some of the gutches with those engines, because they’re different from Lycoming.
AF: Yeah.
JH: Overall, maintenance on the gyro has been real easy. As a mechanic, I found it real simple. I have a helicopter mechanic that I’m friends with. He checks it once a year, but it’s a very easy machine to work on.
AF: Did you end up spending a lot of money replacing parts till now, in the last 350 – 400 hours that you put on?
JH: No, not at all. Tires are cheap. Wheel bearings are cheap. Rubber hoses. The main mechanicals of the gyro are pretty solid. I might have spent a little more money on the Rotax than anything else.
AF: Yeah.
JH: Just from maintenance. But the gyro itself has been real easy, and the parts are pretty inexpensive.
AF: Which engine do you have on your gyro?
JH: I have the 914, the turbocharged 115-horse engine.
AF: Have you been taking up people? And how big a person have you been able to take up?
JH: On a warm day, I really like the turbo. It helps. I would recommend it. If it fits in the back seat, I can take it up. It’ll fly it.
AF: Yeah, about 250, I would say, right?
JH: Yeah, yep.
AF: And how much do you weigh? If you don’t mind.
JH: I weigh 180 pounds.
AF: 250 plus 180 plus, how much fuel generally would you have?
JH: 17, I’ll be full. Well, it depends. If I’m just going out for a quick flight, I only have 8 gallons on board.
AF: Got you. Great, and how is the handling of the gyro?
JH: I love it. I went out and flew a bunch of gyros before I bought my AR-1, and the AR-1 was the one I chose, just because it’s a very docile machine to fly and handles really well. It has excellent landing gear.
AF: I want to ask you a question, because many people tell me, “Hey, the AR-1, the rudders are very hard.” So how did you… I know that yours is an older rudder. It’s a bigger one. So it is a little bit heavier than the new rudder and tail. But what did you do to kind of alleviate that problem?
JH: I’ve made an adjustment on the pivot point on the pedals and brought it closer so I had more leverage when I’m stepping on the pedals. And it’s made it so anybody could step on the pedals and steer it around on the ground, or fly it with the rudder. It took a lot of the pressure off the pedals.
AF: Basically, the ball of your foot was not hitting. You were hitting… The toes of your foot were hitting the…
JH: No, it wasn’t the pedals that you push on. It was the rod that comes from the back.
AF: Got you. Yep.
JH: I brought it up a little bit, one inch, and it’s perfect.
AF: Yeah. Yours is number 13. We made that adjustment at around number 30, and we did the same thing. We did a second hole up top, and we attach it there now.
JH: Yep.
AF: So that’s what the old AR-1’s, that’s what was going on.
JH: And I think mine’s gotten a lot of those updates over the years.
AF: Updates, yeah.
JH: As you guys have figured out different things.
AF: Correct. Great man. Good to see you at Oshkosh. Good to see all our customers. AR-1 customers, my trike customers, and all these customers that I’ve had over the years, to see them here. Awesome. You flew… Did not fly your gyroplane here, though?
JH: Not this year, last year. I was the first gyro to ever stay on the North 40.
AF: Yeah, you were camping.
JH: We were front Row, front corner spot, right by the gate.
AF: Yeah. Alright, Jason. Thank you!
JH: Have a good one!
