Well this is a bit different

Firstly, no, it's not a helicopter. This remarkable looking machine is an autogyro and its the first time we've welcomed it and Peter, the pilot and owner, to Old Buckenham.

The big rotor you can see is rotated not by an engine but the wind. It's given a helping hand by the engine to get spinning on the ground, but when that's done there's only a propeller at the back which pushes the aircraft along, rotates the rotors and then by some wizardry the entire machine can take flight.

The wizardry in question is something called 'autorotation'. When a helicopter has an emergency and loses engine power, autorotation is the means by which it can land. For Autogyros, it's the means by which they fly and it's a head-scratching, niche corner of the laws of physics which is probably simplest to describe as wizardry and move on. We only have so much space on this page.

Peter, the pilot, is a bit of a wizard as you'll see. His Calidus, a German built machine, is of a type still in production and used Worldwide.

When we say 'used Worldwide' it needs to be made clear that other Calidus pilots tend to fly about the place in a conventional way - facing the direction of travel, that sort of thing. As can be seen from the images Peter doesn't really do straight, level or anything dull for that matter. The talk of the UK's biggest Airshow, Blackpool, Peter has a track history of wowing crowds all over the UK and you'll see why as we welcome him for the first time.