Why does XKCD say that autogyros will crash if the pilot reacts to a stall as in a normal airplane? This recent XKCD comic is all about autogyros.



Image is copyright XKCD, licensed under CC 2.5 BY-NC

The note at the bottom is what got my attention


  Extremely safe, unless you do the one thing you instinctively do to escape a stall in a normal airplane, in which case it will crash immediately


So what is that one thing, and why does it not work in autogyros?
That one thing is to unload the rotor too much (i.e. &quot;push on the stick&quot;):
From explainxkcd:

... Unfortunately, as soon as the rotor stops spinning, the whole aircraft falls like a brick and the rotor may be impossible to restart in flight. This is a situation that should be avoided at all costs.
Normally it is not a problem since the weight of the aircraft keeps the rotor spinning. However, if the weight becomes too low or even negative, the angle of attack will become negative, and the rotor will slow down and eventually stop. It can happen when the pilot &quot;pushes on the stick&quot; and dives.
Unfortunately, &quot;pushing on the stick&quot; is also how you escape a stall in a fixed wing (normal) airplane as it is a way to regain airspeed. This is actually a counter-intuitive maneuver but because a stall is an emergency, pilots are trained to do it instinctively. It can trick a pilot trained in fixed wing aircraft into doing the one thing that shouldn't be done on a gyro.