I'm flying again !

After my husband passed away my world was simply torn asunder. I retired from gyrocopter flying and gyro flight instructing and tried to put my life back together again.
I needed to make a home for myself and learn to live alone after 48 1/2 years of marriage.
It took time but it was done and finally I was ready to fly again.
A group of gyro friends that I hang out with were kind enough to go through my gyro and make it airworthy after it's long time of sitting in a hangar.
Finally the big day came on June 14, 2008. My gyro engine doesn't have a starter so one of my flying buddies, Peter Prentice, hand propped my engine to get it started and I taxiied out onto the El Mirage dry lake bed and took off for the first time in 12 1/2 years.
Teddy Udala, another gyro flying buddy followed me out to the lake in his van . As he drove he had one eye on the camera filming what he called , " A historical Moment", of my return to the air.
It had been nearly 13 years since I had last flown and the flat surface of the lake bed is all one color which sometimes makes it difficult to judge height above the ground. My eyes were nearly 13 years older than they were on my last flight so I knew I would need some time for the old eyes to adjust to the lake bed. I had recently had a vision check and bought new glasses. I had asked the doctor to check my depth perception carefully. She did and pronounced it to be ' perfect'. But depth perception on a machine in the doctor's office and the real thing on the lake bed are two different things !
I took off , then leveled off at what I figured to be about 15 to 20 feet above the surface.
My gyro doesn't have an alitmeter but that will be remedied soon ! Looking down, I wasn't really sure whether I was 15 or 20 or even 50 feet AGL ( above ground level ). " Well, old gal" , I said to myself, " maybe you should climb a bit lest you stick the nose of your pretty gyro into the ground!". So, I climbed and flew around for nearly an hour. It was simply wonderful to be back in the air in my Bensen gyro.
My gyro friends, Teddy, Peter and Bobby were out on the lake bed taking pictures of my fly-bys. I knew that they wanted me to land near-by for the camera...they didn't know that my eyes were taking their own sweet time getting adjusted to the sameness of the lake bed. In other words, my landing probably wasn't going to be 'camera ready' and not want wanting to embarass myself by a bad lading or worse, bend something, I decided to land down the lake aways from them.
A standard landing is done by descending to about 3 to 4 feet above the surface, reducing power and when the gyro settles then gently bringing the control stick back to flare the blades . That slows the gyro and allows a very gentle tail wheel first , touchdown with no roll out .
Still not 100 percent sure of my altitude , I descended to what I thought ( hoped ) to be about 5 to 6 feet above the surface of the lake bed. I had decided to make a no flare landing with main wheels touching first . I leveled the gyro, reduced the power slightly and let the gyro settle down toward the ground in a level, no flare attitude. I figured that when the wheels touched the ground, I would know I had arrived. It worked very well and I touched down gently. The camera caught the landing after all and you can see the flat descent to touch down.
I figured with a good one under my belt that I should do some landing practice and I did just that. I'm happy to say that the old eyes have adjusted and I'm not having any problems with depth perception , Oh happy day !
To be 79 1/2 years of age and to be flying my gyro again is wonderful. I am blessed.
Marion Springer