Hanging out and talking the talk

Today was a good day. I didn't do much of anything but hang out with some gyro friends and talk gyros. Sometimes that's all thats needed to make a good day , just being with friends and sharing gyro stories.

Yesterday Jeff, a gyro owner and soon to be gyro pilot, called and said he and John would be up this way for the weekend. They were flying to Arizona in John's Cherokee to bring Ben, another gyro owner back with them . Dave from down the hill would be up with one of his gyros . " Let me know when you get here and I'll be down", I said. So, when I got the call I fast tracked on down to the hangar on Moe's place and there we had a good time just talking the talk.

Recently Dave and Ben were flying their gyros over the sand dunes and Dave had an engine out. There was nothing but sand dunes as far as you could see . It was a terrible place to have an engine quit, but quit it did. In a gyro if you have an engine failure in a place where you cannot afford to touch down with any forward speed, such as soft ground or plowed field , you must drop the gyro in and touch down without a forward roll and that is exactly what Dave did. He was flying low when the engine stopped so he just flared and dropped down and landed upright with no damage to his gyro. It was a good save . So, Dave's exciting dune landing was one of the things whe talked about.

I have been in gyros for many many years so I had a few gyro tales of my own to share. Like the day years ago when I saw a gyro taxiing accross the lake bed . When the fellow reached the edge of the lake he shut the gyro down and I pulled up to say hello. I didn't know the man but it was obvious that he was trying to teach himself to fly the gyro. He said that he had had a terrible time taxiing and that he could barely keep from rolling his gyro.

Speaking from years of gyro experience as a certified gyro flight instructor, I said, " Sounds like you had blade flap". " No way", he said adamantly, " I was taxiing at 10 miles and hour and those blades were turning 60 RPM's". Taxiing at that speed with the blades barely turning it was blade flap , no question about it and he was lucky he didn't roll his gyro into a ball. He was a know it all with a closed mind so I just went on my way . There's no use talking to a brick wall.

Jeff had put in an hour taxiing his gyro this morning with Pete flying overhead and Dave following along in a pickup, both keeping an eye on Jeff and ready to wave him in if the wind came up or if he seemed to be tiring. Just guys watching over a fledgling pilot in his early taxi sessions.

The wind came up and Pete did a beautiful demonstration of playing on the wind and with almost vertical take offs and landings. There is nothing like watching a light weight gyro and a guy who knows how to handle it fly in the wind. Just awsome !

So we just visited, and made plans to go to Britta's chapter 15 gyro fly-in in Arizona in a couple of weeks and so the time passed all to soon and it was time for the guys to take off in the Cherokee to take Ben back home and time for me to get back home to my duties which my daughter Donna, had so generously taken over so I could go out and play with my gyro buddies. Sometimes it's just good to hang out with the guys and talk the talk.

Till next time.
Marion Springer