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

Ever wish you could un-say something ?

An older woman with snow white hair came into the office. With her was a young man in his 30's and a boy of about 10 and a little girl about 6 years old. The white haired woman stayed in the office while the young man and the children went out to the man's airplane.

The white haired woman whom I had never seen before, talked about helping the young man work on his airplane. I asked her if he was her son. I had insulted her big time. " He is my Boyfriend ", she roared. Oh boy, I wished I hadn't asked if he was her son. But I learned from that that sometimes it's best not to ask lest your words come back to bite you.

Another time an older man with a toddler came into the office . I figured the baby was his grandson, but this time I kept my thoughts to myself and good thing I did for it turned out that the baby was his son. The man who was about 65 was married to a woman nearly 40 years younger than he was.

I was part of a group of pilots who were scheduled fly at an airshow. All airshow performers had to attend a briefing by the FAA prior to the start of the airshow. One of the performers was a woman ( I will call her Susie, not her real name ) who flew a Piper Cub in a comedy act. In her performance she was supposed to be a woman who did not know how to fly but was going to fly anyway. She would take off and fly in a haphazard manner while a car chased after her down the runway trying to get her to land. In her flying act she would turn around and fly back over the runway toward to car that was chasing her.

A the end of the FAA briefing as she was leaving the room Susie stopped at the door and turned to the group and said, " Oh, by the way, I forgot my glasses today and I can't see a thing without them". Knowing her comedy flying act her words were funny but later on she had cause to wish she hadn't said those words.

It was time for Susie to perform. The announcer asked for a volunteer to drive the chase car because her usual driver couldn't be there that day. A man from the audience volunteered and got into the car along with a man with a camera . Susie the Ace, ran to her airplane, got in and started the engine.

She taxied out and took off flying kind of wobbly as was part of the act . The chase car tore down the runway , the driver waving frantically at the pilot to land. The pilot turned the ariplane and flew back toward the car at a very low altitude...too low, in fact because her right wheel hit the car. The wheel was torn off the airplane and went flying through the air.

Susie the Ace, was able to make a one wheel landing on the grass alongside the runway with little more damage to the plane than had already been done. She was not injured but was heard to say that she needed a drink. The two fellows in the chase car were not injured but were very shaken up. I often wondered if in retrospect the pilot ever wished she had not said that she couldn't see a thing without her glasses .

Till next time.
Marion Springer

A Pigeon named Hop-Along

The pigeon called Hop-Along is a survivor. About six years ago something attacked her and left her barely alive with numerous injuries including a broken wing that was hanging on by a thread of skin.
She made her way into our yard and let my son pick her up then he brought her to me.

I couldn't afford to take her to a vet but wanted to help her if possible...so,we cleaned her up as best we could and then clipped the thread of skin which was holding her wing on. The wing was broken up near the shoulder with only about an inch of bone left in place. One of her injuries was a quarter sized hole in her crop where we could see the seeds she had eaten. When she drank drink water it would run out of the hole in the crop. That she survived is amazing but survive she did. I think her will to live was strong.

In time her injuries healed but with only one wing she would never fly again. That meant she would have to be cared for for the rest of her life . Since she was ground bound a friend suggested the name Hop-Along. It fit. She responds when someone calls her name.

I tried putting her in the outside pigeon house but with only one wing she was not accepted by the other birds so she lives in a cage in my home and she is a character !

Thinking she needed company in her cage I tried putting different pigeons in with her but she rejected every one and wouldn't accept a room mate. She does like the mirror in her cage and she enjoys looking at the pigeon in the mirror looking back at her. She enjoys toys and has several kinds of bird type toys hanging from her cage. What she enjoys most are bells and the bigger and noisier the bell the better.

Let a conversation be going on in the room and she starts ringing those bells and really gets them jangling. When Linda comes into the room Hop-Along always greets her by ringing the bells.

Her next favorite toy is five plastic rings about two inches in diameter joined together like a chain. She tugs on the rings and twists them around and finally one morning I saw her standing there with the rings suspended from her neck ( see the picture at top of page ). She had managed to pull the rings loose from the fastener that held them attached to the cage. The rings fell with one ring slipping over her head. She looked like she was posing with a necklace . I had to take a picture . I'm sure it wasn't her proudest moment but it was kind of cute anyway.
Till next time.
Marion Springer

My Helms Bakery truck , AKA,My Hippy Van

My Doberman Buddy, is probably wondering what the heck is that thing?

I fell in love with the Helms bread truck when a gyro pilot friend showed me a picture of it many years ago. "How much will you take for it ?" , I asked. We came to an agreement and the bread truck was mine. I call it my Hippy Van because it is about the size and shape of a Volkswagen bus which was popular with the hippies in the 60's .

I rationalized needing it because we could use it when we traveled to fly-ins and air shows. It was an attention getter and it had room inside to carry all the items we took to display and it could also tow a gyro. Really, I just wanted the vehicle , plain and simple. My rationalizing didn't fool Docko...he knew I wanted the odd looking vehicle .

I intended to clean it up, paint it , etc. As happens sometimes, life got in the way and my hippy van ended up being stored outside for years in Northern California where it seems to rain all the time.

Finally it is home with me here in the desert . To say it looks sad is an understatement but I am up to the challenge of making it all pretty again. I don't plan to make it roadworthy because it's job from here on is to be a fancy gazebo sitting in the loop of our driveway. It's days on the road are done.

It is pretty rusty and some places the rust has eaten through the metal . I think with some rust inhibitor, bondo, or fierglass mat ( the mat chopped into fibers and mixed with resin to make a paste ) and a little paint I can get it looking OK again. I don't plan to replace any rusted out metal but fiberglass ,bondo and paint, I can handle.

It has a bellows for a horn...the horn is not working now but maybe eventually it will be. The engine instruments are very few. The ignition key is a toggle switch. It has a gas pedal, and a clutch/brake pedal. Push on the clutch/brake pedal a little and it acts as a clutch. Push a little more and it becomes a brake. The seat is shaped like an old fashioned bicycle seat and is mounted on a pedestal type arrangement. The seat can be pushed forward getting it out of the way allowing the driver to stand and drive.

It's roomy inside . Plenty of space to make a nice seating area and lots of big windows to view the scenery through. I think it will make a good get-a-way place to get away from cats, dogs, and birds for a little time out to myself when needed.

Till next time.

Marion Springer

My broken toe

It was just a couple of days before the gyro fly-in, and I was looking forward to flying with other gyro pilots during the annual event . I was out with my two Dobermans and they were running about like the young dogs they are. I, of course was wearing what I call my desert sandals, also known as very worn out tennis shoes which are so comfortable . Comfortable they may be with holes all over them but they are absolutely no protection at all for little toes, as I learned the hard way. My Dobbie, Connie ,ran past me in an all out run and she clipped the little toe on my right foot as she sailed past me.

Oh, the pain, the pain ! I looked down and four of the toes on my right foot were still pointed in the right direction but the little toe was pointed 90 degrees to the other four. What a strange sight ! My first thought was, " OH NO! I won't be able to fly". I suspected the toe was broken and thought that the doctor would put a cast on my foot or at least put a splint on the damaged toe thereby making it impossible for me to operate the rudder pedals on the gyro. Linda said, " I will take you to the doctor", but visions of a cast on the foot was going through my mind so I refused to go see the doc.

I pulled the little toe back into place and used tape to hold it in place against my foot . Thus bandaged, I attended the fly-in limping badly but getting about and I did fly.

So, Monday after the fly-in we decided that it was time to see the doctor about the little toe. Yes, he said , X-Rays show it is broken. He didn't put a cast or even a splint on it. The toe is taped to it's neighbor and I'm wearing a shoe for broken toes.

When Linda was giving me the old , 'you need to see the doctor routine ', like I do to her at times when she has a hurt I reminded her that Chuck Yeager was flying with broken ribs when he broke the sound barrier. He hid the fact that his ribs were broken lest he be grounded. I felt like I was in good company when I flew with the little toe broken.

Till next time.
Marion Springer

Ed Nielesky, a gyro pioneer

We had a gyro fly-in last weekend on the El Mirage dry lake bed. It's an annual affair and is always on the last weekend of September . Gyro pilots and enthusiasts come from near and far to fly, do a little hangar flying ( that means talking about flying ) and to visit with friends old and new.

One of my old friends, Ed Nielesky, in the photo above ,was there. Ed isn't flying anymore but over the years he has done his share of flying . His son Joe, says of his dad that when Joe was a kid one morning he and his dad left the airport before daylight in an airplane and flew all day. They arrived back at the home field after dark and Joe said his dad said," lets fly some more ". That sounds like Ed all right.

Ed started flying gyrocopters in the early days of the Bensen gyro, back when we had to teach ourselves to fly because there were no two place powered gyro trainers or flight instructors. Ed flew a Bensen gyrocopter with a McCulloch engine for many years.

Th Tee-shirt in the photo has a picture of two gyros flying. The pilot of the gyro in the foreground is Ed back when he was young. The gyro in the background is flown by the late Ken Brock , another gyro pioneer, . The photo was taken by Dr. Igor Bensen, designer of the Bensen Gyrocopter . The Tee-shirts were sold in department stores in the late sixties and early seventies.

The shirt shown here is one of mine that I wore when I was young and slender back in the early 70's. I displayed it at the fly-in as a tribute to my old gyro friend , Ed Nielesky.

I thought you might like to see a bit of history in the gyro world.

Till next time.

Marion Springer

Hong, a most unusual person

Hong is Vietnamese. When I met him a few years back , he introduced himself to me then he said, " I am the enemy". The last sentence refered to his nationality. " You are not my enemy", I told him. "You haven't done anything to me and you are not my enemy ".

Hong has a helicopter that he is adapting to be flown by hand controls because he has no legs . Helicopters have rudder pedals which are operated by the pilots feet, but in Hongs case he is making the rudders controlable by hand. He is doing the work on the helicopter by himself which is just amazing considering that he is wheelchair bound.
The helicopter stands fairly tall. I saw some screws in a cowling up high on the side of the helicopter that were only half way in and waiting to be secured . "How in the world will you reach those screws ?", I asked him. He pointed to the sturdy table alongside the helicopter and said that he would get up on the table so he could reach the screws.

I understand that a person who requires hand controls to fly a helicopter not only has to modify the machine but he has to teach himself to fly it.
I had stopped by to visit with him and to ask him how the work was progressing and he said the progress was good for he had lifted the helicopter off the ground several times the previous morning.
Hong has taken on a tremendous job and is succeeding very well with his project. My hat is off to him .

Till next time.
Marion Springer