Fly Army
09-11-2007, 07:16 PM
Twenty one years ago I bought an Air Command gyro from a guy named Dennis Fetters up in Liberty Missouri with some money my Grandfather left me in his will. While waiting around for the kit (Dennis had some real problems with suppliers back them) I learned to fly our chapter's side by side Bensen towed behind a station wagon in a field near the Lexington airport. My instructor was a meat cutter named Don (certification was not a big deal back then).
By the time I finally got the engine (I paid the "big" money for the upgrade to the 503) it was just about time for me to leave for Initial Entry Rotary Wing Flight School in good old Ft. Rucker Alabama (Mother Rucker). Needless to say I never got to fly that Air command. When I described Gyros to my IP's they got white as a sheet and advised I take up a safer hobby like riding motorcycles or skydiving. Besides when you're flying AH-1S Cobras around on someone else's nickel a gyro seems a bit unnecessary. I ended up selling the gyro because my new wife needed a car and the gyro was sitting in a shed back up in Missouri. I sold it to a chiropractor and never heard from him again.
Anyway things have come full circle now I'm flying a big airplane around the world and I find myself looking at gyros again. I'll need you guys to get me caught up on twenty years of being away from it all and look forward learning whats new.
By the time I finally got the engine (I paid the "big" money for the upgrade to the 503) it was just about time for me to leave for Initial Entry Rotary Wing Flight School in good old Ft. Rucker Alabama (Mother Rucker). Needless to say I never got to fly that Air command. When I described Gyros to my IP's they got white as a sheet and advised I take up a safer hobby like riding motorcycles or skydiving. Besides when you're flying AH-1S Cobras around on someone else's nickel a gyro seems a bit unnecessary. I ended up selling the gyro because my new wife needed a car and the gyro was sitting in a shed back up in Missouri. I sold it to a chiropractor and never heard from him again.
Anyway things have come full circle now I'm flying a big airplane around the world and I find myself looking at gyros again. I'll need you guys to get me caught up on twenty years of being away from it all and look forward learning whats new.