Tim B wants to tell ya'll about my skeletons

[jamiebodie]

As a PRA member and as a PRA BOD member I have served the body of the PRA to the best of my ability and have fought to uphold the by-laws and keep the membership as informed as possible. Tim Blackwell says he has found skeletons in my closet and I would love to make those available for all to see as well as be able to insert the truth into the matter. So Tim fire away, I await your post with much anticipation.

Jamie Bodie

Lifetime Member PRA

[Chuck Roberg]

I hope Tim sends it to you in a private email. I'm getting tired of reading this stuff here.

[GyroRon]

Too late... Tim says Jamie tried to sue the PRA after his accident. That must be the skeleton

[Heron]

:eek: He did what???
:confused: I can not believe it!!!
Heron

[GyroRon]

I am not sure I believe it either. If he did, how in the world did he later get voted onto the BOD? It doesn't add up.

[barnstorm2]

I'm with you Chuck.

[gyroblackwell]

I personally hope this thread dies a quick death!

[jamiebodie]

You brought up the skeletons with absolutely no facts to back up your statements. I would hope that it would die a quick death also if I had done the same.


After my accident we looked into the possiblility of an insurance policy that would help with the medical bills and considered the options that were before us. There were none, had we managed to crash on airport property I think we woud have been covered. We never tried to file a suit against anyone. There was pressure applied to us by some of the people that we owed money to that we should file a suit. There was also great suggestions by many that we should claim bankruptcy. We did neither. My accident was 6 years ago and no fault of my own and I still pay medical bills everymonth, my credit suffered from my lack of work and it costs me more to buy a house than it does for most people. You know what, I don't care, I am alive, I have a great family and I am proud of what I have accomplished since my accident. You guys spouting off about my accident don't know dick about what it is like to be in a hospital bed for 2 months without ever getting out of it. You don't know dick about how quickly the bills add up and how long it takes to pay them off. You don't know dick about the suffering that I went through to get my body back to a state that is somewhat normal. Pretty much you just don't know ...... well you know. You know what else you don't know, what it feels like to get back in a gyro and fly it after spending 2 months in the hospital. You don't know what it feels like to get cards from family and friends everyday, Trinity Oxnam personally kept my spirits up by sending a card everyday. God bless Trinity. You don't know what it is like to have something horrible happen in your life and turn your entire life around for the better. You know you just don't know and I was always taught you should not talk about things you don't know about.

Now let me say this, if I could have sued Si to help cover my medical bills, if he had insurance that would have covered this accident I would have done so in a heart beat. Filing suit against the PRA or Ernie were never considered by us.

BTW, how many of you have the integrity to pay off your bills and not file bankruptcy when faced with hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of medical bills?

[Heron]

Hey Jamie!
You are still my Mentor!
I hope you can have total healing, specially inner peace and God bless you and your family!
You are a warrior.
Heron

[Harry_S.]

Hang in there Jamie. The truth will out!!! ;)



Cheers. :)

[Rotornut]

Trinity wants you to know that he will always be there. Also I am typing for him as he is seeing thru tears. That was a Horrible Accident that should not of Happened, But Did.

Jamie, Liz, and All Family lets embrace and be Thankful, as Jamie and Liz are.

So many gyro nuts have come and gone and we need to band together.
Gosh I Miss them All. Jamie and Si are here. They are PRA Members just as all the rest of us (well most).

PRA needs some Positive Thinking. We Are PRA!

This will be my last post for awhile as I am Depressed and now the Family is emotional.

Jamie, Trinity says he sure hopes we go to ROC, cause he really wants to visit with you and Liz, and of course the Boys, and Girls.

Take Care and hope to see you in OCT. MJ

Batten down the hatches here comes Frances!!!

[jamiebodie]

MJ, we will be at ROC and hope to see you, Fish, Trinity and any other significant others that may be hanging around your parts these days.

Jamie

[j4flyer]

It matters not if Jamie did or didn't attempt to sue PRA. It appears to me that the reason everyone is arguing is because we all see the decline of the sport we love and naturally try and place blame for the situation. -My opinion only. The real question is how do we elevate the membership. I'm not sure but, I have a couple of observations. The PRA appears to be fractionalized into groups, westcoast, central and east coast flyers. In most cases we recoginize the world wide members but, they are in most, a source for articles more than a force. I believe the reasons for the decline in gyros are many. For me, the end fighting between manufacturers, bad mouthing of members, lack of insurance and last but not least the rising cost of gyros themselves. This last reason might be the biggest.
If one looks back on the organization the reason for gyros to be attractive was the lower cost to get into one vs a plane or fix wing ultralight. In todays market the gyro is at least as expensive as the fix wing ultralight but, it is not thought of as equal ie; no insurance or acceptance by the larger group of the pilot population. I believe the Gyro bee is a good example of this point. The bee is becoming very popular because it is a lost cost entry to flying. Perhaps we need to revisit supporting these efforts by guys to get them in so they can be a part of the community. Secondly we need to evaluate what the cost to the organization is everytime we go out of the way to end the bussiness of a gyro builder. If safety is a concern-fine but, if safety is the only issue we should all be building only tractor style gyros.
The national should take a lesson from the Texas group. They held the best fly-in many of us have attended. Why?, they we inclusive, non judgementive and relayed the old Ken Brock attitude of Welcome!! There will always be something that can be made better and safer, just look at Larry's new landing gear. We need to solicit new ideas and try things before we judge them/ good or bad. -my two cents

[Dean_Dolph]

Hey, Bob, I glad you said it was just your two cents, no reason to waste a lot of money! Now my two cents, no make that three, I'm the big spender tonight.

Yes, the Texas Convention was good, but my three cents says it was far from the best. And I say that even though it was the most convenient one for me to attend since Waxahacie was only a little over four hours from me.

My vote goes for the ones held in Middletown, OH. And that is only because of the large attendance and the fact I got my first gyro ride there. The first two at Mentone were the equal of Middletown but since then the attendance has started to drop and consequently there isn't the energy in the air, so to speak, as the others.

The one problem with the Texas Convention is that, for the first time, the Convention lost money to the tune of $6000. The way I understand it, but can't confirm because it seems no one wants to talk about it, is that since then the Texas people have disassociated themselves from the PRA. I certainly hope I have my facts wrong and they are still part of the organization because there is a lot of innovation and energy there.

When it comes to bad mouthing, the rotorcraft community doesn't have a monopoly. It goes with the territory. My view is that open criticism has value and provides energy as long as it doesn't get personal and the attempt is constructive as opposed to destructive. Yeah, people take things personally once in awhile and most of the time that is because the Internet is a poor place to conduct in depth discussion about sensitive subjects. But in the end just about everyone shakes hands (keyboards!) and moves on.

One of the reasons that people try to place blame is that they can't think of any other way to call attention to something they are uncomfortable with. I'll admit that some of this bothers me, especially when problems are highlighted without corresponding possible solutions. But it is an indication that people care what happens. But they are also frustrated. This is nothing new but before the Internet and the means to instantly communicate, the only time you heard the bad mouthing and frustrations were at chapter meetings and the Convention. There wasn't any international forum. Now that there is, we all have an equal opportunity to be an ass!

I'm not sure whom you are talking about when you say that there have been efforts to put people out of business. It is no secret that people on this Forum don't let unsafe or poor performance go unnoticed. If that causes problems for a poorly run business then the business needs to make corrections to its operations or product. Consider this Forum the Consumer Reports of the rotorcraft of community!

If you look reaaalllly close you will find that the Bee's cost isn't the only reason it is becoming more (it always was!) popular. It just happens to be a very solid performer with a good safety record. The fact that it can be a legal ultralight also appeals to a lot of people. Oh yeah, the Bee people are already a visible part of the gyro community and the PRA so I don't think they are waiting for an invitation or that they feel excluded.

You mentioned 'fractionalized into groups' and may be you can tell me why the West coast and in particular California, has very few people participating here. Thankfully one West coast guy stepped up and created this Forum when Norm's conference disappeared. And why didn't the West coast support a guy from out there that a lot of us thought would make a good board candidate last year? If the West coast feels left out then it is because they are not making an effort to participate. You guys have made yourself invisible. That doesn't include Ken J. It is too late for him to become invisible!

You guys have a lot of innovators and old timers that could add value here and to the PRA but if there is an effort to help the PRA it isn't noticeable. I'm certainly not forgetting the valuable efforts by Dan Donley and Scott Hegar's California contributions or Washington's John Landry's valuable help to the Bee folks but we need more from out there.

There are efforts to elevate the organization and increase PRA membership. You can see that in other forums. Also, I don't know how much, but there is some non-visible work going on and emails being exchanged to improve the situation. Hopefully there will be a positive result. It will take time. Grab some of your buddys and participate in the effort.

Oh yeah, the sport is not in decline, it is just taking one of its breathers, just as it has occasionally the past 35+ years I've been a member of the PRA.

I'm not sure but I think the time it took me to compose this let inflation make my three cents worth the equal of a nickel.

[Heron]

WE are getting at the end or the rope and no answer to my proposal of 3 years ago.
Does the PRA suck?
I am tired of listening to one side of the storie, the other side has nothing to say.
If the best you can come up with is the old north agains south theory, than I go back to the books and revisit the Secession War. Beautyful but terrible time of this Great Nation.
Be silly as much as you want . . .do nothing . . .explain why it can be done . . .say it is ok . . .at the end you must realize we are talking about the number one association in the World, in the number one country in the World, this is the Olimpics and I dont see no records been set or broken.
Just the same old . . .and it smell moth balls.
Get you skeletons out and get rid of them . . .lets have an Association, with leaders, purpose and progress, money is available just need to be racked!
Heron (utopic before Frances)

[donshoebridge]

Dean,

Middletown?!?! Oh yeah, when the convention use to draw in 140+ aircraft a year. This same airport had GA's and jet traffic at the same time. I wonder how the congestion was there?

Oops, sorry all. Wrong thread. :D

[Dean_Dolph]

Don, this thread got hijacked and I let myself get sucked in!

I don't recall what the congestion, if any, was at Middletown because I was there as an observer and to get a ride. However I don't recall the rotorcraft being delayed in their activities.

If you are really interested how the mixed traffic was handled then you might contact Ed & Berndine Alderfer since they were the Chapter 40 hosts for the '86 - '88 Conventions.

[Jonvee]

I was there at the second year of Middletown. I admit I was the main cause of this deal. It was hot and muggy and I would go up for about a 15 min flight each time. Of course the less fuel you carry the better the performance. I was up flying laps around the pattern and decided to land. That is when every GA plane around was in the pattern. So I was holding in a tight circle waiting. I saw a hole and turned down wind. Then it got quite. Out of fuel. I put it down in the dry riverbed. No damage. Got a good chewing. But I did love the gathering. Chapter 40 did a great job.

[automan1223]

You know guys.....

Jamie "rant" about suing the pra made me think for 1 second, and I am ashamed of our group, I am ashamed of myself. This man is a total hero if there ever was one.

Let me get this straight. Jamie almost comes face to face with his maker in a horrible way and SURVIVES to talk about it. He teaches us all a lesson none of us would ever want to pay for.

He puts his life back together and does his best to put food on the table despite serious financial hardship. He is a quiet hero in many of our hearts. The PRA does him the favor of making him a BOD. And then easily discards him when he asks questions ?

Did the PRA ever have a fund raiser for his man ?

All I could hear in the past was about how Jamie "got paid" for some work he did. ohhhh........ please.

Everyone is quick to chip in to help rebuild a wrecked machine but when it comes to blood and people the PRA turns its back ? There is no insurance, There is no financial helping hand. Jamies accident is "ancient" history so he is fair game now ?

What a great group of people that can only drag fake skeltons from the sidelines trying to discredit this man. I ask you to find me a similiar situation where the victim, the family would not have sued the pants of of everyone and everything. Please find me just one person who would not have been on the phone with 1800 Lawyer.

I know jamie and his family want to put this well behind him but I hope that we can come together and make this right somehow. I cannot believe that jamie has to come out and defend his honor.

I am actually speachless the more I think about this.

Jonathan
Oriental NC

[Dean_Dolph]

Johnathan, you are way behind on the discussion and way off base. And thats all I got to say about that!

[mcbirdman]

Jonathen-
Very straight and heartfelt. Wow ! A very interesting perspective! Thanks for putting it right out there. I remember reading about this soon after I started reading the old forum. To some - It may be behind in certain aspects of a discussion but it is still a part of everyday life to other people. jtm