What ever happened to------------

[helicopter ed]

There is alot of gyro guys, gals, and friends that are not around any more.
Vanished, lost interest, [how could that happen], or died. Some one some
where, or somehow can fill in the details. Keep the thread going with someone you want to find out about.

I'll Start it off with the best CFI I ever met and worked with. TONY BOLINGER.
Was CFI for Don Farrington at Paducah for years in the mid to late 80's.
He was most sincere and not a big head like 75% of CFI's I observed for many years. He left Pudacah and vanished from PRA ? What a good kind person he was... WE old guys miss you Tony Bolinger. Nice guys that trained hundreds of new gyro pilots do not fall off the earth...

[helicopter ed]

Nobody knows what happened to CFI Tony Bolinger ?

How about Frank Haller ? Designer of the Gyrocar. Had a steering wheel instead of a stick
Pitch was fore and aft, roll/bank was right or left steering. Head cyclic and rudder all linked
to steering wheel. Also he owned Rotorhawk for many years in the 80's, also rotorheads.
His workmanship was a 10.

[GyroDoug]

All before my time so I can'[t help but this is a great idea. There has got to be someone that knows some of these people and what happened to them.

[BUD ONEAL]

We had two Tonys did we not Ed? One went to Irland or England to teach , or some where overseas. That may have been Tony Snow. Just don't remember.

[scandtours]

We had two Tonys did we not Ed? One went to Irland or England to teach , or some where overseas. That may have been Tony Snow. Just don't remember.

BUD,
I have the impression that you are referring to Tony Stones.

[scandtours]

There is alot of gyro guys, gals, and friends that are not around any more.
.

ED,
Give me some time to find the letter from my last correspondence with Tony Bolinger. I had his address and tel no. ( That was a long time ago and maybe it has been changed)

[gyroplanes]

How about Frank Haller ? Designer of the Gyrocar. Had a steering wheel instead of a stick
Pitch was fore and aft, roll/bank was right or left steering. Head cyclic and rudder all linked
to steering wheel. Also he owned Rotorhawk for many years in the 80's, also rotorheads.
His workmanship was a 10.

The Gyracar was "invented" by Bob Barrett. Frank Haller and Ron Mitchell were the owners of the only two I ever saw fly. I think they converted them both to conventional controls.

I just heard from a guy who bought Mitchell's Dominator style gyro. Ron is in Western Illinois.
Bob Barrett is still building gyros of a more conventional nature and is experimenting with tip jets. Bob had an article in the PRA publication not too long ago.

Last I heard, Frank Haller lived in Green Cove Springs, FL. on an airstrip there.

Some help??

[gyroplanes]

It's probably time to make my annual call to Fran Jansen. Fran, and her husband Russ, were both PRA board members. Russ died at El Mirage when he flew into power lines (that lead to Ken Brock's nearly fatal rotor strike to his head)

Fran has an amazing collection of PRA 16mm sound films taken at the PRA conventions for a decade or two.

Anyone keep in regular touch with FRAN that might do a better job than I of persuading her to let us copy the movies???

[helicopter ed]

What ever happened to Doug O'Conner. An airline pilot, Our PRA safety editor, Big time gung ho on gyros. Flew his Snowbird [I believe] up accross verticle U.S.
Started at the gulf in Texas all the way to Canada. Had more balls then me flying a Rotax over the forests and through the hills, [Sorry about that you Rotax owners. But I had 28 Engine failures while training in the early years with the 532's. 28 of my students saw real seat of the pants" hands on landings". some down wind]. Subaru cured those early woes.
What happened to Doug O'Conner, I sure would like to know...

[BUD ONEAL]

Charlie Presnell passed,as did Bill Tarpley,Floyd Brown and a host more that I cannot remember right now.

[gyroplanes]

Hi Bud, Great seeing you and the kids at Bensen Days.

How about: Slim Rosenberg, Smoky Castner, Lloyd Poston, E A VanHouten.
Sunstaters from years gone by. I remember them well.

[BUD ONEAL]

Thanks Tom, Great to see you again and to meet your son.

[Gyro28866]

Hey Ed:
"28 of my students saw real seat of the pants" hands on landings". some down wind]. Subaru cured those early woes... ",
I sure hope you have installed checkvalves on the fuel lines coming from each tank on the tandem. I guess that was a good save, landing downwind in the wheat field.
No Sh$t!

[helicopter ed]

Skip Tyler, Another old timer some one should know. Flew helicopters in VietNam. Improved on the Hollmann Sporster he built. Animal, he had a Helicom/Commuter and Arnie, it flew like a 47. A machinest in upstate NY. In the 80's moved his whole operation down to Don Farrington's, peacefull setting. Don used him in building Air and Space 18 A's. Skip was a ace in everything he did. I believe the huge 36 foot dia. 3 bladed balsa/composit tip weighted blades was his responsibility there to. When Don died, things went to Hades real fast at the Airpark. What happened to Skip Tyler, I sure would like to know...

[MikeBoyette]

Hi Bud, Great seeing you and the kids at Bensen Days.

How about: Slim Rosenberg, Smoky Castner, Lloyd Poston, E A VanHouten.
Sunstaters from years gone by. I remember them well.

Tom,
Slim,Lloyd,and Van all died from cancer. Smokey crashed and died in the 70's from loss of control due to having no jam nuts on his contol rods.

[gyroplanes]

Hi Mike,
Sorry I did't get to talk with you much at the fly-in. I knew those boys were gone, I was just adding them to Bud's list.
How about Bill(?) Tarpley and Sonny Gager? Still with us I hope.

Bud didn't try to correct me when I mentioned his "Kids" at Bensen Days.

[helicopter ed]

What ever happened to Kerry Cartier. He wrote safety column for Rotor craft for years.
Had a Air Command Single place, and was building a Dominator. A prolific writer, wrote a book on the injustices to our American Indians. Wrote assembly manuals for Ernie and Connie's Dominator's. Helped at Air Command years back with his skills.

Not getting much feedback on these good guys from the past. Still have a passel of names to post...

[animal]

Skip Tyler, Another old timer some one should know. Flew helicopters in VietNam. Improved on the Hollmann Sporster he built. Animal, he had a Helicom/Commuter and Arnie, it flew like a 47. What happened to Skip Tyler, I sure would like to know... Ed I have a Crappy DVD I got from Vortech of Skip demoing his Helicom Commuter 2B,nice machine,but the sound on the video is crap and sounds like someone was listening to a holiday radio show or t.v. show in the back ground.

I did like the way Skip Demoed the Commuter 2B in the video.

I to would love to talk to Skip to learn more from him about flying the Commuter 2B.

Ed ( and other on here ) if you have any photos of Skip or any other Helicom's please post them as I collect pics of these Helicopters for my Yahoo group I started on the Helicoms. thanks.

[GyroDoug]

[QUOTE=helicopter ed;419758]What ever happened to Kerry Cartier. He wrote safety column for Rotor craft for years.
QUOTE]

Ed,

Kerry is still alive and kicking. He has had some health issues that have knocked him out of flying and really monopolized most of his time. I have talked to him on the phone and he says he is doing OK and misses being more active with the group.

[MikeBoyette]

Hi Mike,
Sorry I did't get to talk with you much at the fly-in. I knew those boys were gone, I was just adding them to Bud's list.
How about Bill(?) Tarpley and Sonny Gager? Still with us I hope.

Bud didn't try to correct me when I mentioned his "Kids" at Bensen Days.

That's Ok Tom,
Bill Tarpley died of natural causes a few years back.. I didn't know Sonny but have heard Dad mention his name..

[Heron]

I miss been around Kerry, always something to learn and we fancy some wordsmithing . . .
Stay well my friend, you are loved by many!
Heron

[Coraview]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the rumor I heard was that in the mid nineties Tony Stone, the Gyro CFI, went into the Real Estate business and was found shot to death. I had met him once and he was a very pleasant individual. I believe he was Austrailian (by his accent).

Coraview

[helicopter ed]

Not one feed back on Skip Tyler? This is a whole diff. generation. The icons have slipped into oblivion.

HOW ABOUT ROBERT REESE?- of the many diff. owners over the years of Rotordyne, he was probably the best maker of ROTORDYNE BLADES ever. Back in the 80's gyros were booming. He hand built a 8'' X 12' blade. Brought it to Cross City Bensen Days and showed it off, letting anyone fly it. When he left he sold it to me for couple hundred bucks. It will out fly anything before or since. He went on to make hundreds of 8'' chord rotors that stood the test of time. Now 30 years later it is still the best. [Red/white/blue rotor in picture]. Anyone know what happened to Robert?

[BUD ONEAL]

Who knows where Ray Skinner is ? Hav'nt heard of him being around for some years now.

[Timchick]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the rumor I heard was that in the mid nineties Tony Stone, the Gyro CFI, went into the Real Estate business and was found shot to death. I had met him once and he was a very pleasant individual. I believe he was Austrailian (by his accent).

Coraview

I believe that was just a rumor. I think it was Tony's former girlfriend that came to the forum a couple years ago looking for him and found him alive and well.

[MikeBoyette]

Who knows where Ray Skinner is ? Hav'nt heard of him being around for some years now.

I dunno Bud, but I sure do remember his wife destroying his rotorblades with a hammer.

[buckwill]

what happened to ?john? bond, i believe he build a welded tube trus aircraft engine gyro, borrowed a benson, bensen? sorry stroke guys forget how to speel stuff, he cud make that benson ? KB dance like a ballerina, met him in mebbe 82 at el mirage, i have pic of amphib gyro talked about in another post, can i send by email to someone to post? thanks buck

[M._Springer]

around '89 or '90 I believe. He called after we moved to El Mirage. He was living in Florida and was operating ( maybe owned , I'm not sure) a camp ground.
He wasn't flying at the time.
When he came to our Chapter 5 meetings in Tracy he was flying a Revmaster VW engine on his original gyro.
Marion

[buckwill]

thanks marion, i was so happy to see u agaain at el mirage this year, my name is marion also, but unlike you, i imagine, i had to fight for my name,usually about oncee a twicec a week, i think that flyin was in mebbe 82 wen i met john, his flying was impressive, i shud do so well, thanks buck