Hello From Mark Hallett

[halburn]

Hello all. I am very glad to have found this wounderfull site to interact with fans of rotating wings.

I live just north of Columbus Ohio in the town of Powell. I am a corporate pilot currently flying a GulfStream IV based in Toronto. Yes.....I commute:(
The company has provided a Baron 58 to do the job however. So its not too bad.

I became interested in gyrocopters when I was 8 yrs old when my father built his Benson. It had a 90hp Mac of course. Very typical at the time. I grew up attending most of the gyro meets locally in NJ and we traveled every year to Rockford Ill and Oshkosh until I left for the Airforce in '82. Those were great days. I got to know some of the greatest folks on earth. If anyone recalls Dr. Benson's gyro getting inexplicably cleaned and polished at the Rockford meets each year......that would have been myself and Steve Menzie. I hope Steve doesn't mind me mentioning that:)

In '84 I bought Frank Miessa's gryo from the LA area. If you may remember, Frank built the enclosure that Dr. Benson used for a number of years on his red machine. I flew that machine nearly everyday in Alamogordo NM. Rebuilt it a few times. and sold it in '97. I regret that now. I just didn't have time to spend with it any longer. I had moved to Dallas and hangared it at Cado Mills. Got to know the R&D and AirCommand folks pretty well.

In '88 Bill Parsons put me in touch with a guy in Santa Fe NM in that was building a new design and needed a pilot. So I had the pleasure to get involved with David Gittens and his artistic machines that flew quite well. The photo icon I have posted is a picture of one of the machines that hangs in the Hazy Center Dullas airport as part of the Smithsonian.

Well. That about sums it up. Pls feel free to contact me anytime and talk flying. Thanks for reading.
Mark Hallett
Halburn@aol.com

[Timchick]

Welcome to the forum Mark. It sounds like you'll be bringing some experience along with some history to the forum. Do you plan on getting another gyro?

[Friendly]

Welcome Mark,
If you flew some of Davids machines I would like to hear about that. I think I have a PRA mag with some pictures of his machines. I hope I am talking about the right guy.

[halburn]

Thank you Tim and Mark,
I have just picked up a gyro from a friend of mine that was recked many years ago. I hope to build a new frame. I have new Benson Blades made in '92. Brock tank and controls. And a Mac 72. I have talked to Rick about getting it up and running with his Ignition system and such. Just need some time. Oh well.

And yes....I'm the guy that flew David Gittens machines. Don't leave yet! Story to come:) It was not an easy descision to fly them. When I first saw them I thought the same thing you guys thought I'm sure. But I was fasinated with the differences of concept. Of course, anything will fly when hung from a set of blades. The question is how far and under what kind of control? I found that they were perfect right off the drawing board. I made NO changes to his design at all. Perfectly balanced! The first one is in the Smithsonian. The next one was born of changes I suggested for a production machine. It is the one that has a clear tail. They do not fly anything like a typical Benson or other pusher type machine. There are engine torque and propeler factors that are much greater because they are so much father away from the vertical cg of the aircraft. All the engine forces have a much greater moment and much more influence on the flight characteristics. Other than that......I'm still alive:) I'll look for some links to Davids stuff. I think you can google the Ikenga name and get some info. Or feel free to write and I will try to answer any questions, but you probably know the answers already regarding flight of the machines. No surprise's there.
Thanks for the wounderful greating guys.
mark Halllett

[ben]

howdy mark

[Rotor-Head]

Another Rotor Head.. yeah hooo.

[Brent_Brown]

Mark The Claims of a 100+ mph speeds. Is that fact or wishful?

[scottessex]

Cool! welcome, I have always liked the way David Gittens was thinking "outside the box" on his gyro designs, very cool indeed.
http://delta.wtr.ru/files/Ikenga%20Gyro.pdf

http://dwij.org/dwij/a_ikenga.html


.

[Chuck Roberg]

Mark, welcome. I would be very interested in hearing more about your early gyro flying days.

[Rehan K.Janjua]

Hello Mark.

Welcome to the forum.
Nice to have you with us. Would love to hear about your early flying days.
I started flying in the early 80s, from Lampook Calif. Roger Roracks and Roger A. Wood, were my instructors, on a Air Command 503 SxS.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Rehan Janjua
Air Command. Pakistan

[halburn]

Thank you all again for the warm welcome. I would like to share my early flying days with you and I will. I look forward to hear and read all your great stories too. I'm off to work for a few days (I only hope it doesn't turn into weeks). I will get back online soon and try to keep it brief. I am hopeing with all hope not to bore anyone. Flying gyro's have always been my greatest joy. I love those flying machines more than anything else in the world. Nothing is like it. Sailplane soaring is close, very close. Simply because of the pure basics and skill to ride the wind. I wish I had more of the skill part. I could stay up longer. LOL

Love the sound of that MAC though:)

[halburn]

Brent, I never did get the thing very fast. Most of the time I had to fly the machines was in Santa Fe NM. Density altitudes were very high. If I can remember that far back Density Alt's were in the 9000+ range. Most I saw was maybe 70kts. That would have been in a decent:) LOL It did fly though and I felt I had ample opportunity to find out how well it flew at the slower speeds. I do remember flying it at Middletown OH in '88. That was the first time I flew it at near sea level. It scared me it had so much more power. I didn't need 6000' of runway just to get the blades spun up. No prerotator:( UHGGGG! Murder hand spinning though Michuchin's I can tell you. I would nearly black out from exhaustion. LOL
In short....I never really opened it up at sea level to test the top end. That was not on my mind really. I do remember it felt good around 70 or so. No negative aerodynamics from the enclosure. I would have liked to play with rapid power reductions at those higher speeds though. Just to see how much effect the enclosure had without power straightening everything out. I do know it needed more moment on the rudder at slow speeds with no power. It had a tendency to rotate to the left at idle and zero speed. Maybe just engine torque caused it. Not sure. It allways flew right out of it once you lowered the nose though:) Thank God! LOL
Merry Christmas and God Bless Everyone:)
mark