J3M - Jim Eich's

[okikuma]

What ever happened to Jim Eich's J3M after he had passed away?

[WHY]

Wayne

Do you mean jims personal machine or his design ?

Tony

[okikuma]

Hi Tony,

I'm refering to Eich's Barnett J3M (N1822). I beleive Jim kept it at private strip near El Mirage Dry Lakebed. I saw it up close and took pictures at Ken Brock's airstrip back in 1998 at the annual fly-in when the lakebed was closed because of a rare September rain storm.

As for another gyro, were you refering to Eich's JE-2 tri-gear, tandem, tractor gyro? Now since you mentioned it, what happend to that one? Just curious, were there any plans for the JE-2? I remember seeing some video of the JE-2 flying in the early 1990s on a program called "Beyond 2000."

[WHY]

Hi Wayne

It was Jim's JE-2 that I thought you were asking about, being a very avid fan of the tractor style gyro for many many years I got to talk to Jim at length about his JE-2 and he told me he quite selling the plans for it because it had a design problem, the tail was realitivily small and the rotor was almost exactly midway between the prop line and the rudder line and when you did a full power climb out on take off it was possible to get the gyro in a "P" factor flat spin from which you would not have enough altitude to recover. He had this happen to him and Floyd Brown had this happen to his JE-2 also, both wrecked their machines but escaped with no life threatining injuries. Jim was a great guy and would help you in any way he could from his experiences with the tractor, I sure learned alot from him and he probably saved me a lot of mistakes and grief and maybe a pile up also.

Tony