Where is Joe Souza

[LtPappy]

Does anyone know how to contact Joe Souza of Bandit gyros?? Thanks

[Bob Simmons]

hey old buddy, i heard he passed away. don't quote me --- thats what i had heard about a year ago.:o

[scottessex]

Hey Gregg did you get that gyro back up and flying?

[Vance]

Joe moved on to hot rods and sold his business to a nice fellow in Paso Robles, Ca. I am not sure how much business he is going to do, but he brought cookies to the Freedom Fly In last year.

Thank you, Vance

[Ga6riel]

could this be Joe ?

http://www.jsroadsters.com/

[Vance]

Yes, that is Joe.

Thank you, Vance

[Vance]

Well, I am awake now. Jim Siemer is the man with the cookies that bought Joe’s business. He lives in Templeton, Ca, and flies out of Paso Robles, Ca. He can be found on the web under Rotordyne.

Thank you, Vance

[Bob Simmons]

Man..........., i sure like a dumb ass on this question. i was told by a very reliable person that joe had moved on and not to hot rods. whew!:eek: sorry joe. :o

[Georgi]

Joe Souza is alive and well.He is in hot rod business now. Joe is a mechanical/welding( but not managing) genius. Once,in no time he installed a Subaru engine in BD-5,when somebody said that it was impossible task. Unfortunately, a few years ago he went through “not a very friendly divorce” ,which effectively finished his gyro business.And he sold his Rotordyne business.He and Bob Aspergren
designed and built a great gyro which Bob is flying now from Nut Tree,Ca.
Georgi

[Chuck_Ellsworth]

I flew with Joe a few years ago in Marysville in his two place gyro, I found the gyro to be quite pitch stable in turbulence with that big HS on it.

Joe was a real nice guy and a pleasure to fly with....

Chuck E.

[Harry_S.]

Joe Souza is alive and well.He is in hot rod business now. Joe is a mechanical/welding( but not managing) genius. Once,in no time he installed a Subaru engine in BD-5,when somebody said that it was impossible task. Unfortunately, a few years ago he went through ?not a very friendly divorce? ,which effectively finished his gyro business.And he sold his Rotordyne business.He and Bob Aspergren
designed and built a great gyro which Bob is flying now from Nut Tree,Ca.
Georgi



:confused: What kind of Subaru did he install and did it fly?

I built a BD-5 (not a complete one) and I can't imagine a 200-250 lb. engine not throwing the CG completely out of whack.

As best I can recall, the engine compartment was very small, not much more than 18 by 20 in. square. I believe the French Jet Engine that was installed in the J model, was only 18" long.

I sure would have liked to have seen that installation of the Subaru.:)


Cheers :)

[scottessex]

Harry,
I saw an article in a kit planes magazine, August 2006,

I read that article today in the bathroom, oops that might be too much info!:eek:

[Hognose]

Lots of engines have been used in the BD-5. Most of them have been failures, if Joe did a working Soob that's great. The only real successful piston engine was the Honda, the only successful turbine install was the French Microturbo.

There's an excellent BD-5 site at bd-5.com run by Juan Jimenez of San Juan. Juan has an extensively modified (for example, built-up spar) BD-5J that was originally built in Australia, it's his 3rd BD-5 project. The OZ authorities "just said no" to the Bede tube spar.

Funny thing -- at the Airventure Museum they have several Pitcairn gyros donated by Steve Pitcairn. One thing they have is a cutaway rotor blade, too... son of a gun if it doesn't have a steel tube spar (with wooden ribs and fabric cover). Many early rotorcraft had wooden or wood-and-fabric rotors, but I didn't know about Pitcairn's tube spar before. The lugs that held the landing wires (or whatever they're called in the Pitcairn system) are welded to the spar and come through the cover just like strut- or wire-lugs on the wings of a classic plane. Conventional construction, for its day.

Pitcairn lent all his patents (almost 200 of them?) to the nation for the duration of the war. When the military and its suppliers still treated the information as in the public domain even after the war, he sued... and won. One of the key exhibits in the trial was a beautifully crafted wooden model of a rotor head. It now resides in the Pitcairn hangar at Pioneer Airfield in Oshkosh.

Sikorsky rotor heads owe a lot to Pitcairn... if Igor ever acknowledged that debt, I'm unaware of it (he probably did, because he was quite the gentleman, and I don't know everything!).

cheers

-=K=-

[Georgi]

Our alive and healthy Joe on September 21st. 2006

[automan1223]

Its a small world because I had a man in my shop just the other day who was a lawyer, or who had a good friend who was a lawyer who was involved with that lawsuit.... I never knew that there was an issue over patents... but someone made lots of money over it......the first I am hearing of it from his lips to my ears and now reading it here....

Jonathan




Pitcairn lent all his patents (almost 200 of them?) to the nation for the duration of the war. When the military and its suppliers still treated the information as in the public domain even after the war, he sued... and won. One of the key exhibits in the trial was a beautifully crafted wooden model of a rotor head. It now resides in the Pitcairn hangar at Pioneer Airfield in Oshkosh.

Sikorsky rotor heads owe a lot to Pitcairn... if Igor ever acknowledged that debt, I'm unaware of it (he probably did, because he was quite the gentleman, and I don't know everything!).

cheers

-=K=-[/QUOTE]