Racer
Senior Member
- Joined
- Oct 9, 2006
- Messages
- 1,594
- Location
- Colorado Springs, Colorado USA
- Aircraft
- Air Command CLT N7512X
I will not get into the drama of what I had to go through leading up to the trip but I will only say that when I arrived at Mentone I still had work to do on my gyro before it was ready to fly.
Mentone was scheduled on the same weekend as my favorite race of the year, The Lands End Auto Hill Climb so I had a huge decision to make. If I chose Mentone it would mean missing the race and basically throwing my racing season away as far as the year end points go and this is a huge deal for me because I was in a position to win the championship again this year.
Final decision.... I chose to miss my first race in over 10 years to go to Mentone.
The trip was really long (22 hours of driving) and I was so relieved to finally arrive late Tuesday afternoon. I saw more gyro's there than I have ever seen in my whole life all in one place, I was in true gyro heaven.
Early Wednesday morning I went to the pilots meeting and after the meeting adjourned I went to get my "pass to fly" with my log book, student license in hand and a note from my CFI saying that he felt I was competent to fly at Mentone.
As I soon found out even though I thought I had everything I needed to fly I was not given my pass. They had to verify that my CFI was current first to make sure that everything was on the up and up. They talked to my CFI on the telephone to verify he did in fact write the letter of endorsement and it was not something that I just whipped up on my own.
OK so now I can fly now rite? I mean after all everybody on here kinda knows me and knows I can fly, I have posted many flying photo's here on the forum and even have you tube video's of me flying. My hanger mate was with me and verified my abilities and told them that we have flown together often so after all that I should be good rite?
Nope, They wanted to make sure my gyro was in good order and safe to fly before I could fly it.
Ron Awad took my gyro up and proved it safe and air worthy.
Now that my letter has been verified and my machine has been proven safe, I have witnesses that have flown with me before I should get the green light rite? Nope, now they required that I fly with a CFI that was in attendance and get his endorsement that I would be competent and safe so I took two hours of training with a CFI that was actually at the event and got his endorsement as well.
Finally I have jumped through every hoop thrown my way and am excited to get my pass. Not yet, now they required me to fly by myself with no other gyro's around to make sure I could fly MY gyro since my training with the CFI was in a Sparrow hawk so I flew the pattern and demonstrated that I was in fact competent to fly my machine and finally on Friday evening I finally got my pass to fly at the event.
I have seen on other threads people who were sitting at home and not even at the event bashing the PRA for being lax on who they let fly and let me tell you from personal experience that is absolutely positively not the case at all, not even close. They went to the extreme to make sure that I would be safe for the other pilots, the spectators and myself as well.
Even though I was so frustrated that after driving there from Colorado I was not allowed to fly for two days that I was seeing red I take my hat off to them for standing their ground and making triple sure that I would be a safe participant before they would give me the OK to fly.
In the end I appreciate the way the PRA went about it.
I must say that I have never been in such a large group where everybody was so friendly. I did not meet a single sole there that I did not enjoy meeting and talking to, this is the greatest bunch of people that I have ever met in my life.
The highlight at the event was at the awards banquet when I was presented the "Best Innovation" award for making the Yamaha Snowmobile engine a viable and practical engine package option for our sport. I am very honored to have received this award and it means more to me than words can say. This award will hang on my wall with very much pride for the rest of my life.
And to Top off the event Sunday morning before we packed up to go home I was invited to fly cross country with Joe and Mark in there Carlinators for breakfast and enjoyed every moment of it.
I would like to thank everyone that I met and I enjoyed talking to each and everyone of you. I was happy to put faces to names and I have made many more life long friends and gained memories that I will never forget.
Excellent event in every way,
Todd AKA "Racer"
Mentone was scheduled on the same weekend as my favorite race of the year, The Lands End Auto Hill Climb so I had a huge decision to make. If I chose Mentone it would mean missing the race and basically throwing my racing season away as far as the year end points go and this is a huge deal for me because I was in a position to win the championship again this year.
Final decision.... I chose to miss my first race in over 10 years to go to Mentone.
The trip was really long (22 hours of driving) and I was so relieved to finally arrive late Tuesday afternoon. I saw more gyro's there than I have ever seen in my whole life all in one place, I was in true gyro heaven.
Early Wednesday morning I went to the pilots meeting and after the meeting adjourned I went to get my "pass to fly" with my log book, student license in hand and a note from my CFI saying that he felt I was competent to fly at Mentone.
As I soon found out even though I thought I had everything I needed to fly I was not given my pass. They had to verify that my CFI was current first to make sure that everything was on the up and up. They talked to my CFI on the telephone to verify he did in fact write the letter of endorsement and it was not something that I just whipped up on my own.
OK so now I can fly now rite? I mean after all everybody on here kinda knows me and knows I can fly, I have posted many flying photo's here on the forum and even have you tube video's of me flying. My hanger mate was with me and verified my abilities and told them that we have flown together often so after all that I should be good rite?
Nope, They wanted to make sure my gyro was in good order and safe to fly before I could fly it.
Ron Awad took my gyro up and proved it safe and air worthy.
Now that my letter has been verified and my machine has been proven safe, I have witnesses that have flown with me before I should get the green light rite? Nope, now they required that I fly with a CFI that was in attendance and get his endorsement that I would be competent and safe so I took two hours of training with a CFI that was actually at the event and got his endorsement as well.
Finally I have jumped through every hoop thrown my way and am excited to get my pass. Not yet, now they required me to fly by myself with no other gyro's around to make sure I could fly MY gyro since my training with the CFI was in a Sparrow hawk so I flew the pattern and demonstrated that I was in fact competent to fly my machine and finally on Friday evening I finally got my pass to fly at the event.
I have seen on other threads people who were sitting at home and not even at the event bashing the PRA for being lax on who they let fly and let me tell you from personal experience that is absolutely positively not the case at all, not even close. They went to the extreme to make sure that I would be safe for the other pilots, the spectators and myself as well.
Even though I was so frustrated that after driving there from Colorado I was not allowed to fly for two days that I was seeing red I take my hat off to them for standing their ground and making triple sure that I would be a safe participant before they would give me the OK to fly.
In the end I appreciate the way the PRA went about it.
I must say that I have never been in such a large group where everybody was so friendly. I did not meet a single sole there that I did not enjoy meeting and talking to, this is the greatest bunch of people that I have ever met in my life.
The highlight at the event was at the awards banquet when I was presented the "Best Innovation" award for making the Yamaha Snowmobile engine a viable and practical engine package option for our sport. I am very honored to have received this award and it means more to me than words can say. This award will hang on my wall with very much pride for the rest of my life.
And to Top off the event Sunday morning before we packed up to go home I was invited to fly cross country with Joe and Mark in there Carlinators for breakfast and enjoyed every moment of it.
I would like to thank everyone that I met and I enjoyed talking to each and everyone of you. I was happy to put faces to names and I have made many more life long friends and gained memories that I will never forget.
Excellent event in every way,
Todd AKA "Racer"