Mentone 2008 Retrospect

jcarleto

Aluminum Supporter
Joined
Jun 5, 2007
Messages
3,571
Location
Taylorsville, GA
Aircraft
Beech Bonanza G-35 N4638D/"The Bulldozer" 2-Place Gyroplane N575EE
Total Flight Time
Several
Mentone 2008 was my second gyro event (Wrens 2007 was my first), so I am still quite the newbie. Allowing that I was only there for one day and that Thursday is perhaps not the hottest of days activity-wise, it seemed a bit light attendance-wise. I suppose Friday and Saturday were more active and well-attended, and it is clear more events were scheduled. Perhaps gas prices had a bigger impact on the show than one might suspect. I know weather impacted some who planned an earlier appearance and had to postpone.

Light or not, it was still an excellent outing. One of the best things about these events is the ability to put names to faces and get to know some of the people a bit better. I was pleased to meet and talk to many of the "people on my list to look up if they are at Mentone," but missed several folks to which I would like to say, "hello" if the opportunity arises. To all those I met, it was great to meet you...all those I missed...next time!

I guess that leaves more to look forward to for the next one. Wrens, no? When I got back, I did at least get to fly some....Friday, Saturday & Sunday...and again this morning. You might say I got motivated.

*JC*
 
I agree, I'm sorry I missed you. I got there on Friday and it just kept getting better.
 
Sorry I missed you too Jon, I got there late Thursday.
 
Yes, I would have liked to meet both of you 'h-having' JoHns. I did learn a valuable lesson. If you are going to be at an event for 1 day, make it a Saturday. There will be other events!

*JC*
 
Don't want to hijack this tread but it is called Mentone 2008 Retrospect.
What did everyone think of the forum and banquet presentation of John Roncz?
He is a brilliant airfoil designer. Ended up not costing us anything for him to attend because he had some dead time in his schedule. He normally gets paid a lot of money to make presentations but agreed to talk with us anyway. I have to apologize that I don't remember who made the initial contact with him. ( I think it was Mr. Richy)
We didn't give him adequate time to make the very entertaining presentation of the aerodynamics of the dragon. Should we ask him back in the future to make this presentation?
Would appreciate everyones thoughts on this.

Rusty
 
Rusty,

I enjoyed it very much but some of the non-technical people in the crowed did not follow along quite as well.

I think the presentation would be an OUTSTANDING forum but for the banquet I think we should try for a general audience presentation.

IMHO...

I was going to put together a photo slide-show to play during dinner with photos from Angie, Tim (animal), myself and others but I did not have my act together in time...


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Hi Rusty
Udi was taking notes of the presentation, I was very interested and would like to learn more. Others were falling asleep and what surprised me was when I did an audit there were many that were nodding off.

But we just had supper! (Think you guys call it supper, right?)

So I don't know what to really think? I would have him back and Udi too I'll bet.

I would be interested to know what people really think, please don't be shy!

Rusty can't fix it if you don't share your opinion or sugar coat it in any way!!!

PS:
Rusty the rest was as good or better than most I've attended! Thank you to Rusty, the BOD, and all who helped make it such a great show and smooth event.
 
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I loved the entire event.

I even enjoyed being bossed around by the women in the kitchen for a several hours.

The airport looks great!

The presentation was inspirational with a lot of life’s lessons.

The entire banquet experience was first rate.

I learned a lot during the entire event and had a marvelous time.

It was fun meeting new people and renewing friendships.

I would like to thank everyone who volunteered and help make such a magical experience happen.

Thank you, Vance
 
I don't consider the thread hijacked at all. There should always be a "debriefing" thread. Why not this one!

BTW, I missed that presentation, but would have found it fascinating.

*JC*
 
You guys are the best! Sure whatever you want. Way to be JC!!!
 
Don't want to hijack this tread but it is called Mentone 2008 Retrospect.
What did everyone think of the forum and banquet presentation of John Roncz?
He is a brilliant airfoil designer. Ended up not costing us anything for him to attend because he had some dead time in his schedule. He normally gets paid a lot of money to make presentations but agreed to talk with us anyway. I have to apologize that I don't remember who made the initial contact with him. ( I think it was Mr. Richy)
We didn't give him adequate time to make the very entertaining presentation of the aerodynamics of the dragon. Should we ask him back in the future to make this presentation?
Would appreciate everyones thoughts on this.

Rusty


Rusty,

I am gonna come right out and say that the presentation was boring to me. I would imagine that at least half of the crowd was nodding off. Many spouses had blank stares on their faces, I had to go outside to get some air, and I heard sighs of relief when it was over. I appreciate the gentleman coming to speak and donate his time. That is a very kind of him. I am a fly by the seat of your pants kinda guy and leave the technical aspects of flight to the engineers. I would imagine that the presentation of the dragon aerodynamics would have been better suited for all.

That is just my opinion.
 
I loved every minute of John Roncz's presentation.
I thought it was fascinating. Those are the guys who designed the SpaceShipOne.
But I understand I may be in the minority.
I guess I'd better get used to the idea: I must be a nerd!
 
What did everyone think of the forum and banquet presentation of John Roncz?

Now I'm really sorry I missed it. Roncz is a hero of mine. (Many of my heroes are aerodynamicists... is that unusual?)

cheers

-=K=-
 
I will admit It was boring to me, so I walked outside and hung out with the smokers... But I do appreciate the effort to get a interesting guest speaker for us.
 
I was going to put together a photo slide-show to play during dinner

That's a good idea. I've done the same before. I have a Mac application that will let you turn the machine into a kiosk playing the images in any directory... shareware thing called Graphic Converter. It's completely Ranger-proof -- throw your files in a pile, launch GC, hit command-D to start a slideshow, and navigate to the directory the files are piled in. Hit esc to stop when you're done -- that's the whole instruction set for using it like that.

Doing it at the Mentone dinner would be great. Better still, set up one screen or kiosk with this year's photos and one with all the historical photos you can get, back to Dr Bensen days... or even Cierva!

cheers

-=K=-
 
well I was bored with it, I mean yeah he is a great designer, but whats those fixed wings got to do with rotorcraft.

I thought my pics I had taken where going to be shown in a retrospect,I did not even know who he was and told him I had all the photos of the event on my flash drive. boy did feel stupid.

oh well no big deal. the food was good and the rest was fun.
 
Doing it at the Mentone dinner would be great. Better still, set up one screen or kiosk with this year's photos and one with all the historical photos you can get, back to Dr Bensen days... or even Cierva!

cheers

-=K=-


Great minds think alike... I have been collecting old photos and documents.


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