I attended two PRA chapter meetings in one day.

[Kevin_Richey]

Saturday, Feb. 11th, I "attended" Chapter 2's webinar at 9 AM west coast time at home through the miracle of the internet, and after the business portion of Chapter Two was concluded, got to hear about Claudius Klimt and his son's tale of flying across the US this past fall in a plane powered by two Rotax 912S engines.

Most interesting. Supposedly, the webinar was recorded so others may view it later by using the Utah chapter's website.

After that, I got ready and then drove over the Columbia river from Oregon into Washington, out to Battle Ground. Grass airstrip called "Buzzard Flats". Not on the sectional. PPCs, trikes, gyros fly out of that nest of hangars.

About 14 miles W/NW back over the Columbia River (but many miles further downstream) to Oregon's Scappoose airport, where Chapter 73 was holding their meeting. The gyro feels like it's sweet spot is flying along in the range of 45-52 mph. In that range, the air doesn't feel so annoying in this open frame machine and is actually quite pleasant. The blast from the wind gets progressively stronger the faster I go above 52 mph.

Lots of flooded lowland areas along the Columbia. Geese way below are circling around, hardly moving their wings, other than to make small corrections, or, as they start to tuck their wings in closer to their bodies to drop down faster.

When their wings begin to beat faster and faster, and the light all around their wings seems to start flickering, I can tell they are landing, which is followed by the large splashes in the water as they fold their wings up to their bodies.

The opposite is when they are taking off. First, the water seems to erupt as they rise up, beating their wings in a steady pattern. Their webbed feet seem to be running across the water as they begin to climb out, the water splashes getting smaller and further apart until there is no more tapping ripples behind them.

The rain and winds from Friday had subsided, and the clouds were trying to let part of some blue sky and sun's rays through. I was amazed by the view from above. Farm fields, country estates (where their garages are much bigger than our home) with long driveways, and also regular subdivisions.

Some children were racing around a small field on four-wheelers. A couple of adults waved their arms at me like crazy, and then pointed down with their arms, indicating they wanted me to land there. I also pointed down to where they were pointed. They bobbed their hands in agreement.

I circled around, lowering the throttle, and descended down a couple hundred feet. I'm sure they thought I was doing what they wanted...

I then throttled up, turned sharply away, gaining altitude as I waved goodby to them, continuing on my way.

Approaching Scappoose airport, there were many airplanes out enjoying the nicer weather. I had to be scanning even more carefully than usual due to the increased activity. Scan a small area, scan the next quadrant over, and then back to the first, doubly checking for low-flying, fast moving airplanes.

There was only one R-22 also in the pattern, a break from the norm. The Hillsboro helicopter school usually includes Scappoose in their student's work area, sometimes having as many as four at a time there, but usually week days only. Fortunately they use the east taxiway and grass area for their operations, while the airplanes utilize the runway, leaving the west taxiway for the gyroplanes, gliders (rarely there), and other ultralight-type airplanes, or trikes or PPCs.

I had to circle around for a few minutes off the NW end of the north end of the west taxiway, until several airplanes cleared it to then take off on the runway. I then dropped in and air-taxied over to the north end, setting down, rolling across the ends of the runway and east taxiway to the meeting location.

It always is a disappointment to land, as the sensations of flight stop. The one good thing is that the memories of the flying stay fresh in my mind for hours later, even overnight into the next day, like a dream still in motion!

We had several new members at the meeting, including three fellows from the Puyallup/Seattle area that are partners in completing a tandem SnoBird gyro that has a Honda Cam 100 engine. Dennis Debois (owner of the "Viewmaster" gyro that he conceived, designed, scratch built, and now flies) mentioned to them that he once owned and flew a single place SnoBird gyro.
They agreed to put their heads together with Dennis to facilitate their project.

Leaving the meeting, one fellow took some photos of me flying around the airport, doing some engine-idle landings, vertical descents, and slow flight low just above that west taxiway. A few of them are attached below.

The flight back to the nest saw a shorter-than-usual freight train heading south along their tracks (which Amtrak also uses), while one of the large automobile freighters (probably Honda's or Toyota's) headed downriver toward the ocean. I was thankful that I wasn't working Saturdays anymore, like those poor souls were below me in that train and on board that ship...

All to shortly, generally east-west Buzzard Flats strip came into view. Staying to the north, and not flying over the homes immediately on the west end, I slipped into a downward curving arc at engine-idle, the grass swooping "UP" to greet me as the machine settles down nicely.

I am past ready to share more gyro flight with others. Maybe this summer, when another couple of local guys will have their gyros ready, besides Dennis taking his Viewmaster out of winter storage to fly in the warmer weather.

1. Slow flight. ASI showing about 20 mph.
2. Engine-idle landing in a gyro. A simulated engine out, at about 40mph.
3. Regular airplane style approach (Shallow descent to touchdown).

As usual, click on the photos to see them larger.

[GyroDoug]

Kevin,

I am excited to hear about you getting to fly you machine. You so generously share your machine with others that it seems like I am always seeing or hearing about someone else on your machine, so it's good to see you getting to enjoy it too. It sounds like you had a full and enjoyable day. Sorry I missed you at the meeting but I had to work on Saturday for a special training our company held and I was the main presenter so there was no way to get out of it. Anyway, Way to go and I hope to see you soon!

[Glenn_K]

Thank you, Kevin.
They say (you know... the people who say things) that the best movie is the movie in your mind. Your description of the flight was wonderful and I have some great visuals in my head from it. But you need to get a GoPro my friend. I, for one, would really like to see that flight in a video.
Way to go!