I thought the Dublin, Texas, fly-in was a remarkable success, especially for a first-time event, and it didn’'t just happen by luck. It was obvious that a lot of thought and effort was involved in planning and executing this affair, things like coordinating the fly-in with the town’s local St. Patrick’s Day celebration, a flyover of the downtown parade; a shuttle service to and from town; an all-day food truck and an ice cream vendor at the airport; a schedule of activities so that participants and visitors could look forward to something special any time they were there; hangar space for aircraft overnighting; and provision for the new Swift 94UL, unleaded, ethanol-free fuel, the first airport in Texas to offer it on-site, beginning just a few days before the fly-in. Equally important, maybe more so, was that Brad Stanford, the airport manager, made everyone feel welcome.
In a broader context, four observations from this fly-in suggest that people—both those already into aviation and those who are not—have a growing interest and positive perception of gyroplanes and these observations also indicate that significant changes are occurring within the gyroplane community.
First, although the fly-in wasn't limited to just gyroplanes, most of the aircraft that flew in for this event were gyroplanes. And although there were only about a dozen gyroplanes during the two days, they outnumbered all the other kinds of aircraft there, including the few airplanes and the one helicopter that made a brief visit. Furthermore, it appeared to me that nearly all the people who came to see the aircraft were much more interested in looking at the gyroplanes than the airplanes.
Second, I thought the kind of gyroplanes there was noteworthy. Compared to other fly-ins I've been to that were centered around gyroplanes, the Dublin event may have had a fewer total number of them, but the ones at this fly-in were almost all modern gyroplanes. Aside from one single-place SportCopter, the one single-place Air Command, and a bare Snowbird airframe on exhibit, the other gyroplanes were modern, two-place models, including three MTO Sports, a new 2017 model MTO Sport, two Calidus' (Calidi?), a Cavalon, an American Ranger AR1, and a Trendak Tercel.
Third, the backgrounds of most of the persons who flew their gyroplanes to this event were different from the majority of gyroplane pilots I’ve met at other events. I didn’t talk with every one of the pilots at this event, but I did talk with most of them, and virtually all of the modern gyroplane owners I talked with were already licensed pilots for other, standard category aircraft before they took to gyroplanes. That’s unlike other gyroplane oriented fly-ins I’ve been to and where the pilot/owners there were nearly all first-time sport pilots with no other aviation experience or had transitioned to gyroplanes from ultralights or other light-sport aircraft such as powered parachutes or trikes. For example, one pilot at this event, and with whom I flew, was a retired Delta Airlines Pilot who also had flown Robinsons enough to pick up a helicopter rating, but was now flying his Cavalon exclusively. I also met another pilot who had flown helicopters commercially and was also rated for airplanes, but said he much preferred flying gyroplanes. These are folks who weren’t particularly attracted to gyroplanes because it was a low-cost option, but people experienced in other kinds aircraft and who could afford other choices, but preferred gyroplanes. As another example, a married couple that flew in from Iowa Park, Texas, in their (yes, “their”, not “his”) yellow Calidus were both seasoned airplane pilots, he an engineer who sold his RV-10 when he discovered gyroplanes and she a PhD candidate who hadn’t flown her (yes, “her”) Cessna 140 since last September because she preferred to fly their gyroplane. And it wasn’t only those who came in their gyroplanes that had that degree of past aviation experience. While listening to the people who had come to look at the gyroplanes, I overhead several conversations about the kind of aircraft they had flown, or were now flying, and remarking about how much fun they thought it would be to fly a gyroplane, not just locally but actually to go somewhere, another indication that pilots who fly other kinds of aircraft are accepting gyroplanes as legitimate aircraft rather than the flying lawn chairs they remembered from earlier days. Furthermore—and admittedly this isn’t a conclusive indication—I heard these kinds of comments more often from those gathered around the side-by-side aircraft: the Cavalon and the Tercel. According to my theory, pilots experienced in airplanes, which are predominately side-by-side aircraft, tend to gravitate toward side-by-side gyroplanes more so than persons without prior experience in airplanes, a theory for which I’d accept a multi-million grant to study in more detail.
Fourth, I thought the ratio of participants and observers noteworthy. At other fly-ins featuring gyroplanes which I’ve gone to, even when the public is invited, they're usually attended mostly by persons who are already actively involved with gyroplanes, but with the Dublin fly-in, the number of persons who came to see the aircraft far outnumbered the ones who brought the aircraft. This event wasn't one of those drowsy, Sunday morning services where a preacher spouts a repeat of the gospel to the choir. No siree, brother. The Dublin fly-in was a fevered, Saturday night tent revival where the unwashed heathen multitude, lost souls who had known not gyroplanes at all, and the up-til-then gyroplane doubters and agnostics, and even hardcore airplane sinners who had once blasphemed gyroplanes, all came running down the aisle, falling on their knees in repentance, and crying for forgiveness.
Ira