Ken Brock Freedom Fly-In

GyroPro

SoCal Flyer
Joined
Jul 31, 2014
Messages
143
Location
Redlands, CA
Aircraft
Sportcopter Vortex N739B
Total Flight Time
6.5
A wonderful weekend at the Ken Brock Freedom Fly-in hosted by Popular Rotorcraft Association Chapter One. I can't say enough great things about the amazing community of people that made up the event this year. We had Gyroplanes, Fixed Wings, Powered Parachutes, Helicopters, and Ultralights. Thank you everyone for the fun and laughter😀! Sorry for all the selfies. I broke the glass on my rear facing camera on my phone, so I had to resort to the selfie Cam.
 

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Good talking with you Dave, thanks for the info on the porta-thingy :wink:
 
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Good talking with you as well. What a great gyro you built. I am always a little envious of the people who have built their gyros from the ground up. Speaking of helpful info, the last day, I saw a guy who had attached a piece of angle bar to the top rear corner of his gyro and braced it with a piece of round pipe, and added a rope winch to the end to move his blades. I liked the simplicity and height, so I emulated his design. I used 6' 6061 aluminum angle bar, and a 10' piece of pipe, and an electric hoist I had sitting around. I did a hang test. I put myself in a rock climbing harness and it lifted me, so my blades should be a piece of cake.
 

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Rick Eichmann, of Arizona, both coming and going, in his Butterfly Monarch. Powered by Rotax 912, 100 hp.

He also owns a Soma gyro, w/ a Rotax 503.
 

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Rick starting his taxiing back in after landing into the wind out from the west. Following is a closeup of him and Sheri prior to the friday night dinner.

The elusive Dave Bacon is in the left background.
 

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photo128540.jpgphoto128541.jpg Jerry Pierce, of California, brought his Hornet ultralight gyroplane. His project took many years to complete, using the free plans on the internet by Don Shoebridge.

Jerry's Hornet received the award for Most Innovative machine @ the event. He smelted scrap aluminum to pour into molds he made for his joystick's handle and one of the parts for his nose gear attachment.
 
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Gyroplane CFI Britta Penca, of Arizona, standing alongside her MTO gyro after a training session w/ Jim Thurow, of California, who has a Sport Copter Vortex,(powered by a Viking-Honda Civic engine) waiting for him to put air under the tires.

See the following post for the missing photo.
 
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Didn't get around to getting any in flight photos of Chris Toevs' Titanium Explorer tandem. Only a few taxi ones like this one.

She gave lots of rides to folks getting their first taste of autogyro flight. I briefly over heard her speaking of folding masts and her preferences about them to a large group of onlookers.

Most likely giving all those rides is one, if not THE, main reason (besides her sparkling personality) why she was chosen by her fellow pilots voting her "Pilot And Machine" @ El Mirage!
 
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Kevin_Richey;n1125211 said:

Thanks for the pics ! So that is what a Britta looks like !
 
It's been a week now since the Fly-In, and I wanted to give a big "THANK YOU!" to all who attended this year! While the weather was a tad bit windy on Thursday, it started to mellow out on Friday, and Saturday was probably the nicest day for the event in several years! We had a total of 16 gyros!, 6 helicopters, 3 airplanes, 4 Trikes, 2 PPG's and 3 or 4 powered parachutes! It was a wonderful day, and even the weather allowed us to get through all the evening events before it got colder and breezy. We handed out several awards on Saturday Night:

Best Gyro - Jerry Pierce
Pilot and Machine - Chris Toves
Gyro Furthest Flown - Chris Toves AND Britta Penca - we had an Award for each of them :biggrin:
Gyro Furthest Trailered - Kevin Richey

The bummer with Kevin is he trailered his gyro all that way, and got a severe calf sprain before he could even fly his gyro at El Mirage! Fortunately, he's healing nicely.

I also want to thank all the Chapter One members who helped out with the event. It's a LOT of work, and this year was fantastic - a lot of hands to pitch in, and help out. Now, it's time to plan for 2018 :whoo:
 
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Thanks to everyone who helped to put on this wonderful event. I am sorry I didn't get to spend more time there. The hot dog was great.
 

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Saw Vance coming in ... saw the predator on the line ... waved & said Hi Vance ...from afar ...as I scuttled in to the camper for a bite & down-time ... saw Vance taking off ... & that was it ... GONE ...too busy to linger! Sorry you could not spend some more time visiting!
 
GyrOZprey;n1125389 said:
Saw Vance coming in ... saw the predator on the line ... waved & said Hi Vance ...from afar ...as I scuttled in to the camper for a bite & down-time ... saw Vance taking off ... & that was it ... GONE ...too busy to linger! Sorry you could not spend some more time visiting!

Sorry I couldn't stay longer Chris. I was providing flight training and we had some goals. My client needed to be back at Fox field at 3:00. I was going to return but had a fuel pressure light come on in flight and ended up putting the Predator on a trailer and dragging her home.
 
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