Anybody have photos from Mentone 2019?

Vance on every single occasion I met you, you seemed very fluent and articulate. I well remember very early on on our first or second Bensen Days, when we were building the Hornet and meeting you together with my son. We chatted happily for ages. My son remembers you very well, he was having wife problems and commented that as bad as it was at least she wasn’t trying to kill him. He did think you were joking though?:)
 
Vance to me you always appear thoughtful in the organization and presentation of your sentences even in private conversation. I don’t believe anyone would notice an issue if you didn’t relay your incident as a motivational foundation to move others forward. Keep it up brother.
 
a gyro crashed there? What mishap are you talking about
I crashed my motorcycle at Bonneville at around 300 miles per hour in 1995.

I had crashed her the year before at what we estimate to be 340 miles per hour and was only slightly injured because the parachutes worked.

The high speed parachute came out but did not inflate so I tumbled end over end for three quarters of a mile.

An MRI shows my entire frontal lobe is not working. I am blind in my left eye.

I was pronounced dead at the hospital and Salt Lake City for no brain activity and I surprised one of the doctors who signed my death certificate by attacking him as he was drilling a hole in my head to show interns how to treat a brain injury.

In my exit interview I was told I would never speak in complete sentences, never stand unassisted and never be able to perform any complex tasks. I was told to get used to it because brain cells don’t grow back.

I worked with the western region surgeon of the FAA for two and a half years to get a third class medical with a demonstrated ability medical check ride.

They basically felt a brain dead one eyed pilot would be a hazard.

I am in the ninth percentile for unrelated short term memory.

This is part of why I am so rigorous about check lists and work so hard at radio calls.

The first image is building Mariah inside the computer generated loft lines.

The see through picture is what she looked like the year before when I crashed her.

The last picture is just before I crashed her. We cut the tail off to make the parachutes less troublesome.
 

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Vance on every single occasion I met you, you seemed very fluent and articulate. I well remember very early on on our first or second Bensen Days, when we were building the Hornet and meeting you together with my son. We chatted happily for ages. My son remembers you very well, he was having wife problems and commented that as bad as it was at least she wasn’t trying to kill him. He did think you were joking though?:)
Thank you for the kind words Leigh.
Yes, my second wife tried to kill me twice. I was not joking.
 
Vance to me you always appear thoughtful in the organization and presentation of your sentences even in private conversation. I don’t believe anyone would notice an issue if you didn’t relay your incident as a motivational foundation to move others forward. Keep it up brother.
Thank you for the kind words Bob.

I do a lot of public speaking about traumatic brain injuries because I am an example of what is possible.

Many people don't recognize the symptoms of traumatic brain injuries and they are cumulative.

This best thing I did for me is stop trying to hide it.

People want to help but they can’t if they don’t know you are injured

It is never the less a daily struggle to function and I have developed lots of tools to manage the challenge.

I am fortunate to have many good friends that overlook my challenges and accept me the way I am.
 
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Pardon my ignorance, Vance, but what is the yellow single-place in the second batch of your earlier pictures? Thanks.
 
Brent, are you interested in that yellow Aviomania? I have a connection to it.
 
a gyro crashed there? What mishap are you talking about
I realized I misunderstood your question Ron.
There was a ground mishap where a gyroplane returning from the runway ran into a stopped gyroplane and the propeller of the stopped gyroplane was damaged. No injuries that I am aware of.
 
Vance - Amazing story. My sister in law was hit by a car waiting for school bus many years ago, and she had brain injury too. Takes a long time to recover. Glad you recovered so much and still be able to fly. It’s a great sport with tons of good people to meet along the journeys...
 
I realized I misunderstood your question Ron.
There was a ground mishap where a gyroplane returning from the runway ran into a stopped gyroplane and the propeller of the stopped gyroplane was damaged. No injuries that I am aware of.


Oh wow, that could be bad. good to hear no one was hurt
 
In my opinion Mentone 2019 was the best & well attended since 2012...The 50th shindig!

It was super friendly & although several major vendors were absent ...all types were represented! Craig & Steve were the busy training CFI's ...& the big Magni group with several CFI's ... appeared mid-week & saved the event for drop-ins wanting to take a gyro-discovery flight!

I was trying to scale back on the frenetic flying pace of last year & get to enjoy the social elements of the convention ...so was mightily relieved to have the Magni -mob take up the gyro flight-experience job! I flew more specific ..interested potential customers, friends & media ...Tyler from Indiana public media & Vickie Betts from Power Sport Flying ...Norman Surplus even came up to try the Titanium & once he had controls ...had so much fun ... flew it all around, & even did the landing!

here is the link to the news clip from IPM

 
It was a huge bonus to have Norman Surplus & his famous MTO3 GYROX in attendance all week ... he had a couple of forum slots ...that were great listening - about his Global circumnavigation adventures!
On the last Sunday ... I with Mark Airey riding shotgun were thrilled to be able to fly a few miles alongside Norman & "Roxy" on their historic final leg of the adventure ...returning to the EAA museum at Oshkosh ...where GYROX ...and Norman's equipment will be on display loan for the next year! (While he gets the book writing finished!) ...who knows maybe next year he will do a gyro-flight book-tour of the USA ... before this now historic gyro will be container shipped back to homebase in Ireland!
My aerial shots of the Mentone grounds are always ...on arrival day & the day after ... so looks near deserted!
 

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The video of Dick DeGraw's ..jump-gyro "Gyrhino2" ...on departure from hangar drive on Sunday is spectacular ...roll out, warm up, jumpoff & fly away over the now deserted grass field!
I have my video clip posted on PRA facebook page ...as it does not want to upload here!
 
Is that considered a jump gyro? Thanks for sharing the video. Never seen anything like it.
 
Thanks to everyone for posting some pictures. Just isn't the same as being there and FLYING.!!! Vance, reference your post in #26, "accept me the way I am", it's the best side of you my friend. Another quote for my "Vance's notable quotable" log.
 
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