Vance Triple Crown winner?

Illini85

Active Member
Joined
Oct 4, 2010
Messages
287
Location
Hopkinsville, KY
Vance
I know you don't post here because you have nothing better to do. I value your well reasoned, logical and enthusiastic contributions to this community and read them all. I just happened to be cruising the Members Section of the forum and noticed that on the Notable Members list you are recorded as number 1 for the categories of Highest Reaction Score and Most Points. However you need 1,003 more posts in order to move from #3 to overtake Stan in the Most Posts category. Competitor that you are I'm sure accomplish this to claim the Triple Crown of Rotordom.

Seems to me we need to get you a GyroTechnic kit or some project to inspire another build thread out there or something while we are all in quarantine. LOL
 
Thank you for the kind words and nice thoughts Steve.

I have lost several clients to the virus.

Some have slowed down because of the downturn in the stock market and some as part of the voluntary quarantine.

The four local EAA chapters I belong to are not having meetings.

Sun N Fun has been postponed and I am not clear on Bensen Days.

It will be at several weeks till we launch the Sport Copter II with Greg and Doug for Florida. She is resting comfortably in the Breese Aircraft Hangar.

The Virus will pass.

I could never be as much fun as Stan and his absence diminishes the Rotary Wing Forum.

If you are having cabin fever there are flying stories with pictures on my website: https://www.breeseaircraft.com/ under the tabs Fun! and More Fun!.

All of them have already been posted here.

Peter is going to be back tomorrow and I hope to get him signed off for his Sport Pilot-Gyroplane instructor practical test with Daton.

With his approval I will write about the adventure.

I feel he is living a dream that lots of gyroplane pilots harbor way in the back of their mind.

I can tell you straight out that being a flight instructor is one of the best things I have done.

It combines challenge, thought and the mastery of fear in a very interesting way the always holds my attention.

Opening the door to the freedom and joy of aviation for people is a joy in its on way.
 

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This too shall pass ..... hoping USA acted fast enough to slow the peak-cases to with-in the capacity of the medical resources to cope ...there are some very interesting "Real-news" sources out there ...giving clarity on the probable virus origin & why Italy & Iran got hammered early! It's a great age/era/time to have the ability to stay connected & entertained online while physically isolated! Hoping and optimistic for a trip to Fl in late April ...I cancelled my usual month of May in Australia ...due to the 14 day isolation -on-arrival ..making it a pointless trip! ... I am excited to attend ROTR ...with a new area to explore & fly in Sthn Utah! Meantime ...lots of local flying will happen when the last winter-tantrum passes!
 
Vance is hands down the most enthusiastic rotorcraft person on here. My passion for rotorcraft just moved on and is even stronger in other areas of my life. Sorry Vance that this post moves my total post count up one. I never was in this for numbers. When I went to a helicopter, I just felt kind of out of body with all you fine people. If I ever returned to flying, it would be with a gyroplane. But I have 0 inclination going that way. My life is content and still very rewarding building curved stairways.

www.stansstairways.com


I am 66 and do not need it want to solicit any stair work. The projects come to me and I just choose what one is the most challenging.
 
Dave.... My flight hours in my helicopter in 2012 dropped to around 55 hours. In 2013 it dropped to 21. In 2014 I only flew 12 hours and 8 of those 12 hours were flying to ,at, and from the 2014 Mentone convention. To be brutally honest there are three reasons I quit flying. I will state these in ascending order of importance.

Though my wife Barbara never told me, asked me, or even hinted to me that my flying was making her anxious, I could tell it was. If I said I was going to be back at 4 pm... and at 4:10 I wasnt, my phone would ring. Not so if I were in my truck or working in my stair shop. She was having more misery than I was pleasure....I could sense that, and what kind of husband would I be to continue on that way?

I was becoming complacent with my preflight which is dumb and dangerous. My problem stemmed from after my two flameouts late 2010, and early 2011, nothing ever needed to be done , and my focus on my pre flights waned. I subconsciously tried to make it up by thinking if I thoroughly preflight once in awhile, that would fix it. Of course that was idiotic, but I could not break my bad habit. Shame on me, and my helicopter needed to move on as I was undeserving to operate it.

My main reason for selling was my focus in life changed from hovering over the earth to hovering over my Bible. I know some peoples eyes will go to gimbal lock, but I can take that. I am much more content and at peace with my self, but wont push my faith.

Flying is a fantastic experience that I was blessed to have, but it was consuming way too much of my thoughts. I am having the time of my life back as a surface dweller, yet I could easily financially just buy myself back into the air , if I wanted to.
 
I feel Stan brings up several good points.

I feel the most useful is he recognized deterioration in his norms.

I know I tend to feel if something worked out that it was safe and I have to work to stay focused on safety and personal limits.

I have had off field landings with no damage and very little challenge getting the gyroplane back in the air.

That doesn’t mean that an off field landing is no big deal just because the ones I have had were no big deal.

It is easy for me to see what I want and expect on preflight rather than approaching it as though there is something I am going to find.

Also useful to consider is currency. If I don’t fly for a while I need to remember that my skills have deteriorated and things that were easy for me may present a challenge.

Aviation culture needs to be all about risk mitigation.

Each time I go flying our lives are on the line and we may not get a do over.

If I let my standards slip and don’t continue to improve I am headed for trouble.

When I do flight reviews it is not unusual for me to find that the pilot under review could not meet the practical test standards today.

Many people stop practicing once they have their license and let their skills deteriorate.

All the certificate means is someone felt you were ready to learn more without hurting yourself or your passenger, not that you have achieved proficiency and there is no reason to improve or maintain your skills.

I feel that aviation needs to be an avocation that is practiced on a higher level than most tasks.

That is a part of what keeps flying fun for me.
 
"Though my wife Barbara never told me, asked me, or even hinted to me that my flying was making her anxious, I could tell it was. If I said I was going to be back at 4 pm... and at 4:10 I wasnt, my phone would ring. Not so if I were in my truck or working in my stair shop. She was having more misery than I was pleasure....I could sense that, and what kind of husband would I be to continue on that way? "
Years ago my cousin started racing a 34 ford coupe at the local dirt track when he was about 19 and continued to his mid 30's
and almost never lost a race. He married at about age 30 and tried and tried to have children but everytime his wife got pregnant she miscarried. Like Stan, he recognized the anxiety his racing caused his wife and quit racing and a year later they had their first son.
Thanks Stan for reminding us not to be selfish with our personal hobbies.
 
My interest in flying had nearly disappeared. I was lucky over the last several years to log much over 15 hours a year. Was too busy doing other things I enjoyed more.

Our airport got sold, new owners turned out to be super nice folks. Lots more activity out there now than before. I also went out and bought a new plane, a fun sporty... fast... aerobatic plane. Makes blocking off a few hours or even the whole day to go to the airport fun again. I will probably never fly as much as I did back in the early 2000's... I have more interests and hobbies now than I did back then, and I seem to be working more now than I did then too, but I will always enjoy at least SOME time in the air, and would have a hard time cashing out and not flying at all.
 
Ron: You still have the three wheeler motorcycle (Polaris?) you mentioned several years back that you bought?
How was it to drive (fly)?
 
"My interest in flying had nearly disappeared. I was lucky over the last several years to log much over 15 hours a year. Was too busy doing other things I enjoyed more. "

I remember being told several years back that 5 years was the average time a recreational pilot stayed active. If a person falls into a routine of just going out and flying the circuit then the cost/benefit ratio gets to be too high and boom they're gone. I think after the skill is established then its important to be meshed in with like minded people to help a person's experiences and hence their interest fresh.
 
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Ron: You still have the three wheeler motorcycle (Polaris?) you mentioned several years back that you bought?
How was it to drive (fly)?

I owned it about a year. It was fun, it turned heads, and was easy to drive ( it rode and drove pretty much just like a car, you would never know it was a 3 wheeler from how it drove )

I spent a pretty good amount of money to buy it and never intended for it to be a long time toy, so I kept a eye on resale values, and I saw that the resale value was starting to nose dive, so I put it up for sale and got rid of it.
 
"My interest in flying had nearly disappeared. I was lucky over the last several years to log much over 15 hours a year. Was too busy doing other things I enjoyed more. "

I remember being told several years back that 5 years was the average time a recreational pilot stayed active. If a person falls into a routine of just going out and flying the circuit then the cost/benefit ratio gets to be too high and boom their gone. I think after the skill is established then its important to be meshed in with like minded people to help a person's experiences and hence their interest fresh.

I think if I was just going to the airport to fly my plane around the pattern, it would get boring pretty quick. What was always fun was flying to fly -ins, and just being out at a active airport with other sport pilot friends.
 
Thank you for the kind words and nice thoughts Steve.

I have lost several clients to the virus.

Some have slowed down because of the downturn in the stock market and some as part of the voluntary quarantine.

The four local EAA chapters I belong to are not having meetings.

Sun N Fun has been postponed and I am not clear on Bensen Days.

It will be at several weeks till we launch the Sport Copter II with Greg and Doug for Florida. She is resting comfortably in the Breese Aircraft Hangar.

The Virus will pass.

I could never be as much fun as Stan and his absence diminishes the Rotary Wing Forum.

If you are having cabin fever there are flying stories with pictures on my website: https://www.breeseaircraft.com/ under the tabs Fun! and More Fun!.

All of them have already been posted here.

Peter is going to be back tomorrow and I hope to get him signed off for his Sport Pilot-Gyroplane instructor practical test with Daton.

With his approval I will write about the adventure.

I feel he is living a dream that lots of gyroplane pilots harbor way in the back of their mind.

I can tell you straight out that being a flight instructor is one of the best things I have done.

It combines challenge, thought and the mastery of fear in a very interesting way the always holds my attention.

Opening the door to the freedom and joy of aviation for people is a joy in its on way.
Nice
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