#4 in the Hawk 4

Steve McGowan

Gold Member
Joined
Jul 12, 2004
Messages
2,517
Location
Macon Ga.
I spent the week with GBA in Brigham ,Utah being checked out in the Hawk 4.

I sure have a lot to learn, Scott Tennison and Terry Brandt was PIC in every mission, however I did have many T&Go's under my belt before the week was out..
I had to travel completely across the U.S. to meet Jack Carter, not of Carter Industries, Believe it or not,he is the Son of President Jimmy Carter from Plains Georgia. ( 60 miles South of Macon.) Jack and his wife are fantastic people and it's a pleasure to meet a fellow Georgian thats part of the GBA association.

I didn't take enuff pictures,, but here's a few.. Needless to say the hospitality and professionalism was a very valued experience. More like a family reunion than anything else.

Thankyou so much David Groen, Mr Robin Wilson, Al Waddell, Mr Yopp, Hank Parry, Bruce Tennison ,Micky and especially Scott and Terry for instructing me in the Hawk 4.

I look forward to more time being the #4 driver of the Hawk 4.

ps... Utah is "MARVELOUS"
 

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Hey Steve! Did it feel like prom night?
Great pics and time, now that´s a gyro . . .
Heron
 
Sure Did Heron!!

Sure Did Heron!!

Soon as I getm ready I'll post more pix... as I said,, I didn't take near enuff:wave:
 
Steve- You da man. Proud to know you. Hawk 4 driivwer, now that's impressive. Stan
 
Now that is cool Steve. I would say you are a lucky duck but deserved is probably more appropriate. See you at BD.
 
Steve! Give us some warning and we'll put a Chapter 2 lunch bunch together next time you're out.

If you can bring a machine with you and come back in June for Rotors Over The Rockies, we'll help you line up instruction and flight reviews!
 
Good going Steve, that is a very impressive gyro, you deserve to be one of it's pilots.
 
How fast didjya go?
 
Did I Say

Did I Say

My heads still spinnin,, If I had to taka p-test.. I'd probably be positive from the high ..

In Other WORDS,,, I had FUNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN!!
 
Steve, I can only imagine the fun of flying a unique aircraft like that, WOW!!!

Very, very cool my friend!!! Way to enjoy life and thanks for sharing it with us and with pictures no less.
 
That is cool Steve ! Seeing the enviroment you were flying in....I am sure you probably almost liked having doors the aircraft :) Really Neat !
 
That is awesome Steve, wow how cool, How did you like the turbine power?
Man that is great! :D:D
 
yeah,that is what I want to know, what did you think of the Turbine power?

I still wonder why we don't see more in light Gyros.
 
Excellent, Steve! Great shots. I can't wait for more detail and pictures.
 
It's hard to believe that 403GB is about 12 years old. It almost seems like yesterday that we flew it to Bensen days from Sun n Fun.

it is certainly a fun aircraft. it is surprisingly maneuverable for such a large gyro.

Jim
 
Hi, Jim. long time, no hear.

Seesaw rotors that big must be a nightmare when it comes to taming 2/rev shake.
 
Great picts Steve!

I would love to get some time in that bird!!

.
 
Hi Chuck,

It was pretty intense at first. We learned to mount the pylon on very soft mounts. We also made some undersling changes during early testing.

The timing required to lower the collective correctly after takeoff was also very interesting until I remembered a related post you had made on pitch/cone coupling.

I had my engineers flip the blade grips over, machine the necessary mounting hardware, design a couple of reversing bell cranks, and bolt every thing back together. Iit worked great. If memory serves we ended up with about 1 to 1 pitch/cone coupling. At takeoff I would pull max pitch, the rotor would slow up, cone would increase, and pitch would reduce. The pilot had lots of time to reposition the collective for flight RPM.

Fun aircraft. I wish GBA well.

Jim
 
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