Dan Gryder wants to have a conversation with ME! - SHOULD I?????

[GyrOZprey]

There has been a lot of furious aviator friends of the tragically deceased helicopter pilots who went down at Oshkosh ....literally screaming in Dan Gryder's ear about the craziness of gyro pilots!

I first met Dan at the Wellington KS 9/11 memorial fly-in a couple of years ago & listened to his talk about saving GA pilots lives through the AQP (for GA) scenario-based re-current training and flight-review skills - building on the FAA PTS skills to merely be deemed competent to fly aircraft!

Earlier this year (in my capacity as EAA Chapter88 VP) -I had a conversation with him - I asked if he was available to give his AQP talk as guest speaker at our closing banquet of our local fly-in ...just held this last Saturday! ...he was unable to speak for us that day - but the planning committee were interested in his message!

In my capacity of PRA president - HE (DAN) has requested for me to contact him (in response to a comment I made on his YT -live show he ran last night )
...I'm HOPING HE WANTS TO LEARN MORE/ HEAR OUR SIDE OF THE PRA MISSION TO PROMOTE - 'SAFETY, TRAINING & EDUCATION" - and learn more about our gyroplane community!


Should I give him a call??

Should I set up a zoom meeting with our BOD members and Dan?

Can anything good come from reaching out Dan to perhaps correct his (& a group of his following) view of gyroplanes and gyro pilots?

What should I say /avoid saying?

How would you like me to represent our rotorcraft community in a discussion with Dan????

 

[samouced]

I don't know DG till you posted this. This was posted five days ago -

 

[Abid]

There has been a lot of furious aviator friends of the tragically deceased helicopter pilots who went down at Oshkosh ....literally screaming in Dan Gryder's ear about the craziness of gyro pilots!

I first met Dan at the Wellington KS 9/11 memorial fly-in a couple of years ago & listened to his talk about saving GA pilots lives through the AQP (for GA) scenario-based re-current training and flight-review skills - building on the FAA PTS skills to merely be deemed competent to fly aircraft!

Earlier this year (in my capacity as EAA Chapter88 VP) -I had a conversation with him - I asked if he was available to give his AQP talk as guest speaker at our closing banquet of our local fly-in ...just held this last Saturday! ...he was unable to speak for us that day - but the planning committee were interested in his message!

In my capacity of PRA president - HE (DAN) has requested for me to contact him (in response to a comment I made on his YT -live show he ran last night )
...I'm HOPING HE WANTS TO LEARN MORE/ HEAR OUR SIDE OF THE PRA MISSION TO PROMOTE - 'SAFETY, TRAINING & EDUCATION" - and learn more about our gyroplane community!


Should I give him a call??

Should I set up a zoom meeting with our BOD members and Dan?

Can anything good come from reaching out Dan to perhaps correct his (& a group of his following) view of gyroplanes and gyro pilots?

What should I say /avoid saying?

How would you like me to represent our rotorcraft community in a discussion with Dan????

Hi Christine:
Perhaps we should look and discuss this at a PRA BOD meeting. Maybe we can arrange one over Xoom to discuss what others think.
The thing I would emphasize is perspective here. Of course, the friends and family of the deceased will be upset. What does anyone expect from them. They have had a tremendous loss. It is a loss for the whole rotorcraft community at large and even the whole GA community. However, it is an accident and there are specific reason(s) it happened. Nothing we or anyone does will bring these good people back but there is something to be learnt from it so it never happens again in any airshow. But you know how many times in just last 4 years there have been midair collisions at airshows. A lot more than acceptable and none of them involved a gyroplane before. This should not be a gyroplane thing. This should be a safety thing. There is nothing I see in this accident that is specific to gyroplane. It was not even a maneuver that is just specific to gyroplanes. It was not a pedal turn whose radius would have been less than 10 feet.

To me mainly it is a pilot and EAA procedural issue. What was specifically said in the briefing. Was 360's allowed for spacing. Were you allowed to go below 300 feet before final. What specific method was recommended to be done in case of bunching up on final in the briefing. Did the specific pilot follow the procedures specified? It does not matter if the specific pilots were flying a gyroplane or a helicopter or an airplane.
If some gyroplane pilots were flying erratically then why did the airboss not ground them. What does that have to do generically with gyroplanes or wider gyroplane community. EAA sets the rules, you don't follow them on purpose, then you are grounded. Simple as that. I would not find it offensive if I flew against their policies on purpose, they warned me once and then grounded me the second time. I am screwing their show. I deserve to be grounded. Safety first, always. To me this isn't a gyroplane community thing.

To me, this is an EAA policy and procedures thing for rotorcraft. They need to have policies and procedures, take pilots who fly there in confidence, explain things, adjust if a good reason is given for adjustment and then follow their policies and procedures including grounding offensive pilots. But this specific accident had no such pilot Eric was not the one who had flown erratically before. He could not have been grounded for that. Why he should have done a 360 instead of a go around, that's a good question. Why the helicopter was only 10 second behind and below him in the pattern which was pretty much empty behind the helicopter is also a good question. But these are not gyroplane specific questions. These are pilot and procedure questions.

 

[WaspAir]

My opinion:

Don't give ammunition to someone untrustworthy. It may well be misused. Silence is always more manageable and less harmful.

 

[Loren Jones]

Tough call. I have so little respect for him that I, personally, wouldn't waste my time. But you have a little bit of a relationship with him and may have a different perspective.

 

[Vance]

My limited experience with Dan Gryder is he is always looking for a negative slant on everything and he is unconcerned with the truth.

What good could possibly come from the interview?

It is doubtful that after talking to people who are interested in gyroplanes that he will admit that what he said about the “gyro guys” was wrong.

Dan Gryder’s procedure is to blame everyone no matter how unrelated the events are or how implausible his probable cause is.

Any hope of educating him is lost in his confidence that he already knows everything.

He is not often right but he is never in doubt.

I don’t trust a narcissist to have a positive impact on my life no matter what I give them or what they promise.

 

[Loren Jones]

My limited experience with Day Gryder is he is always looking for a negative slant on everything and he is unconcerned with the truth.

What good could possibly come from the interview?

It is doubtful that after talking to people who are interested in gyroplanes that he will admit that what he said about the “gyro guys” was wrong.

Dan Gryder’s procedure is to blame everyone no matter how unrelated the events are or how implausible his probable cause is.

Any hope of educating him is lost in his confidence that he already knows everything.

He is not often right but he is never in doubt.

I don’t trust a narcissist to have a positive impact on my life no matter what I give them or what the promise.

So much truth in that post. Well said.

 

[Georgi]

There has been a lot of furious aviator friends of the tragically deceased helicopter pilots who went down at Oshkosh ....literally screaming in Dan Gryder's ear about the craziness of gyro pilots!

I first met Dan at the Wellington KS 9/11 memorial fly-in a couple of years ago & listened to his talk about saving GA pilots lives through the AQP (for GA) scenario-based re-current training and flight-review skills - building on the FAA PTS skills to merely be deemed competent to fly aircraft!

Earlier this year (in my capacity as EAA Chapter88 VP) -I had a conversation with him - I asked if he was available to give his AQP talk as guest speaker at our closing banquet of our local fly-in ...just held this last Saturday! ...he was unable to speak for us that day - but the planning committee were interested in his message!

In my capacity of PRA president - HE (DAN) has requested for me to contact him (in response to a comment I made on his YT -live show he ran last night )
...I'm HOPING HE WANTS TO LEARN MORE/ HEAR OUR SIDE OF THE PRA MISSION TO PROMOTE - 'SAFETY, TRAINING & EDUCATION" - and learn more about our gyroplane community!


Should I give him a call??

Should I set up a zoom meeting with our BOD members and Dan?

Can anything good come from reaching out Dan to perhaps correct his (& a group of his following) view of gyroplanes and gyro pilots?

What should I say /avoid saying?

How would you like me to represent our rotorcraft community in a discussion with Dan????

With all the respect to you, can you identify any point(s), which will justify any talk to him?

 

[Sv.grainne]

On one hand I would want to express my view of what happened but given how his earlier "Show" presented the "facts" I would think that whatever you say will be twisted. I would decline the invitation.

 

[Resasi]

DEFINITELY NOT !!!

Avoid him like the plague Christine.

His first presentation of the 'facts was distorted, biased, and inaccurate. His second, wasn't much better.

I really do not think he commands much respect in the aviation community, and his impending lawsuit is a good example of his motor mouth and lack of checking facts landing him in trouble.

 

[GyrOZprey]

THANK-YOU ALL..... for this input
After good calls from Vance and Tom Duncan discussing pros( & MOSTLY CONS & Dangers) in having a conversation with Dan Gryder as your PRA representative ...it seems given his personality & history in twisting facts & truths to his POV! ...For me to have a conversation at this point is not advisable!

I like Abid's proposal in discussing among our BOD ...and perhaps - offering a Zoom BOD panel Q&A about PRA & our mission to Dan - so we can cross-check each other & not let the discussion get hijacked!

 

[GyrOZprey]

DEFINITELY NOT !!!

Avoid him like the plague Christine.

His first presentation of the 'facts was distorted, biased, and inaccurate. His second, wasn't much better.

I really do not think he commands much respect in the aviation community, and his impending lawsuit is a good example of his motor mouth and lack of checking facts landing him in trouble.

-WHICH WAS WHY I wanted to set him straight ...but I DID in comments on the horrible reactionary video #1 ...directed him to the thread on this forum to EXPAND HIS KNOWLEDGE!
I'm afraid the angry Heli-community have his EAR ...and he has firmly sided with them!

FOR BALANCE ... listen to HIS SIDE of the lawsuit "DRAMA"! - here. (last night's/this week's offering!)

 

[Loren Jones]

-WHICH WAS WHY I wanted to set him straight ...but I DID in comments on the horrible reactionary video #1 ...directed him to the thread on this forum to EXPAND HIS KNOWLEDGE!
I'm afraid the angry Heli-community have his EAR ...and he has firmly sided with them!

FOR BALANCE ... listen to HIS SIDE of the lawsuit "DRAMA"! - here. (last night's/this week's offering!)

I won't be able to listen to this til later, but regardless of what his excuses are, he is sitting with a $1.1M judgment against him. He's going to have a rough road ahead, IMHO.

 

[Loren Jones]

Having now watched Gryder's whiney explanation, I am actually dumber than I was before watching. He's now a legal expert spouting his knowledge of Texas law and legal procedures.

He obviously has never heard the old adage: When you're stuck in a hole, the first thing to do is to stop digging.

Unbelievable stupidity here.

 

[Vance]

I watched the video and listened to Dan and I am going to take a shower now to clean the BSD.

In my opinion it is classic obfuscation and Dan is playing the victim.

 

[Resasi]

With my previous comment in mind, I have been interested to hear comments on the video by people whose opinion I trust.

They simply confirm my initial estimation of this gentleman, and have saved me wasting time by watching it.

 

[SpyderMike]

By sitting down and playing with him you legitimize him and his methodology. Not doing so sends the opposite message.

 

[WaspAir]

Having watched the latest video, I understand everything now. Mark Baker makes too much money so of course any lawsuit against Gryder is bogus, right?

 

[Andino]

Dan G. is certainly aware of this thread, so he can educate himself therefrom if he desires. I think the potential downside of your talking to him far outweighs the potential upside. Refer him to your posts, with pleasant wishes. That's my 2 shillings.

 

[querist]

I agree with the general sentiment here. Based on the video, Gryder is not someone to be trusted and would likely take statements out of context, etc., to make his point.

Your best bet is simply not to talk with him. Let the NTSB do their job. There were certainly enough witnesses at the event.