Gyro Adventurer royalty visit & TAG rotor workshop!

GyrOZprey

Aussie in Kansas.
Joined
Aug 8, 2011
Messages
3,388
Location
Whitewater KS
Aircraft
Butterfly Aurora N5560Z / Titanium Explorer N456TE & N488TE/ - trained in MTOsport 446QT/488FB
Total Flight Time
1023
This week things have been hopping at TAGNA HQ .... Mark Airey’s hangar @ Propwash 16X Justin TX.
Monday afternoon we met Neil Sheather off the plane at DFW. Work on preparing 8 rotors began quickly , despite the delightful distractions of our 2 night visitor Norman Surplus & GYROX ... on their way to Oshkosh ... diverting a little west through TX-OK-KS ...dodging the remains of TS Barry ...& also our friends from AZ bringing their rotors in and inspecting a local Calidus for sale!

On Last Friday I had dashed up to junction city Freeman field to collect rotors off N234 TE .... next day loaded my own two sets & the newly flown off 488TE ...as the test- bed / flight balancing machine! I was sure glad I had got the roof rotor box made plenty large enough to take two complete rotors comfortably! Sunday trip down to Justin! Was excitedly watching Norman’s tracker closing in from Taylor TX!
On Monday our local gyro journalist Ira McComic came over and enjoyed several hours doing an in depth interview with Norman for an up coming publication! Between those of us assembled on Monday we were able to arrange night stop hosts for Norman for Tuesday & Wednesday nights en route to the Lansing gyro club destination
Progress continues steadily on the engineer approved highly researched & tested process to modify the tips of the ASRA grounded group of TAG rotors .... to give all users total confidence that no rods will ever depart a rotor!

Comprehensive testing in Australia by independent composite engineer ..... showed the rods were very securely bound into all the new & used ( 1000 hour) available rotors tested! ... could not draw or punch the rods out with forces up to 4.5 Tonnes - 3 times max in flight forces on rotors!

The engineer designed & approved the “ belt & suspenders “ mod took a couple of months to be designed, tested & tooled for field service by Neil!

Pictures of the activity is posted on the PRA Facebook site as my phone photos are too big to upload here!
 
It reads like a lot of activity to me.
I admire your drive Chris.
Will you be at the PRA convention in Mentone?
 
It has been an amazing week on so many levels! Having time to enjoy Norman's company for two whole nights was brilliant! Having Neil ...to ourselves for up to 2 weeks is historic ...seriously this guy is a dynamo! ( Impossible to just sit & enjoy HIS stories & gyro history ...when in his busy home environment!
We had a great first 3 days being super productive in the the rotor-mod department ...Neil was absolutely over the moon to have all 8 rotors drilled out & new tip plugs & heavy end-caps glued in! ... so rapidly ....of course the filing, sanding,filling up pin-holes, filing, sanding & final buffing of the end caps in preparation for the painter ...took a couple more days !

Today ..day5 ...I got to fly the first rotor for 6 missions around the airport pattern with Neil's balancing machine gathering data for the adjustments for a silk-smooth flying rotor!

I can understand why Neil has gained the moniker in Australia as "The rotor-whisperer"!!

The painter said we can pick up the next 4 rotors tomorrow @ 7am ...so an early start & breakfast ...we will be flying hard all day getting as many balanced up as we can .....I had hoped to be home after a week ... but 2 more days of flying missions is ahead!

I will be doing a quick turn'& burn check-in at my home( mow lawn, do laundry, re-stock, grab brochures) & head for Mentone at the end of the week ....so not much help in the planned pre-convention set-up ... but hoping to be early-bird camper!
 
You certainly keep busy Chris, sounds like you are supporting the lads and lasses dununder by providing the US with quality, test flown and tuned rotor blades on the Titaniums.

Guess you still have family there, visit often?

My step sis is 1/2 Oz, hubby 100% and two girls, born in US but chose Aus nationality until they allowed dual nationality. Have family transplanted from Kenya to Perth, Canberra, Cairns, and now with their kids all over.

Flew my ex-boss down there in his ex-TAA 727 for a lightning visit. We did Canberra, Sydney, Melbourne, then over to Perth via Alice, he wanted to see a sheep station, couple of times round Ayes rock at 3000’, I think we had some Cessna single above us at 4,000’, then to Perth. All too quick, no time to see reli’s, as on 24 hr standby when not flying, but really enjoyed it.

Never forgotten your kind help at B’ Days with some fuel cleaner. Have fun at Mentone and do say hi and best wishes to Dennis. Spoken to him when he was doing his Hornet build and look forward to speaking and hopefully meeting him at some stage.
 
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