Bob Simmons
Senior Member
- Joined
- Sep 13, 2004
- Messages
- 318
- Location
- Sulphur, La.
- Aircraft
- 582 air command elite/ upgraded
- Total Flight Time
- 60 hours in gyro's
Well guys…….about 4 months ago a friend ask me if I would fly my gyro at his ranch for a family reunion. He had ask me on several occasions to bring my gyro over and work a gathering with a little air show. I always told him I didn’t have time. It finally happened where I had some time to spend a day for him and brought my gyro over to his ranch and flew it for the crowd. They all thought I was some kind of nuts for flying what they considered to be a flying lawn chair. I was a celebrity that morning and I noticed people looking and staring and trying to figure me out…..it was fun to be cool.
My friend came to me later that day and ask if I would fly again. I checked my wind sock and there was a slight quartering breeze. I checked out my gyro and everything looked good. The temperature was around 92 degree’s and I was way above sea level because we were in a high. I cranked up my machine started up my pre-rotor as fast as I could get it. I slowly started rolling to capture the wind in my blades and increased my speed to get the maximum rpm and lift. The runway was a cut and leveled pasture for horses that had a few bumps and humps in it. I had to abort half way down the field because I wasn’t getting the lift I needed to safely come off the ground and safely climb to the elevation I needed to safely fly over a wire fence and electrical lines going to a house.
I had enough rotor speed to be able to pull back and slow down with out using my brakes. I turned around and taxied further back down the field to have a longer runway. The wind had died down.
I checked my brakes and my machine while sitting in my gyro. I feel this was one of the mistake’s that I made. The other was air density altitude and a short runway. It had gotten hotter and there was no head wind to give me the extra lift.
The bumps in the field could have been helpful in causing me to loose my hydraulic brakes. I should of got out of my gyro and looked harder at everything. I forgot about the shock a gyro takes during take off when using a field as a runway. I kicked in my pre-rotor again and took off down the runway. I got half way down the field and decided to abort again. I pulled back on my stick and it barely slowed me down. I had never captured enough wind to speed up my rotor blades. I stepped on my brakes and it was mush. I had choices to make and I chose the middle of the fence instead of trying to turn off or away from it. I don’t know if I would of tumbled over sideways or not. To me….that would have been worse than the fence.
Needless to say……..I crashed my gyro and I was very lucky not to get to banged up. I gathered up my broken gyro and went home feeling pissed and thankful that God that He allowed me to walk away from this. Dear Brothers and future gyro pilots.
I have finally found my adult mind to tell this to my friends. I have been carrying this shame and guilt around for to long and I have learned a valuable lesson . I hope by reading this little story that someone out there will remember all the important things I brought up when figuring out what happened and why it happened.
My good friends and mentors, Gyromike and Mike M. from Abbeville came over and looked at my broken gyro and gave me some motivation to get it flying again. I took it over to AIR COMMAND INTERNATIONAL in Caddo mills Texas and the Doug and John worked out a deal for me to get it airworthy. It may take a month, but its worth the wait. I do miss my gyro and the fly-ins and I will be back in action with a hard lesson learned and a story to tell about check list safety on your gyrocopter.
Sorry for taking so long to tell my story……. Bob
My friend came to me later that day and ask if I would fly again. I checked my wind sock and there was a slight quartering breeze. I checked out my gyro and everything looked good. The temperature was around 92 degree’s and I was way above sea level because we were in a high. I cranked up my machine started up my pre-rotor as fast as I could get it. I slowly started rolling to capture the wind in my blades and increased my speed to get the maximum rpm and lift. The runway was a cut and leveled pasture for horses that had a few bumps and humps in it. I had to abort half way down the field because I wasn’t getting the lift I needed to safely come off the ground and safely climb to the elevation I needed to safely fly over a wire fence and electrical lines going to a house.
I had enough rotor speed to be able to pull back and slow down with out using my brakes. I turned around and taxied further back down the field to have a longer runway. The wind had died down.
I checked my brakes and my machine while sitting in my gyro. I feel this was one of the mistake’s that I made. The other was air density altitude and a short runway. It had gotten hotter and there was no head wind to give me the extra lift.
The bumps in the field could have been helpful in causing me to loose my hydraulic brakes. I should of got out of my gyro and looked harder at everything. I forgot about the shock a gyro takes during take off when using a field as a runway. I kicked in my pre-rotor again and took off down the runway. I got half way down the field and decided to abort again. I pulled back on my stick and it barely slowed me down. I had never captured enough wind to speed up my rotor blades. I stepped on my brakes and it was mush. I had choices to make and I chose the middle of the fence instead of trying to turn off or away from it. I don’t know if I would of tumbled over sideways or not. To me….that would have been worse than the fence.
Needless to say……..I crashed my gyro and I was very lucky not to get to banged up. I gathered up my broken gyro and went home feeling pissed and thankful that God that He allowed me to walk away from this. Dear Brothers and future gyro pilots.
I have finally found my adult mind to tell this to my friends. I have been carrying this shame and guilt around for to long and I have learned a valuable lesson . I hope by reading this little story that someone out there will remember all the important things I brought up when figuring out what happened and why it happened.
My good friends and mentors, Gyromike and Mike M. from Abbeville came over and looked at my broken gyro and gave me some motivation to get it flying again. I took it over to AIR COMMAND INTERNATIONAL in Caddo mills Texas and the Doug and John worked out a deal for me to get it airworthy. It may take a month, but its worth the wait. I do miss my gyro and the fly-ins and I will be back in action with a hard lesson learned and a story to tell about check list safety on your gyrocopter.
Sorry for taking so long to tell my story……. Bob
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