Gyro Meet in Sweden 2024

[rcflier]

On 24-26 of May the Swedish Rotor Association is hosting our biannual fly-in ending at the airport ESMO with an overnight stay at a hotel.
According to the list, 34 gyros will attend.
Last year the danes hosted a great event at a small island with a good number of french also. Plus one pilot flying in from Turkey!
This year there are a lot more Germans attending - but why no one from France? Maybe the Swedes have no "french connections"?
It would be nice to have the french attend, as they are nice people sharing the same passion as the rest of us.

Cheers
Erik

 

[Grodou]

Hey Erik,

difficult to speak for a whole community, specially the several hundreds of gyroplanes registered in France, but I can tell you what I observe and my personal experience...

- France falls under my personal rule of "+40 millions inhabitants countries"... They majoritarily don't feel the need to lear a different language and this lessen their connection to the rest of the world. They expect others to adress them in french or ignore them. Therefor all flying in France is almost exclusively operated in french. Apply this to the small gyro community and you narrowed the field !!!

- Considering the above, they manage to run their own events... and a fair number of them.
Traditionally we have the choice between : Bois de la Pierre (gyro only), Avion dans la Ville, Est'capades (Ultralights), Air Flash Private trips (very popular private gyro raid with Autogyro logistic truck assistance), Hannibal Rallye (ultralights crossing the Alps to Sicile) Le Treport (rotary wings only), L'Aigle (gyro only), Tour de France for ultralights, Montelimar Fly in (gyro)..
The French ultralight federation calls its own yearly event "Le Mondial de l'ULM"... Some probably will disapear soon (lack of interest in the formula) and I probably forgot some.I don't say it is impossible to visit international events, but it needs to squeeze in.

- BELGIUM Gyro reluctance : If you want to go north, you need to go around through Luxembourg on Germany !!!
Belgium has instaured a tax to fly over its territory... even for 1 hr.
In addition to receive authorization after tax, they request documents that don't exist in France and are impossible to provide. (We could not get cleared with a factory Eclipse) It kills the fun for the whole western France to even try.

- Might sound wierd but the most popular/used french Navigation Apps (SDVFR, VFR Donati) only provided FRENCH TERRITORY maps until last month. Certainly does not encourage you to travel.

- If on top of that, you add the very specific french ultralight mentality (e.a : France sticks to 450-500 Kg Max when many european countries allow now 600 kg)... It result in many minimal requirements machines that don't even have transponders or even radio on board.
The field gets definitely narrow !!!!

I'm not saying it is impossible to get french pilots over... Some like it, but they are not numerous.

Just my take on the topic.

 

[rcflier]

Hi Grodou - thank you for your insight.

I was wondering, because we had a fair number of french gyros last year. Even from the southern part.
Some of the french flew with the turk through the baltic countries on their way home.
So it's strange to me that none of them will come to Sweden this year. Maybe the danish chairman
had a good connection with them. Too bad - the more, the merrier. But the gyro community is very small.

Cheers
Erik