Has the purchase of the Mentone Airport proven worthwhile ?

[j4flyer]

When I first learned of the purchase of the airport at Mentone I was less than enthusiastic. This purchase meant that the PRA convention would eventually no longer be rotated throughout the U.S. as before. Over the years Ken Brock had said that to be successful, the convention had to be experienced by all members. The rotation kept up the enthusiasm. I felt the purchase benefited only members located near the venue. I was joined by many, many PRA members who learned about the purchase via word of mouth. It was a done deal before any input. Our national membership dropped nearly 50% after this action. We diverted funding from the magazine to the airport which reduced membership. I’m not certain we have recovered or ever will, nationally.

We now have many, many years to look back on the purchase. With history assisting us, what are the members thoughts today ? Was the purchase a brilliant acquisition or Stewart’s folly ?

I saw some Mentone statements on other threads and I wondered what the thoughts of others would be in today’s environment.

 

[Sv.grainne]

My 2 cents. With all of the PRA chapters going to Facebook and social media posts it is worth nothing to try and get any meaningful info from them. Thank goodness for this forum, at least you have a chance of getting info.

PRA would be doing a great service if they would encourage chapters to maintain a current web presence. Meaningful info is needed, not feel good pics with no valuable info.

Would also be very valuable if the PRA website was working and up-to-date.

What happened to the monthly ezines that I signed up for? Never got one.

Bobby

 

[Vance]

I find value in being a member of the PRA.

I love the airport and I love the Mentone Convention.

Most people I have met in the PRA have become friends.

I would like to see more people become actively involved rather than wondering what the PRA can do for them.

It saddens me to hear suggestions on how to make the PRA “better” from people with no intention of helping to make it “better”.

I feel our active volunteers do a great job with what they have to work with.

It is our club and we make it what it is.

I just attended a wonderful event put on by the Lone Star Rotorcraft Club at the Chambers County Airport in in Anahuac, Texas. PRA chapter 62.

They worked hard to make it what it was and it was worth every mile of the 3,500 mile drive for two days of fun.

 

[Gyro28866]

My first PRA fly-in was at the National held in Green Castle the year before Mentone. I joined and have been a member ever since.
I have heard first hand stories about some of the antics that went on by members at the hosting airports. As I understand it, PRA was not welcome to return at many of those airports. The flyins were much different in those days. Mostly vintage style machines. Always several camp fires to circulate around within the camping area, in the evening time.
Then the motorhomes and new age machines started attending. A fly-in now consists of mostly new European style machines; and very few Classics. It is a different crowd and they retire into their motorhomes and generally do not socialize like the past.
As I previously stated, it was becoming increasingly difficult to find an airport to hold the event.
When Mentone become available, there was not enough time to publicize it in the PRA magazine and get valuable feedback from the member's.
So, Gary Goldsberry and Art Evans, moved on the deal and purchased it. Because of Indiana law and banking regulations, there had to be a work around. So, Gary purchased the property in his name and give it to PRA. PRA only had to make the payments. PRA paid the mortgage off and the Mentone property belongs to PRA. Free and Clear!!!
It gave us a HOME.
The purchase created a great deal of discouragement with-in the membership at that time. The purchase created new challenges for the Board.
As for Chapters;
PRA does not create Chapters. Chapters are created by like minded gyro enthusiasts that want to be part of a bigger movement. It is those folks that create and grow a Chapter at a local level. Look at the Peachstate guys in Georgia, or the folks in Anauach Texas or the Wrens fall flyin or at Barrys in North Carolina and even Ken Brock flyin in California. All that work is done at a local level and with volunteer labors.

 

[j4flyer]

So, from what I’m reading, even after all these years, the wisdom of the purchase is still mixed.

 

[GyrOZprey]

In light of modern gyro-event attendees ... mostly coming with a wide variety ofRV's, campers& gyro trailers ...having an annual PRA convention with a home-base airport with RV hook-ups, power, water , established bathroom/shower facility for tent&trailer campers is a GREAT asset ...and then there are the undercover hangar parking & classroom & canteen, covered eating area!
On the whole it's great to have this facility .... with the decline in many of the old PRA chapters and era of difficulty finding enough energetic volunteers on a scale to run the annual convention on a rotational basis it's my opinion that having a PRA owned convention airport facility has kept the event alive during these past difficult times.
Agreed It's bigger load on the locals involved in the pre-event grounds work & organization logistics - at the same time the familiar honed routines & on-site materials make the set-up /break-down go quickly.
Some geographically distant members ...enjoy taking a full week "vacation" to help the locals.

 

[AgentCheese]

My bride and I are new to the whole gyro thing this year. My neighbor is a nut and flew over our house and hooked us both, and we are both taking lessons. We drove up and attended Mentone this year and had a great time. Unfortunately, it wasn't very well attended by some of the OEM's, but we still had fun talking to folks and took a ride with Mark Sprigg as well.

I had no idea that PRA owned the airfield or the previous controversy. I was amazed at all the campers, and probably would have brought ours had I been aware. But it was a last minute decision, so I didn't have time to do much research. Hopefully next year we will be able to fly up in our gyro!

 

[j4flyer]

I believe the coordination of set up and take down, along with finding volunteers is a major plus for a fly in event. I would like to know if the attendance has grown over the years or shrunk. This year isn’t a good gauge for those stats.

 

[Vance]

I have only been attending the PRA convention for about 15 years so I may not be a good judge.

The PRA Convention has always been at Mentone for me.

It seems to grow and shrink for no particular reason.

The museum and the fireworks are added attractions for me.

The only other gyroplane event I have been to that is as well attended is Bensen Days in Wauchula, FL.

It too has not moved since I have been attending.

I am proud to be a part of each.

 

[WaspAir]

I was joined by many, many PRA members who learned about the purchase via word of mouth. It was a done deal before any input. Our national membership dropped nearly 50% after this action. We diverted funding from the magazine to the airport which reduced membership. I’m not certain we have recovered or ever will, nationally.

I had a similar reaction at the time, and thought it was an abuse of memberhip trust to act so arbitrarily with organization funds. I was astonished that the PRA governing documents would even allow it to be done legally. I have belonged to AOPA EAA AIAA SSA IAC SPA and other aviation groups and none of them would ever pull such a bush league move. I was part of the 50% who quit.

Mentone has never been in practical range for me and I never attended, nor do I ever expect to. No forgiveness here.

 

[GyroRon]

In my opinon, what is done is done. No way to go back in time and change history.

I think that at the time, it was a good decision.

Fast forwards to today, and recreational flying in general is not nearly what it used to be ( far less people involved these days ) and home building has seen a massive nose dive these days. These days the majority of the new gyros to become airworthy are " Euro " gyros that are more or less factory built kits where there is little to no fabrication or true homebuilding involved. When I became a part of the gyro community back in 2009, each fly-in there was several new gyros being revealed that were true homebuilt one of a kind machines, and this forum was full of build threads etc.... Times are just different now.

PRA chapters are far and few between.

The internet has replaced any need for a magazine. Social media has replaced most of the needs of a local chapter. The PRA was never big enough, even in its peak, to be much of anything as far as lobbying power or getting things done, the EAA and AOPA dwarfs the PRA and even they struggle to get things done.

Personally, I don't see a need for the PRA to exist at all anymore.

And if that happens, I don't know what to do with the Mentone airport. I think there are always going to be people who want to do a rotorcraft specific fly-in in the summer... And Mentone is a great location for it. Perhaps the PRA is reduced to just operating the airport, so the airport is there to be used when needed. IDK... I just know that although I support the purchase of the airport and supported the PRA with my money for many years, I stopped renewing my membership when it became clear that the PRA was of no further value to me.

 

[First pilot]

I don't know what is going on now as I have been phoning for months to renew my membership and the phone cuts off before I could leave a message. Maybe they have decided to terminate the PRA in Mentone. The magazine has not been arriving either. I am disappointed.
Tony

 

[Steve_UK]

it's almost 2021 - perhaps time to seek a merge with EAA as the Gyro Wing

 

[C. Beaty]

Let’s see: Virtually all gyros use a failed NACA airfoil, the 8H12, "designers" evidently believing it to be a special autorotational airfoil because that’s what Bensen used.
Virtually all gyros use an underslung, teetering rotor with tilt-head cyclic control because that’s what Bensen used.
Virtually all gyros use an offset gimbal rotorhead because that’s what Bensen used.
So rotorwise, virtually all gyros are Bensen clones.
Originality, such as it is, begins with the pod/cabin suspended beneath the Bensen rotor.
There have of course been several attempts, both in the US and abroad at “grown up” Autogiros but all have failed as a result of their inherent inefficiency.
If you need to go some where by air, you don’t want a vehicle with wings going 500 mph while the rest of it goes 50 mph.
Despite all this, a Gyrocopter is an ideal toy for chasing feral hogs around Florida bayheads.

 

[Sv.grainne]

it's almost 2021 - perhaps time to seek a merge with EAA as the Gyro Wing

I think Steve has a good idea. I visited a local EAA chapter recently and I think I was the youngest person in attendance! I'm 72.

Spoke with a board member and the discussion was pretty sad concerning the future of the chapter.

 

[j bird]

I belonged to the PRA and a PRA chapter, the Pra chapter was useless being it was 500 miles away and the National PRA was a mess. The PRA is in a better place today, but? I believe the gyro community would be better served if it was part of the EAA!

 

[GyroCFI]

I attended Green Castle as my one and only PRA convention back in the day. I was too busy instructing to attend and quite frankly when I heard how the airport was purchased I was disenfranchised, couldn't comprehend how it was done, even after all these years I'm still astonished that it was done and the people who pulled it off remained in power for a long time afterwards. I've never owned a new style gyro but have instructed in several of them, my ship of choice to teach in was a tandem Air Command low rider which served me very well over the many years I taught, and since I didn't own a trailer for it Mentone wasn't really in the cards for me anyhow. I lost a lot of respect for the organization after that and really just kinda lost interest in it. I keep my CFI cert current but doubt i'll teach again with the way the insurance is nowadays.

 

[Martin W.]

To me the PRA problem is not the Mentone Airport
The problem is the USA is such a large country.

No matter where the convention & fly-in is held it will still be thousands of miles away from 3/4 of the population .

Even if the location was rotated between 4 different airports it would leave a gap of 3 years without a national fly-in for 3/4 of members.

I was an occasional member of PRA and mostly for the magazine and I read it cover to cover. When I was done I would drop them off at my barber shop and dentist office waiting room . On my next visit the PRA mag was worn out from use and all the Time and Newsweek magazines were hardly read. After I moved away my barber applied for his own subscription because his customers were always asking for it.

 

[GyroRon]

The complaints about Mentone is too far away annoy me.

The EAA has held it's convention in Oshkosk for Far longer than the PRA used Mentone. And EAA doesn't seem to be drug down by folks whining that Oshkosh is too far away. EAA people use it as a destination and make it happen, either flying there, trailering there, or flying commercially and renting a car to get there.

Same deal with Sun n Fun.

When times comes to take the family on vacation, seems people from all over the world have no problem getting to walt disney world in Florida... Or going to the Bahamas or France or wherever they want to go.

Sure, it sucks if you live in California and want to go to either Oshkosh or Mentone... Thats a long trek, but it is what it is.

 

[WaspAir]

EAA AirVenture is held at Winnebago County-owned Wittman Regional Airport. The EAA did not buy that airport, unannounced and unapproved, with dues money from its members.

Mentone is not on a par with DisneyWorld, the Bahamas, AirVenture, or France for attracting travelers.