One thousand hours as pilot in command.

[SgurlEd]

Incredible Talent here on the Forum!

Incredible Talent here on the Forum!

Gilbert aka Cita,
How cool is that I do so love the patch. I've actually played with it and altered it slightly just to see how it would look you style is the absolute best. I like it because it resembles the Harley-Davidson Logo Vance and I both ride. I would love to learn to design something like that I'd dearly love to make a Predator patch. Everyone loves it so much it would be fun to give them away as stickers and patches and kids. I love bright colors and want it to be seen.

What kind of program do you use to make these. I've seen Gabors work as well...he makes some incredible works of art! I'd love to learn how to do this...this kind of of creativity is just up my alley!

Thanks again...Love the other patches you made for your friends...your a pretty Kool Guy!
Love & Hugs! Ed

 

[StanFoster]

Vance- I was talking about rotorcraft hours. I have 175 fixed wing hours before I was exposed to rotorcraft. I will soon have 200 helicopter hours. After last nightts hour flight, I am at 991 rotorcraft hoursm. Stan

 

[Sita]

Gilbert aka Cita,
How cool is that I do so love the patch. I've actually played with it and altered it slightly just to see how it would look you style is the absolute best. I like it because it resembles the Harley-Davidson Logo Vance and I both ride. I would love to learn to design something like that I'd dearly love to make a Predator patch. Everyone loves it so much it would be fun to give them away as stickers and patches and kids. I love bright colors and want it to be seen.

What kind of program do you use to make these. I've seen Gabors work as well...he makes some incredible works of art! I'd love to learn how to do this...this kind of of creativity is just up my alley!

Thanks again...Love the other patches you made for your friends...your a pretty Kool Guy!
Love & Hugs! Ed

Hello Mrs Breese,

thank you very much for the kind words,it's appreciated.

I'm using Autocad which is not the best graphic program for such work I guess. I'm certainly not a proffesional and just doing this for fun.
I use raster images to get a basic idea and redraw the images with polylines and arc's.Later everything is "smoothed out" and colored.

I'll see if I can come up with a sketch for the Predator in a while.

Thanks again for the kind words and if there's anything I can do in regard to patches or logo's just let me know and I'll see what I can do.

Cita

 

[Sita]

Vance- I was talking about rotorcraft hours. I have 175 fixed wing hours before I was exposed to rotorcraft. I will soon have 200 helicopter hours. After last nightts hour flight, I am at 991 rotorcraft hoursm. Stan

One for you Mr. "Heldacopter" !!

Cita

 

[Sita]

Mrs Breese, Predator patch sketch

Mrs Breese, Predator patch sketch

Mrs. Breese,

here a quick sketch for the/a Predator patch.

Regards,
Cita

 

[StanFoster]

Cita- I haven't been able to view whst you made for me. My laptop lost its internet connection through some "error", and my cellphone won't show it. Thsanks as I know t will be appreciated when I do see it. Stan

 

[Vance]

Simple lines with an implication.

Simple lines with an implication.

Thank you Gilbert, I envy the artist in you.

To take some simple lines and make The Predator identifiable is something outside of my capabilities.

Thank you for your effort.

I like both of them a lot.

Ed will see what a patch store can do with your design.

Thank you, Vance

 

[gyrojake]

My hats off to you. Hope you have may thousands of hours enjoying your flights. I know I enjoy the photos. Keep em spinnin Vance.

~~JAKE~~

 

[Vance]

Back to the thousand hours as pilot in command.

Back to the thousand hours as pilot in command.

I have never been pilot in command of anything but a gyroplane.

When I was ready to solo a Helicopter I could not get a medical because I was blind in one eye and had significant neurological damage. Thus began my two year interaction with the FAA that was resolved with my demonstrated ability medical check ride and my statement of demonstrated ability.

Yesterday I took Bob flying and was reminded of another subtlety of increasing pilot proficiency.

Let me frame this by mentioning that Bob was a Vietnam era dust off pilot and his call sign is Hotdog.

I have yet to find anything I can do in a gyroplane that makes Bob nervous.

As though staged for Bob a pair of Cobras flew by. I only got a good picture of one. They were headed South South West and the air trembled at their passing.

I told the tower at SBP that I would be doing a steep approach and came in high over the numbers, 1,000 feet AGL. I slowed her to 30kts indicated air speed and let her sink almost to my touchdown point showing 10kts of ground speed before I let her speed back up to 50kts IAS. ATC had given me a gratuitous wind check and the wind sock was twitching through around thirty degrees so I added a little power, let her drift a little and landed with near zero toll. I mention this not because it was particularly cool maneuver but because of how I felt doing it. It felt like playing a musical instrument and there was never a feeling of trepidation about the outcome. I find joy in this.

This may be my overconfidence showing but I enjoyed the feeling of serenity a lot.

I let Bob take the controls over Huasna and he did much better than last time. He has the throttle control of a pilot. He still has a tendency to pick up speed and descend at around 270 degrees of a 360. In his defense the wind was rolling over the hills and lift would change to sink as he worked his way around to the left toward the ridgeline. He was wearing his helmet from the service so he could not hear me well as the speed picked up. Now that I think about it that may have been the reason behind it. I asked him if it gave him flash backs and he said “yes, but they were all good.”

For those who wonder I make it abundantly clear that these are not flying lessons and Bob is planning on taking instruction before he solos the gyroplane he is building. He will be coming to The Ken Brock Freedom Fly In to learn more about gyroplanes and meet some new friends.

We transferred control of the aircraft back to me and we were still at 2,800 feet over the Twichell Resevor when I called SMX ATC. I pulled the power back to idle over the foot hills and we rode the descending terrain down to 800 feet over the riverbed. This was more than 2 miles of the swish of the rotor and the wind being the dominate sounds. AGL varied between 1,000 and 500 feet. I could not have planned it better and I am not sure I could do it again.

I felt it was a nice demonstration of what I have learned in 1,000 hours as pilot in command and it is something I plan to do more of.

I remember the first time I pulled the power back over Harris Grade on the way back from Lompoc because I wanted to find out how much altitude I needed over the pass to make it to the fields if the engine stopped. I found it intimidating and the lack of noise disorienting. I had no real sense of how things were going and my vision narrowed out of trepidation. I tensed up at each little bump in the sky.

My confidence in a power off descent other than to land began with the many things I learned when I shut off the engine at 12,800 feet over Oceano and made it dead stick to SMX. A power off landing from 500 feet has too much going on for me to experiment much. I feel I need to be committed to an approach angle and aiming at a touchdown point early on. More than 13 minutes of quiet was very instructive.

Thank you, Vance

 

[Vance]

A part of the adventure.

A part of the adventure.

Hello Jake,

You are a very enjoyable part of my gyroplane adventure.

I am glad you like the pictures Jake, I love sharing them.

Thank you, Vance

 

[SgurlEd]

Wow! SUPER

Wow! SUPER

Mrs. Breese,

here a quick sketch for the/a Predator patch.

Regards,
Cita

OK...someone must have told you how much a fan of Superman I am...so much so it is part of my "Handel" SgurlEd I think I even own over twenty Various Superman Shirts too now I'll have to have one made like this....AWESOME!

The Patch is is Bright and your diamond design can't help but draw your eye to the center of the pic!! I just love it you really know your way around the computer! Vance has a Cad program but he uses it for building his aircraft. I am IMPRESSED! I am looking forward to see how you finish it up!

It has VOOM, POW...SWOOSH...BAMM! No Kryptonite could penetrate this Patch!

This so made my day Thanks Cita!

Cheers! SgurlEd ;-P

 

[Sita]

Thank you Mrs B. !!!

It was pure luck that the shape and colors of the patch matched your affection of a comic strip hero Mrs. B.,no skill or proffesionalism involved here from my side.

Usually a design remain's a sketch for me untill the customer give his final yes.If there's anything you want to be changed (wider borders-colors-layout-lettering-shape etc...) just let me know and we adjust the design till you're happy with it Mrs. B.


Vance,

some shapes can easily be visualised with a few lines (Eiffel Tower-Bensen gyrocopter-Jeep-a knife-guitar etc....) others need more refinement in the layout to focus on the subject.
It would be difficult for example to design a patch for a Ken Brock gyro because the similarity between a Bensen and a Brock is very close, using the outlines of the machine.Concentration on the name via colors,layout and shape would be demanded here.
The Predator has a very recognisable airframe which makes it easy to show the message with a few simple lines.
The most important I guess is that I like to do this which makes it all a bit easier.I never ask anything for it ( and like to keep it that way !!) which gives interactioin with the "customer", non comparable to when you have to do this as a buisiness. !!

Regards,

Cita

 

[SgurlEd]

Ok...what do you think?

Ok...what do you think?

Thank you Mrs B. !!!

It was pure luck that the shape and colors of the patch matched your affection of a comic strip hero Mrs. B.,no skill or proffesionalism involved here from my side.

Usually a design remain's a sketch for me untill the customer give his final yes.If there's anything you want to be changed (wider borders-colors-layout-lettering-shape etc...) just let me know and we adjust the design till you're happy with it Mrs. B.


Vance,

some shapes can easily be visualised with a few lines (Eiffel Tower-Bensen gyrocopter-Jeep-a knife-guitar etc....) others need more refinement in the layout to focus on the subject.
It would be difficult for example to design a patch for a Ken Brock gyro because the similarity between a Bensen and a Brock is very close, using the outlines of the machine.Concentration on the name via colors,layout and shape would be demanded here.
The Predator has a very recognisable airframe which makes it easy to show the message with a few simple lines.
The most important I guess is that I like to do this which makes it all a bit easier.I never ask anything for it ( and like to keep it that way !!) which gives interactioin with the "customer", non comparable to when you have to do this as a buisiness. !!

Regards,

Cita

Cita,

I apologize for the Cheesy way this is done but I am wearing many hat's today and I don't have a cool Guy Cad program like yourself. Tel me what you think. Let me know if you don't understand something...
Thanks Cheers! Ed

 

[Sita]

Hello Mrs. B,

I adjusted a few things. The bottom one is like your design.
I've tried to bring the rotor more in the spotlight but there's a sort of conflict in interests. There's the name "Predator" and the rotor,both trying to attract the eye.
I can enlarge the yellow field to above the rotor which will better "promote" the presence of the rotor.The Predator name will appear smaller than but we can allways enlarge the lettering.
Just let me know what you think of it.

Regards,

Cita

 

[Sita]

Tried to post it this morning but apparently lost in cyberspace !

 

[SgurlEd]

Now I have to think...

Now I have to think...

Tried to post it this morning but apparently lost in cyberspace !

Cita...
For some reason I didn't get this post as I usually do as I subscribe to it...as you say probably lost in Cyber Space...I got it now thou

Now you are making it hard....WOW! I like the Black Rotor and the patch with the Red border.

I am completely impressed. Now I have to think...scary prospect!

Thanks Ever So Much Cita Very Cool!

SGURL ;-P

Here is a picture of the only art I know...it was taken this evening On the Mesa where we live looking out to the beach where Vance flys over!

 

[Sita]

You're welcome Mrs. B.

No computer or skill can match that kind of art !!!


reagards,
Cita

 

[Greg Mitchell]

G'Day Ed,

Happy 2nd Anniversary. We had a fantastic day with your fella. What a Bonzer Bloke.

As we travelled back to LA we were looking at the same moon. Gorgeous as it got lower in the evening sky, with the dust and smog turning it a dusty orange.

Cheers,

Mitch

 

[Sita]

Red border but with black rotor. I noticed that the number of stars was incorrect,adjusted this.

regards,
Cita

 

[SgurlEd]

Thanks...

Thanks...

G'Day Ed,

Happy 2nd Anniversary. We had a fantastic day with your fella. What a Bonzer Bloke.

As we travelled back to LA we were looking at the same moon. Gorgeous as it got lower in the evening sky, with the dust and smog turning it a dusty orange.

Cheers,

Mitch

Mitch,
Thank you so much for the Anniversary Wishes. About the Moon and LA well that's about the only positive side to smog is what it does to our Moon this time of the year!


I want you to know you made that Bonzer Bloke's 1000 hours. All Vance could do once he got home was talk about your meeting and how charmed he was by your two serious minded youth. He told me he never met a more engaging pair!


Naturally is was wonderful to meet you and your lovely wife as well...he couldn't have asked for a better way to celebrate those thousand hours than with someone who is clearly from the other side of the world who knows the of flying His Autogiro!


I love when Vance & I have the opportunity to get to know other people...I am so sorry that I couldn't be there too. I know I truly missed out!


Out of curiosity...I was wondering how our flying here is the different or is it very much the same as where you are from. I know you have more wide open spaces as we are limited here what with out towered airport...do you think that it limits your feeling of freedom in the skies?


I guess I better get to bed. My husbands has probably wondering what happened to me!


Cheerio for Now! Ed

This is a picture almost smog free Ha.. ;-P