Realizing a dream...a flight to OSH in my own Experimental

[Loren Jones]

I know Leigh has posted a great account of our day, but I wanted to throw in a few more details from my perspective:

I've long had a dream of one day building my own aircraft and being able to fly it OSH for AirVenture. Yesterday, I realized that dream.

I started on an RV-6 kitplane back in 1998, but soon realized with a young family and busy career that I had little chance of finishing it within a reasonable time. So the tail went on a shelf and I bought a Mooney to travel around in with the family.

Then I stumbled into gyroplanes a year ago, as I've recounted here before. When I met Denis Schoemaker at Gyro Technic the dream of building my own aircraft was immediately rekindled. And I seems exceedingly doable in a reasonable amount of time.

And it was. I did my build in about seven months (VERY part time) with some great help from Denis and his talented staff keeping me on the right track. So that goal was realized the first week of July. A few days later the additional goal of getting my Repairman's Certificate was realized so I can legally maintain it on my own.
.
The following two weeks were busy with the Task Based Phase 1. The data logging capabilities within my Kanardia instrumentations made that very efficient with a mountain of data which could be analyzed for deriving performance data.

The final step was flying to OSH. In an open-seat Gyroplane, I knew the stars would have to align perfectly to pull it off with weather being the main issue. I started watching the forecasts a week out. It looked possible. With each passing day the prognosis looked very more promising, but you really don't know til the day arrives.

The day arrived and it look pretty darn good. So we launched around 8 a.m. with the first stop slated for about 50 nm away to check things out, but a fuel indication issue caused me to make a precautionary stop after about 25 miles. We then moved on to the original first stop to double-check things. All looked good so the next leg was our longest with just over 120 nm. That one I beat my ground crew by quite a bit so got to chill chatting with numerous aviators who'd stopped for fuel en route to OSH. Everyone wanted to check out the bright yellow gyroplane!

After Leigh and Denis caught up, we refueled (both plane and pilot) and I was off. By that time thunderstorms had started popping up so many of the planes decided to wait a bit. Knowing my speed and the speed of the storm headed for OSH I felt I could time it just about right so I launched.

The timing worked out perfectly. I arrived at OSH just as the storm had moved through so barely felt a dozen drops or so and touched down on the Ultralight grass strip at OSH. A dream come true. Attached are a few pics and Foreflight screen captures from the adventure. I'll post more when I get around downloading my camera images.

Thanks to everyone that's made this dream come true: Denis, Leigh, Grant and Mike. Without them it would not have been possible. It will be forever treasured as one of my most fulfilling life experiences.

Loren

P.S. I also need to thank my exceptionally patient wife, who keeps asking "So, how much is this thing going to cost??" while accepting "I have NO idea!" as a response!

 

[Sv.grainne]

Beautiful!

 

[Vance]

Congratulations Loren Jones.

 

[Loren Jones]

This week has been a blur and a blast at the same time. Getting to fly your creation every day at the world's biggest fly-in was an amazing experience that will never be forgotten.

And when all is said and done, "Reserve Grand Champion Gyrocopter" was an amazingly wonderful end to this wild journey! I am beyond ecstatic. Thanks to Denis Schoemaker for such an amazing design, and to his staff for their expert guidance during the build. This trophy will forever be one of my most prized possessions, second only to the experience of building and flying this wonderful machine.

Loren
N557LJ

 

[Resasi]

Very well done Loren.

You really made some massive steps in a very short time.

Big congratulations.

 

[Eric S]

Interesting that you won the Gyrocopter award and not a Gyroplane award. Is this real?
; )

 

[Capt'n Gator]

This week has been a blur and a blast at the same time. Getting to fly your creation every day at the world's biggest fly-in was an amazing experience that will never be forgotten.

And when all is said and done, "Reserve Grand Champion Gyrocopter" was an amazingly wonderful end to this wild journey! I am beyond ecstatic. Thanks to Denis Schoemaker for such an amazing design, and to his staff for their expert guidance during the build. This trophy will forever be one of my most prized possessions, second only to the experience of building and flying this wonderful machine.

Loren
N557LJ

Great Job to both you and Denis and his team at the shop. Please include a video walk around of your yellow bird so that I can salivate dreaming about my Red VX-2 to come.

 

[Loren Jones]

Very well done Loren.

You really made some massive steps in a very short time.

Big congratulations.

Thanks, Leigh. The fun has been in the journey with all the terrific people I’ve met along the way. I look forward to much more of the same in this adventure.

 

[Loren Jones]

Interesting that you won the Gyrocopter award and not a Gyroplane award. Is this real?
; )

I’ll take it regardless of what they chose to engrave on it. Ron Menzie often uses “gyrocopter” in the traffic pattern because people tend to better understand what they’re looking for. I tend toward the generic “rotorcraft” term in the pattern.

 

[Loren Jones]

Great Job to both you and Denis and his team at the shop. Please include a video walk around of your yellow bird so that I can salivate dreaming about my Red VX-2 to come.

Good idea! I will work on that.

 

[MikeBoyette]

Kinda of an old argument. People always point to the fact that Bensen had a copyright on the name “Gyrocopter”. When I spent the week with Dr.Bensen this was one of the questions I asked him because I always heard it was one of his pet peeves. His response was (I’m paraphrasing because I don’t remember the exact wording). It used to but, as I have gotten older and am no longer in business not so much anymore.

Ron I’m sure calls it that because he was a long time Bensen pilot. If it makes our sport and machines more recognizable I say go for it. I know Dr. B wouldn’t mind especially if it were done for safety.

 

[Aerofoam]

Same thing happened in "Wind Surfing", it was a registered company trademark, so the general term for all others had to be
"Sail Boarding" Most people over 40 are windsurfers......

 

[Doctordantodd]

Awesome plane and great accomplishment! Holy Cow! Next you will get your DPE and be President of the PRA!!

 

[querist]

I’ll take it regardless of what they chose to engrave on it. Ron Menzie often uses “gyrocopter” in the traffic pattern because people tend to better understand what they’re looking for. I tend toward the generic “rotorcraft” term in the pattern.

If nothing else, hearing those last to syllables "...copter" tells someone to expect a rotor spinning on the top of the aircraft and to expect it, in general, to be slower than the fixed-wing aircraft.

 

[WaspAir]

This has been debated here before. Since the official FAA terminology is gyroplane, that's what I say in radio calls.

 

[Mayfield]

Since the official FAA terminology is gyroplane, that's what I say in radio calls.

For me, it's pretty straight forward. Communicate using standard vocabulary and phraseology. The widest possible audience will understand you if you follow this rule.

Jim

 

[querist]

For me, it's pretty straight forward. Communicate using standard vocabulary and phraseology. The widest possible audience will understand you if you follow this rule.

Jim

Agreed, and I am all for standardized terminology, but the fact that the standard term ends in "plane" may cause confusion if someone misses part of the radio call, as can easily happen if your passenger is talking to you at the time when the call starts.

 

[Sv.grainne]

I identify as experimental Gyro, xxxxx. Very common to be called gyro or gyrocopter.

 

[okikuma]

I identify as experimental Gyro, xxxxx. Very common to be called gyro or gyrocopter.

One can use any "named" call sign to self identity their aircraft to air traffic control. Reminds me of a story some years ago. An aircraft was carrying the then Governor of the State of Montana to Washington D.C.. The call sign to ATC was BIG SKY ONE. One controller along the way misunderstood and replied with PIG STYE ONE.

Wayne

 

[Sv.grainne]

I announce "experimental Gyro 46 Lima Whiskey". Untowered airfields

N546LW