Ron Awad - Charlotte N.C. area

[GyroRon]

Okay a little about me. I was born in Miami Florida, but raised in the Mountains of N.C. - Franklin was the town - from age 1 on till age 12. At age 12 my family moved to Charlotte N.C. I lived in Charlotte till 1999 when on a whim I decided to move to Southwest Florida. I loved living there, but really missed the Carolinas so in 2001 I moved back and this time bought a house just a mile or so south of Charlotte in Fort Mill S.C.

I am Married to my lovely wife Shannon, and we have one child, a Little boy named Kasey. I am sure you all have seen pictures of Kasey as I love to take him flying with me in my airplane. Shannon is older than me by about 2 months and was born and rasied here in the Fort Mill - Charlotte Area. We met back when we were both 21 year old party animals, at a popular nightclub. A Ex girl friend of mine introduces us, and one thing lead to another and before too long we ended up " going steady " We dated for several years before we got married. Our son Kasey was born March 22nd 2002. This was only about a week before Bensen Days!!! He is very smart and a huge blessing for us.

I got started in flying with R-C model airplanes. Back in 1993 I joined the Charlotte Aeromodelers as a nervous student. A month later I was put on the instructors list for the club... So needless to say I did good with models. Our club model field was based on a old closed grass strip that was just inside the 7 mile ring for Charlotte Douglas international. But on a very Very rare occasion we would see a ultralight flying off in the distance. I never thought much about it cause I just knew flying a "real" airplane would be very hard and complicated and also extremely expensive.

But one day this ultralight came by low and fast over the trees and buzzed the runway at the model field. He buzzed us two or three times and then flew back where he came from. This is what hooked me! I turned to the only other guy who was there flying, a good friend of mine Mark who lived near the model field and knew all the area roads well. I asked him if he thought he could find where that Ultralight took off from, cause neither of us knew of any airports nearby where he could have taken off from. We drove around for about 30 minutes when I spotted a long grass strip that was really someones front yard and I just knew that had to be a airstrip. We turned in the driveway and sure enough, about 1000 feet from the road was a small open T hangar with 4 ultralights under it. It had no Trespassing signs up everywhere so we never stopped since no one was there.

But... like I said I was Hooked, I wanted to know more and see what flying ultralights was all about. I drove by that ultralight strip every time I went to the Model field to fly my models and stopped by there on the way home. After about 10 or 15 visits with no luck, I finally found someone out there. I stopped in and got to chat with the pilot and he answered alot of my questions and suggested I go down to Greer S.C. to a big ultralight flight center called Flight World.

I went to Flight world a week or two later for my first time with Shannon and we both got our first introductory flights in a two seat Quicksilver MX. This was around October of 1994. I loved it, Shannon said it was fun but it wasn't something she cared much for. I mowed it over for about a month and a half and couldn't stand it any longer. I made arrangements for lessons and in December of 1994 I took a whole week off to be able to go down to Greer and take lessons on a daily basis till I had learned to fly. By the end of that week I had soloed in their single place Quicksilver Sprint. I came down once after the new year to Rent the Sprint for a few hours to do some flying, but knew I needed to buy my own airplane. I had no resoures other than the few guys I had met at the local ultralight field and Flightworld, so my pickings were slim as far as finding a nice used airplane to buy, But I lucked out and one of the people based at Flightworld decided to sell me HER Quicksilver single place Sport. This was in early Febuary of 1995.

By the end of 1995 I had flown over 150 hours in that Quicksilver. I kept the Quicksilver for 1 and 1/2 years and then got into this cycle I have yet to break out of. Buying something, keeping it for a year or two then selling and buying something different. By October 1999 when we Moved to Florida I had owned and flown the Quicksilver, a Two place Phantom, a Rans S-9 and a Single place Phantom that I flew on Floats off the local lakes summer of 1995. I had logged most of my time during those years and I had logged over 500 hours.

to be continued.....

 

[GyroRon]

When I moved to florida, I was forced to sell my Phantom to come up with Downpayment money to buy our first house, we had always rented before. I didn't know anyone in florida other than my family that still lived in Miami, and needless to say I knew none of the local ultralighters or even where they would be flying from. Everytime I saw a small plane fly over I couldn't stand not being able to be up there with him. I was about to go insane when the Punta Gorda airport had a airshow open to the public in early spring of 2000. I went to the airshow and was walking around when I found off on one end of the field, several ultralights parked on display. I hung around looking at the planes and hoping to talk to the pilots to get to know them. But none of the guys ever came around. I did see a little powered parachute that was for sale at a very cheap price, and since I didn't have much money at the time, I thought maybe I could afford the PPC and at least be able to fly again. So I took down the phone number and later that day I got the owner on the phone and made a deal on the chute to buy it and the next day I came up to pay for it and take it home.

In this guys hangar I got to see my first gyroplane. He had a Pit Bull and a Parsons trainer. Neither was flying but all I remembered is I didn't understand the machines and although they looked neat, the thought that one day I would be flying one did NOT go through my mind.

I took the parachute home, checked it over real good, read the flight manual and the next day took it back to Punta Gorda and got in it and took off and flew. It was that easy to fly. I enjoyed flying it and flew it several times in the next few weeks. On Easter Sunday 2000 I decided to go flying early that morning before it got windy. I decided to take off from a empty lot in the northeast part of Cape Coral where I lived and flew over towards downtown Fort Myers. I got over the River between Cape Coral and Fort Myers and saw several boats on the river. I decided to fly a little lower to get a better look and after circling a few times I decided to fly over Fort Myers. Just as I got over land one of the two small engines that powered the Paraplane quit on me. I turned back towards Cape Coral thinking I might be able to limp home on one engine, but that wasn't the case. When I turned back over the river the machine started to drop like a rock and next thing I know I was in the water with my face in the muddy bottom and a powered parachute strapped to my back! I tried to stand up and low and behold I was only in 3 feet deep water. I had gotten very lucky!

I got the chute dragged out and loaded, and got it home to do repairs. Nothing was hurt except one engine has seized and water had got into both engines and the gas tank. While it was apart for repairs I decided I needed to look for something else to fly, the chute wasn't doing it for me as my only aircraft. I found a great deal on a Team Hi max fixed wing ultralight and bought it that fall of 2000. I kept it in my garage at home and it was a big ordeal to take it to the airport and put on the wings and fly and take it apart and bring it back home. So I flew it once and luckily while at the Punta Gorda airport flying that day, I met a pair of brothers that shared a hangar there and offered to let me squezze my Hi max in the hangar with their stuff. I still had to pull one wing on and off to get it in hangar with the other planes, but it was better than taking it home on a trailer!

Then fast forward to Feb of 2001 and the Punta Gorda airport put on another airshow, but this time I was one of the pilots with a plane on display! While there at the airshow I decided to walk around and happened to walk by Richard Catfish Oxnams gyro. He had a huge crowd of people around him and his machine but I was interested in talking to him and waited my turn and got to finally talk to Catfish. He was Super nice and talked to me for about a half hour and really had my interest peaked in gyroplanes. He invited me to the Immokalee airport the next Saturday, He said several area gyro pilots keep their gyros there at that airport and they all gather there every Saturday morning. So the next Saturday I drove down there and as I pulled up there was several gyros in the air flying overhead. Some were flying low and I could see the pilots smiling and just knew this was something I wanted to do. Icing on the cake was watching the pilots fly right up to the hangar and land in the grass with no roll out on landing. I was hooked again!

While I was hanging out and checking out the machines, Bud Oneil, the President of PRA chapter 26 went to his truck and came out with a picture of a used gyro another club member was selling. He annouced to the small crowd that Hernan Yates was selling his machine and started to wave the picture around. It was too tempting not to check out, so I asked Bud if it was a good machine and he said it was, and I knew the price was right - 3500$ but no blades - so I made arrangements to go to Hermans to buy and take home my new gyro.

I got the gyro home and didn't know the first thing about how to fly it. I needed blades so I called everyone listed in a issue of rotorcraft magazine Bud had given me. I decided to buy Sportcopter blades and was just waiting for Bensen Days to come around so I could find a instructor and get some lessons. The wait for Bensen Days wasn't too bad cause it was early that year, only about a month after I bought the gyro.

I went to Bensen Days and got Lessons from Steve McGowan. I trained with him all week - 10 days to be exact - and by the end of the fly in, I expected him to tell me I needed to make a trip up to Georgia to take more lessons, but instead Steve told me I was ready and to go home and on a calm day after practicing taxiing and crowhopping my machine, I was ready to solo. So solo I did the very next weekend!

I got myself hangar space at Immokalee with the rest of the guys, and sold my Hi Max and turned in my key to the Punta Gorda hangar. I Flew my " Hermanator " every weekend and every day after work when I had a chance the rest of the spring, all summer and most of fall. I must have flown 100 hours that summer alone. I went to my first ROC fly in that October and after ROC I took the gyro on up here to Shannons parents house to leave since I knew I was moving back here in another month or two.

After we got moved in and settled I got the gyro back out and decided to take it somewhere to fly it. I decided Goose Creek was a good place so I trailered it there and set up and flew and then would bring it back home afterwards. I did this till about Febuary when I decided I wanted a more powerful and better gyro. I found a great deal on the forum for a RF-150 that had been for sale for a while and called the owner and made arrangements and drove to Arkansas to meet him to pick it up - he lived in Publeo Colorado. I did the trailer the gyro and set it up to go and take it apart and take it home thing till mid summer 2002.

I was flying at Rock Hill one day when I ran into a airplane pilot that wanted to come over and see the gyro and had a bunch of questions for me. One thing lead to another and before the end of that night we had made room in his hangar and he let me store my gyro there with his planes. We become friends and about a year later he had learned to fly gyros himself. I stayed in his hangar that whole summer and fall and by that winter I had wanted to get another fixed wing ultralight type airplane. I knew that there was no room for another airplane in chucks hangar at Rock Hill and to rent a hangar there was going to cost me 300+ dollars a month, so I looked into hangars at other airports.

I always enjoyed flying over to Goose Creek cause there was always alot of activity there, many ultralight pilots based there. The deal with Goose creek was you could build your own hangar and the rent was only 42$ a month. I figured it was the best option as other airports wanted alot more in just rent for a hangar and little to no real activity, where was Goose creek I would have alot of fun and my investment in my hangar could always be returned if I sold my Hangar.

I wasn't sure what kind of airplane I would buy so I had a hard time making up my mind on how big to make the hangar, but in the end I went for broke and made it the maximum size I could for one " lot " - 40x40 feet.

to be continued.....

 

[GyroRon]

Before I even broke ground on my hangar, I had found a nice little airplane called a Baby Ace. I bought it for a super good price and then got started building my hangar the 2nd week of 2003. I was done with the hangar a month later and was now able to enjoy flying my gyro and my new airplane. Over the course of 2003 I went on a buying a selling spree airplane wise and had went from the Baby Ace to a Starduster BiPlane, to a X-air ultralight trainer, to a Sonex Sportplane. After ROC of 2003 I decided I needed to do the "right" thing and get my private pilots certificate. So I sold the Sonex and bought a plane that had all the lights and instruments and radios needed to do all my PPL training. I ended up finding a nice restored Piper Pacer for what I had just sold the Sonex for. I started my lessons the day my first instructor and I flew the Pacer home from Florida where I bought it. This was late November 2003. I flew just about every day for a hour or so all of December - taking two weeks off for the holidays - and all of January. On Jan 31st 2004 I went for my Checkride and passed earning my Private pilot rating. I had made arrangements to buy a car while out of town taking my checkride and bought a cheap car and drove it home and let my instructor fly my plane back to Goose Creek. Well he crashed the plane upon landing and ended up nearly totaling the plane.

The plane was in the shop being rebuilt all Spring and partway into the summer, I finally got it back sometime in june I think. In the meantime I have put over 70 hours on it since getting it back and have been enjoying the heck out of it.

Backtracking a little on the gyros, I had sold my first machine not long after buying the RFI-150. I kept the RFI only a few months and ended up selling it cause I had just bought a Red Dominator. I kept the Red Dominator for about a year and decided to sell it around the same time I started my flight lessons in the Pacer, so I could free up some cash to pay for my lessons and books and tests and so on. I was gyroless for a month or so and on Christmas vacation in Florida I bought the Black Bensen with the Tweety Bird tail with the change I had left over from selling the Dominator and paying for my flight training. My friend Chuck who shared his hangar with me at Rock Hill had moved to the mountains of West Virginia and had sold his gyro when he moved and he had gotten the gyro bug again and wanted to get another gyro, I was wanting to get another Phantom ultralight and take a gyro break for a while so I traded Chuck the Bensen for his Phantom this past Febuary and was gyroless myself for a few months.

I took the Phantom with me to Bensen Days this past spring and had a great time with it, but I knew I had to have another gyro. I had considered buying several gyros I knew that were for sale at the time, and I had made arrangements to buy a Bensen with a Subaru on it, but at the same time I put together a deal to buy a Dominator project that was about 50 percent built. I went ahead and bought both gyros and was going to sell the Phantom to help pay for them and fly the Bensen while building the Dominator. But I was a little heavy for the Bensen and I was building the Dominator so fast I decided to sell the Bensen not long after I got it. Mike Morgan ended up buying it from me. I finished the Dominator in about a month and a half of working on it nearly everyday after work and alot on the weekends. I have been flying my Dominator ever since. Because I have been flying my Pacer alot, trying to build up some hours so my insurance will be cheaper at the next renewal and to get the 120 hour minimum so my hangar neighbor Mike can add me to his insurance to be coverered to fly his airplanes, I haven't been racking up alot of hours on the Dominator, but I do have over 30 now which isn't too bad considering I didn't get it flying till mid summer.

I have had the chance to fly alot of airplanes and gyros over the years.... Here is a list of the airplanes and gyros I have flown

Airplanes.... Quicksilver single place and two place, Older rudder elevator only Quicksilver, Phantom single place, Phantom two Place, Flightstar two place, Cobra single place, CGS hawk, Team Hi max, T bird single place, T bird two place, Rans S-9 chaos, Rans S-6 Coyote, X-Air two place, challenger single place, Baby Ace, Starduster, Sonex, Ercoupe, Cessna 172, Piper Pacer, Harmon Rocket - I flew it but not solo

Gyros.... Drop keel Bensen, Modified CLT Bensen, Dominator, Aircommand elite, Aircommand Low rider, RFI-150, Soma, Gyrobee, Mad Max single place, Aircommand side by side, KB-2, Bensen, Pit Bull, RAF - not solo, Dominator two place - Not solo, Parsons trainer - Not solo.

and I flew the powered parachute and flew once in a trike - with the instructor but I did 90 percent of the flying, and it was VERY fun to fly the trike!

I have a few other hobbys, but in the last year or so, I have not done much else but fly on my days off. I like to ride motorcycles, I currently own a Harley 1200. I also like to go dirtbike riding or atv riding, I currently have a little Honda 250 fourwheeler. I like boating, but have decided to take some time off from boats. I still like Model airplanes and have a few little electric park flyer planes and a glider.

A few things I want to try... Want to learn to fly trikes and buy and fly one for a while. also want to learn to skydive.

As most of you know I cut grass for a living. I have done lawn service for myself since 1994, just as I was getting into airplanes. Before lawnservice, I had several typical after high school jobs. I worked at the grocery store, worked at Mcdonalds and Burger King, worked at a quicklube oil change place, worked at the car wash, And delievered pizza for several years.

I am a high school drop out, the last grade I completed was the 9th grade. I went to CPCC to earn my highschool diploma but dropped out of that too


I am the only one alive in my family that has any interest in flying. My uncle Victor - we called him Curley - flew. He started flying back in the mid 70's and worked his way up to ATP and was flying freight and flying charter flights in South Florida. He was killed in a plane crash when I was about 12 or 13 years old.

Sorry for such long postings, it is too wet outside to work and I guess I got carried away.

Oh and one last thing.... I am left handed.

 

[GyroRon]

Couple of pictures.

1. Shannon and I at a Bar in the Florida Keys
2. Shannon a me flying in the Pacer
3. Kasey having fun in the front seat
4. Kasey in the back seat having fun flying with daddy

 

[Heron]

Thanks Ron . . . I will read the entire thing when is raning down here!
Heron

 

[Victor Duarte]

and then , they lived happy and had a lot of children
it rains and i have an hour to spend and my boss is ok (that's me!)
i m joking, i think everyone should tell a little more about him, enjoy all this ron. (damn kasey has killing eyes)
cheers

 

[barnstorm2]

Great bio Ron!

You should submit it to Rotorcraft along with pictures of the gyros you have owned or flown.

 

[GyroRon]

You really think so? I think it is kinda corny

 

[Madewooden]

Ron - You're an American success story! You go out and find the most challenging things, you're great at everything you attempt, and you're equally successful at evrything you do! Oh, and I love reading all your posts!

Tim

 

[GyroRon]

Well thanks Tim. That makes me feel good! Hope your days is going better than mine - Rain Sucks! still have 27 lawns to mow this week and I have plans for this weekend. Can't do 27 lawns in one day by myself.....

 

[Victor Duarte]

ron, just buy some goats, while they mow the lawn, you can go flying
and they have a built-in manure generator

 

[GyroRon]

No goats but to be honest, I am thinking some chickens would be nice. Fresh eggs for breakfast every morning... Yeah sounds like a plan!

 

[Victor Duarte]

oh my, my mother has a bunch of them , nothing like a fresh "just dropped from the chicken's ###" egg ..like we use to say