Thanks everyone

Mayfield

Gold Supporter
Joined
Oct 30, 2003
Messages
2,433
Location
Avondale, Arizona
Aircraft
Aero SP AT-4 (Gobosh 700X), TAG Titanium Explorer
Dear Friends,

I just got back to Arizona after my short trip to BD and S & F.

I want to thank everyone that I met at Bensen Days for the warm welcome, friendly discussion, and great time that I had.

This was the first event that I have attended in ten years as a "tourist." Particularly pleasurable to me was the chance to assign faces to the forum folks. I can not begin to tell you how much I enjoyed renewing old acqaintences, making new ones, and just sitting in the shade of those glorious old trees. I hope next year to stay into the night and have that part of the BD experience as well.

I know we sometimes argue about our PRA. I know we are an aging population. I can not help but believe though that we can bring some young folks into this great community. When you see the enthusiasm in MJ, Catfish, Ron Awad, Todd P, Gary Goldsberry, Rick Gilley, and many others, anything seems possible.

Thanks again to everyone.

Jim Mayfield
 
You're welcome, Jim........Oh wait. I wasn't there. Never mind. But I did hear that I was the topic of some conversation. Yep, I dinged my baby a short while ago. I was going to wait to post the details until I had before and after photos, but I must have told 20+ people about it and asked them to wait to say anything until I was done with the repairs. Well, we all know how that works. I'll get all the details and photos posted this weekend and the reason it happened. Well, we can all pretty much guess that....about 4 seconds of distraction and inattention. No damage to me luckily except my ego.
 
Mr. Mayfield it is always an honor and great pleasure to see you!
The PRA can be a great association and we can make it work.
Busy here . . .
Heron
 
JIm, Sorry I did not get to spend some time with you at S&F. I was hoping to see if we might put somthing to geather regarding test flight and training. But it was cgood to see you and you look well..

Tom & Debbie
 
Ken, mate, wot appewned.
[I hate hear'n bout 'dings']
 
Ken,

I assume you are alright, as you seem to be posting well and that is a good thing!

I hope your dings are not too bad, I really hate when that happens and it does happen!
 
I'll start a new thread shortly. Basically I was practicing engine-outs in the roto practice canyon and on my way down on the third one, some hikers were waving at me. I waved back for a few seconds and failed to notice I was slightly pulling back on the stick. When I went to power up and pull out of the descent, she just kept right on going and I did a perfect landing in some light scrub. I glanced at the airspeed indicator just before touchdown and it was reading around 30 m.p.h. I got too far behind the power curve. I walked this long road too see that it was O.K. and it looked fine for a take-off. What I didn't notice was that water laying in a low spot to the left of the road had seeped into the road making a soft-spot on the left side. On my take-off run, my left wheel hit the soft-spot and veered me sharply to the left, throwing me into a veritable swamp. She stopped on a dime, but the ground was so wet and soft, she just leaned to the left and went softly over. Here's a pic where you can see the wetness on the side of my "runway." In the photo, I was coming down toward the camera.

What's weird is that I had to leave her on her side overnight before I could get her out. When she was picked up the next day, someone had uprighted her by pulling on the blade that is bent. Both blades were straight when I left her except they looked a little like "Krinkle Fries." I can only guess that some off-roaders or hikers thought that someone may be under her and pulled her up to see. I have tons of pics to post. This one was taken from my "recovery vehicle." You can't see it in the photo, but where my gyro is sitting, the grass is about 5 inches tall and the water below it is about 4 inches deep. I was over my shoes in water when I got out. No damage to me except a very slight scrape on my left side of my noggin from the edge of the door-frame. You never saw anyone exit a gyro so fast. My whole left side was in a wet puddle and I thought it was fuel.
 

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Jim, a quick thanks for listening to my diatribe on training at Bensen Days. Getting to meet you and talk to you about the subject was the top item on my agenda. I didn't intend to 'corner' you but couldn't pass up the opportunity of catching you relaxing after a lunch. I hope I didn't spoil it for you!
 
Damn, Ken...that is bad, bad, bad. I hate to see that happen to anyones machine...especially to one of us older RAF'ers. :mad:

I'm relieved to see that all that is hurting...is your deep pockets. :rolleyes: No, really...glad to see your allright.

Was it on this forum or did I read it somewhere else...with flight experience of 4-500 hrs...one becomes complacent and that's when **** happens.

Now I understand why you were going YELLOW with your machine!!!

Take care.
 
Ken, I wish your machine a speedy recovery. I'm also glad your able to write about the incident with no injuries.
 
Ken,

Sorry about your mishap.

If you stick with Sport Rotor blades I sure hope you get a new set without a long wait. Being grounded is no fun!
 
Ken,

Really sorry to hear about your "incident." The good thing is you are ok, the machine can always be rebuilt.

That's what I told my wife each of the 3 times she's hit a deer with the car, and I do mean it, even for you. We can always replace our possessions, but not people important to us.

Don't go thinking you are as important to me as my wife, but you were instrumental in keeping us from buying an RAF when we were gyro newbies, and didn't know any better. For that help alone, you became important to my and my wife's lives. Your constant improvements to your machine, replacing defective RAF parts, and informing us, places you pretty high on the important people in my life list.

Best of luck in the repair.
 
Thanks everyone for the good wishes. I'll start a new thread and provide more photos and details. Actually, I'm pretty much done except for waiting for the guys to finish repairing and painting the tail and wheel pants. Thi$ one hurt me, but I wanted to make $ure everything wa$ perfect, so I not only ordered blades, but a completely new rotor-head including cheek-plates from Sportcopter. My rotor-head looks perfect and the blade-strike was in watery mud and well below flying rpm, but I can't take a chance, especially if I ever sell her.
 
Ken,
I have a NEW pair of 29' Sportcopters still in the box that I've been looking at for a year. If you are going to have to wait months, you could have these and I could get in line for a set because I'm not going to need the blades as soon as you will.
 
Sorry about the mishap, but glad you are okay...

and will be back in the air pursuing Karjackistanis soon! :)
 
Thanks David, but after talking to Jim and all the weight I've added to my gyro, 31-footers would be more ideal. But my 30-footers have already been started and I would have to wait months for 31-footers to be made.
 
Ken,

According to my understanding of the aerodynamic theories espoused on this forum, an RAF without rotor blades negates the safety issues of HTL and horizontal stabilizer altogether. :rolleyes:

Seriously, I am just glad that you were not injured in this mishap. All of us who have been flying for years understand that it is not a matter of "if", but "when" we might have a flying incident.
 
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