The August Chapter 5 meeting was held on the 23rd in Joe's hangar at Marysville. The hangar now has a beautiful new sign "Souza's Gyroplanes" that is an eye-catcher from the FBO's fuel pump area. This is an excellent location for these meetings since the meeting room is only a few steps from the gyros, which are only a few feet from the fuel and the runway. It is convenient for flying or just relaxing in the hangar and watching the runway.
Unfortunately, there was a gyroplane accident here at the Yuba County Airport a few days earlier but luckily there were only minor injuries. We heard the whole story from an eyewitness who saw the entire event unfold on August 18. The preliminary accident report, apparently based on input from some other so-called "eyewitness", stated the gyro "collided with the ground following separation of a main rotor blade." What really happened was exactly the opposite: the rotor blade separated after impact with the ground.
The student pilot had not been signed off for solo flight. He was performing a high speed taxi test on the runway when a gust of wind initiated the flight. He then attempted to circle back around at low altitude. In the final low turn back towards the runway, the gyro impacted, rolled and threw a rotor blade nearly 150 feet. The gyro had successfully been flown previously by an experienced pilot.
Though there were no chapter 5 members involved, an event like this can give us and gyros a bad public image. We are thankful that no one was seriously hurt and that the pilot walked away with only a scratch. Sadly though, it did not have to happen at all and could have easily been prevented. There are several obvious lessons to learn here. Get training. Take your time. If you are not prepared to fly, do not try high speed taxi tests and risk becoming airborne. Remember, these things are designed to fly! Be sure all your paperwork is in order and that you are completely legal to be in the air. Let's be safe out there; we don't want anything like this happening around here!
The main topic of discussion at the meeting was the 1999 fly-in at Jean, Nevada. The question has come up is the club really capable of doing this; should we have it or not? The problem seems to be that there are not enough firm commitments. There are several that can not afford another week or more off from their jobs and are not looking forward to the effort of preparing a fly-in so far away from home. Others would like to help but can't commit unless there is more experienced leadership to follow. This will be likely be discussed further next time around.
Another topic that was tabled to next meeting is the annual picnic. Should it be an open event or just for the chapter members only? If you have a say in these issues, make sure you are at the next meeting.
Now on to some of the project updates. Pete has merged a hydraulic pre-rotator with an electric A/C compressor clutch for their new J4B2. It looks like this setup will work out quite nicely.
Bob Aspegren referred to his upcoming 100 horsepower Continental powered machine as the Bandit "Pro". Bob will be using an LCD engine monitor made by EIS. This will provide more information in less precious panel space than a conventional set of gauges.
Speaking of more horsepower, the August issue of Rotorcraft featured an article on Subaru EA81 conversions by I'm Fly'N, Inc. Joe has contacted these guys that can upgrade the little 80 horsepower EA81 to produce 100 to 150 HP and beyond! Sounds like they know what they are doing and their conversions would be an economically feasible upgrade for the Bandit. Joe is seriously looking into these engines.
Joe's Super Bandit jigging has been refined to the point that they can now manufacture an airframe in only two days. The new ultralight Bandit was mostly assembled in an amazing two weeks! This new machine is now being powder-coated and I would not be surprised to hear about its' first flight at the next meeting or two.
Update!!! The Ultra-Light Bandit is now complete and is at Marysville Airport beginning Engine break-in and flight testing!
If anyone is interested in getting a new gyroplane in the air quick, it looks to me like Joe Souza has found the answer. Joe's machines are going together so quick that there is a backlog of Rotordyne blades on order. Luckily, Joe is a dealer for these blades and should be receiving some soon.
Mark Givans has been making progress on his New Predator Gyro. Gary Brewer was spotted helping him out with the painting of his tail feathers. He mounted the tail feathers on it, put Bob Lewis' rotorblades on and rolled it outside with Joe's Bandit for a size comparison. It's a BIG gyro!!!
Troy has been racking up the hours on his Bandit gyro. He has now flown off 22 hours of his 40. There has even been a reported sighting of him over Colusa Airport!!!
After the meeting, some went flying while others stayed to watch Carl's home-movies of some gyro fly-ins from years gone by. As usual, it was a great day spent at the airport.
The next meeting of P.R.A. Chapter 5 will be September 20, 1998 at 1 pm, Nut Tree Airport, Vacaville. This is one week earlier than usual since the El-Mirage fly-in is on the weekend of the 27th.