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Many a night I remembered dreaming that I could fly. If I did
it just right – that is, run downhill and jump just right,
with enough speed – I could fly! There was one problem that
I always seemed to have and that was all those wires. I always had
to get high or go around them. Man, they were always a pain. But
fly, fly, fly, that's all that I seemed to dream about.
Around the same time that I wanted to be like Superman and fly,
I used to lie on the living room floor and read, or rather look,
at the pictures in Popular Science magazine. My father has all the
Pop Science magazines back to 1949. Yes, I have the July, 1954 issue
with Dr. Bensen and his water pipe towed glider autogyro.
Well, as it goes, I would consume all the info about all the latest
ideas in that Science magazine. But in the back part of the magazine
are a bunch of advertisements selling you everything from golf balls
to razor blades and wait a minute – yes, yes, a flying machine
that you, yes YOU could build and fly out of your own back yard!
Here it is, my friend, what I have been dreaming every night about!
My own personal way to escape the bonds of earth! |
Ya-hooooo! I'm finally going to make my most exciting
dream come true. I'm going to get me one of them there things and,
ah, put it, ah, together, and, ah, fly it? Man, I'm just a 13 year
old boy! Ah, shucks. How do I order it? Pay for it? Build it?
So the fantasy started to fizzle into the deep dark comers of my
mind and only a tiny little glimmer just glowed for year after year,
and as I got older, 19 or so, I would go to airports and watch the
airplanes fly, and on occasion would blurt out, "Hey, I want
to fly a gyrocopter!" And nobody seemed to respond. I never
saw one, just pictures of one, every time I got the Popular Science
magazine. I'd turn to the back section and yep, there it was, but
hows come I never saw one at the airport?
Well, I got my first exposure to a gyro in the James Bond 007 movie
"You Only Live Twice," back in 1967. My fire was ignited
again, but again nowhere, nowhere could I find a gyro. So back to
the dark corners of my mind went the dream.
Three years later, in 1970, I was driving down the highway near
Perryopolis, Pennsylvania, and I saw on the side of the highway
a contraption that looked like a...a...YES! A gyrocopter! My wife
was with me. Man, you know how excited she was about this discovery,
don't you? So I pulled over, got out of my car and I started asking
all kinds of questions like "Does it really fly?" and,
you know, the standard stupid questions like "Ain't it dangerous?"
That's when the guy said to me, "Well, most of the accidents
happen on the ground." I asked what he meant by that. He proceeded
to say that if you walk to the back of the gyro while the blades
are still spinning you'll get hit on the head! Well, let me tell
you that set me back about ten more years as far as my getting the
bug to fly one of these things.
In came the ultralights and yes, I was interested. The Weedhopper
was my interest. Of course, that was about the only one out at the
time that all articles were talking sort of good about, but it soon
went by the wayside. But this got me rekindled about flying again.
After about six years of following the ultralight sport, I got
to see "Road Warriors" on cable TV one night in July,
1984, and off the couch I sprang! Whoever shot that footage of that
gyro did it in such a manner that it seemed that you were flying
right in formation with that gyro.
It just happened that my neighbor had been building an ultralight
and just happened to have a set of Bensen gyro plans. And along
with the plans there was a PRA membership list of all the members
all around the world listed. This PRA listing was dated 1966. So
I started to write down all the people that lived close to me and
looked at the phone book to obtain their phone numbers.
After calling some to no avail, I took a stab in the dark and called
the president of Chapter 4, as listed in this very old club listing.
His name was Louis Darvassy. Hey, what do you know, he still knew
of people that still were into gyros. Now, mind, this list was 18
long years old I was using. OK, I'm on a roll now. Yes, yes, he
gives me a name, Homer Kerr, Cambridge Springs, PA. OK, I call him.
Yes, they answer. Yes, Homer has a gyro. Yes, I can come and visit
him!
Man I'm really fired up now! From the time I found the 1966 PRA
listing to when I visited Homer Kerr was about 48 hours! I got to
Homer's home and he showed me and my family his machine, and loaned
me a June, 1984 PRA magazine. With much gratitude I went home to
devour the book.
Lou Darvassy had told me in a conversation over the phone that
if I was at all interested in gyros, then by all means I should
attend the Tullahoma, Tennessee 1984 PRA convention, which I did
with my own gyro. And there it happened, the magic of it all. We
got there and there were gyros flying all over the sky. I cannot
express to you in this letter how seeing these gyros flying over
my head and how much it charged me up.
Two weeks previous to attending the 1984 convention I attended
Cincinnati Chapter 40's flying meeting that was held in Kentucky
at an ultralight field. There were about four gyros there and about
15 ultralights flying there. After seeing the two fly at the same
airfield, I knew right then that the gyro was for me. So that's
how I got the bug-the gyro bug, that is! |
