Chapter 73 Annual BarBQ:  The gyro Club will be holding our annual BarBQ at the Sport Copter Hanger in Scappoose at 2 pm. April 14 to celebrate our 12 year of rotorcraft fun.

The ground school that had also been scheduled for the 14th. has been postponed until 10 am. May 12th.   I hope to see a big turn out for it.

MISTAKE # 1: (Anyone see a pattern here?) We both wanted to fly, and by gum, we were going to!

We went to the meeting @ Scappoose, and we both flew (MISTAKE #2). The exhaust bolts remained in place, and so did the duct tape. Wow, maybe we didn't even need to get the prop fixed! As you can tell, we weren't rocket scientists!!
As I mentioned in last month's story, the Vancraft/Sportcopter fairing is great for wind and rain protection. When a shower catches you while up flying, just scrunch your shoulders inward, and you stay dry.
A few showers came and went. During one of them, (MISTAKE # 3) I was flying over the area off to the northwest, past the airport, over the cow pastures alongside Hwy. 30. Suddenly a new sound rose over the Rotax growl, sounding like the old baseball cards-in-the-bicycle spokes trick, only much faster.
My first thought was maybe it was a head gasket that had blown, making the sound of air escaping from the cylinders. I had been @ cruising speed, flying level @ around 800' and now was descending, so I increased the throttle to counteract the descent.
No arrest in the descent. I went to full throttle. The only difference was a louder engine, w/ a slightly less sinking. This wasn't getting funny, as I could see the edge of the airport a half mile away, and knew I'd never be able to glide there.
In the early learning-to-fly stage, I had practiced engine idle landings so much @ Estacada, that it felt quite comfortable to come in from any height and flare to a touchdown. I practiced this so much that the Estacada airport owners were making comments to others (who in turn told Jim & I) about how much we were tying up their runway. We had approached them about using the taxiway for our operations, like Scappoose, to stay out of the faster fixed-wing

traffic, but they wanted the runway to be used. So, I used it a lot!
I looked below and saw lots of cow pasture and no cows anywhere near. I was going upwind toward the airport when this noise and descending started and I saw a barbed wire fence in my landing path, so I turned a 180 to go down wind awhile, then another 180 to land back upwind, in order to land w/ little ground roll. In playing around so much w/ the rotors on the ground, I knew their great braking ability would keep me from rolling much, in addition to the grass of the pasture giving a lot of resistance to the wheels.
All this time, my mind was racing: "What's wrong that is causing this emergency landing?" "How am I and this gyro going to get out of this cow pasture?" "Is anyone even going to begin to wonder where I am?"
The landing was uneventful, thanks to much practice w/ engine idle landings, and the extra glide from some engine thrust to the prop.
Killing the engine w/ the switches, I let the blades wind down and got out and stopped them. Then I saw the little ball of duct tape attached to the leading edge of the prop!! The two patches had held on one side, but had come loose from the other in the rain, forming a wet clump right @ the leading edge!!! I guess it was enough to disrupt the air over the prop as to destroy the usual smooth flow and make it not streamlined.
I removed the tape and started up the engine. The thrust seemed about normal as I revved it up. The cow pasture was no grass strip runway, but by maneuvering around some areas of taller grass and puddles, I could build up rotor speed.
The only problem was the rotor tach never showed more than 150 rpms. W/ the Skywheels, we needed over 200 rpms to then give it full throttle to wind them up enough to generate sufficient lift. Back and forth I went, trying to coax the blades up to speed, so I could do a short field take off, but the pasture was too rough.
Okay, I reasoned, if the farmer can get the cows into this pasture, there must be a gate and thus, a way out of here! Oh, yeah, the cows were off a few hundred yards, all watching this white contraption going up and back down their pasture, avoiding the cow pies and mini-lakes. In addition, there was a home overlooking the pasture w/ people looking out their basement sliding doors @ me doing this.

Aha! Someone to help!
I saw a small footbridge over a little trickle of a creek and headed there, seated in the machine. It was wide enough to go over using the prop to propel the gyro and me over.
A short distance before the bridge, I discovered the muck that permeates all western Oregon cow pastures most of the year. I believe this is one part soil and five parts cattle
excrement. It was too slippery to go over the bridge w/out me getting out and pushing and pulling the gyro over the bridge. My shoes were by now coated w/ this fine fertilizer.
That accomplished, my heart was elated, and back into the seat I went, using the engine to propel me over to the edge of the pasture, where a bigger hill stood in my way to get out. It was covered in the same ooze as the bridge area, only it was on top of some sort of pavement, leading up to a barn.
The gyro would only power up so far before sliding backwards, w/ me in it. The solution (MISTAKE #4) was to get out and help the machine up the muddy *#@!*&% slope, using the engine/prop to help me push/pull it. I reasoned that by staying alongside the throttle quadrant, and in front of the axle, I wouldn't get close enough to that prop (buzz saw) for it to hurt me.
Fortunately, it worked, and soon I was on a nice, paved, DRY driveway after going out through a gate. No one was around @ the home where the barn and pasture were.
About this time, I heard the sound of a Rotax engine coming my way. It turned out that some chapter members started wondering where Kevin was, as he had been gone for about an hour, and there wasn't enough fuel to be airborne that long.
Jim Vanek was out to look for me in his gyro. Kelly had him take his cell phone to stay in contact in case either of them heard or saw anything. I saw him fly nearly overhead, and knew the uselessness of shouting, but frantically waved my arms instead. He flew on by, not seeing either the gyro or me. He spotted it later and saw it looked okay, on a paved driveway, and figured there wasn't much to worry about, as it didn't appear to have crashed.
The driveway was blocked by a *&#@!*% LOCKED gate. I saw the home where the spectators had been, and walked over there. The fellow said they wondered what the heck I was doing out in their neighbor's pasture, as they had seen gyros

always FLYING by, but never four wheelin' it on the ground! He graciously gave me a ride over to the airport, where a bunch of the guys jumped into their rigs to go see the gyro and figure out what to do.
I arrived back at the gate a few moments later w/ a trailer to put the gyro on. When we pulled up to the driveway that led to the highway, there sat the gyro ON THE OTHER SIDE of the gate from where I left it!! The owners must have come home and liberated it, I thought.
Dick said something about how I had said the gyro was on the wrong side of a locked gate, but wondered what the problem was, as the gate was locked, but the gyro was now on the RIGHT side of it!!
He loves to tell of how a typical metal farm gate doesn't have hinges that are welded or anything permanent, but can just be lifted up out of their hinges in case it is padlocked.
MISTAKE # 5 didn't happen. It was a suggestion by one guy that I should have flown the gyro back to the airport instead of trailering it back. That suggestion entailed taking off in the gyro on US 30, on a moderately busy-traffic Saturday afternoon! HA!
Next month, you can read of Kevin's other three emergency landings. That makes FOUR in 75 hours of gyro flight time!
See you @ the next Chapter 73 meeting!

The meeting was called to order by our President Dick Moore at 1pm. On March 10, 2001.
We welcomed our new guest that Fish Fischer brought Darcy Dobson, Welcome. And thanks for the ride home! Hi to many of our members that rarely show up! Glad that you can make it. We had 21 members show up in all. Many Thanks go to Wally and Wilma Foss for bringing some homemade spaghetti.  Kelly Vanek helped supply desserts and Bread.  Kelly Vanek suggested that we not have big lunches and start at 1pm and have fingers foods and desserts but nothing else developed from it.
There was some discussion of the problems with changing of new officers, we are working on it.  Bob Johnson wasn't here to discuss it further...PRA Newsletter on the Net now so check it out!
We discussed of having our meeting meet in different places since the weathers getting better. One suggestion was to Aurora in May, Terry Von's strip  or Prineville. There was also a suggestion from our President that we tour PDX or and the McMinnville control towers.
Individual letters to our members to send back to the FAA to have gyros and gliders to be included in a classification...Please participate, every little bit helps!
Next meeting will be our 12th Anniversary.  There will be a BBQ at 2pm.  We need volunteer to help. Kelly Vanek will bring a cake.  Tammi Jordan will provide rolls. bring homemade desserts and salad, chips and dip are needed too. Please contact Kelly Vanek for ideas or help. Thank you.
The club has a new digital camera. Contact the president if you want to borrow it for an important event.  Take pictures, submit your brief story and pictures to the editor.
Donnie Folte (an old member) is selling some rotoblades.
Dick Moore shared a Christmas postcard from the Tillamook Air Museum.
Jokes were passed back and forth by Dick Moore and Dave Wiley which followed with the Ending of our meeting at 2:04 pm
Hope to see many of you at the BBQ next month.

Mr. Fortney has hanger space available, $60.00 for gyros, at the Scappoose Airport.  You can contact him at 503-543-7624 or e-mail him at,
www.davidfortney.com    ( I think I got it right this time).

Partially completed kit with extra parts for $7,000.  Contact Diane Lopatin at 503-631-8700