mentone

Somewhere, out beyond the horizon, is adventure! Ever since we finished the Gyrobee we have wanted to fly off to a PRA Convention. We tried twice when the convention was down in Brookville, getting blocked in 1992 due to weather and stopped in 1993 with engine problems. The gathering was in Greencastle, Indiana in 1994 and 95 and that was simply too far for a realistic attempt. Since 1996 they conventions have been in Mentone, Indiana - only 126 miles away! We figured that 1999 was a year to try it again! Given our flying range on 5 gallons of gas, the trip would break down into five flight legs:

START	FINISH	BEARING (^Otrue)	DISTANCE (miles)
Mason, MI	Marshall, MI	226.2	31.6
Marshall, MI	Coldwater, MI	192.8	22.5
Coldwater, MI	Sturgis, MI	247.2	21.5
Sturgis, MI	Goshen, IN	223.1	27.2
Goshen, IN	Mentone, IN	207.8	29.3

As flight plans go, this wasn't bad at all. Flight legs shorter than 20 miles are very inefficient, while planning for hops greater than 35 miles puts you at risk if you have head-wind problems. Finding a "chain" of suitable airports can also add a lot of miles to a trip, but this course, using public use airports the whole way, was only about six miles longer (132.1 miles) than the most direct flight path!

While an aerial expedition like this is trivial compared to flying across the country, there is still plenty of planning that needs to be done. Fortunately, you can do that during the winter when you can't fly! I began to assemble a "Mentone Mission" book using the following resources:

Aeronautical Charts. Using both the Michigan Aeronautical Chart and the FAA sectionals, I scanned chart segments for each leg of the trip, adding the flight path with photo software. Real charts are essential, since they include towers, power lines, rail lines, and other navigation check points, not to mention the location of possible abort fields along each leg.

Airport Guides. If you are going to visit a bunch of airports you have never seen, it is a good idea to know how the field is laid out, pattern details, procedures, services, and what kind of special traffic (ultralights, balloons, parachute activity) you might encounter. This information is available in great detail in our Michigan Airports Guide and, in somewhat more abbreviated form, in AOPA's Airports USA. This information was scanned and added to the notebook.

Road Maps. If you are going to fly with a ground support/chase vehicle, you need accurate maps to let the driver navigate between airports. Conventional road maps are rarely adequate, as they usually don't show local airports and how to get there. The DeLorme books of county maps for each state do supply the needed detail, as does their Street Atlas USA CD ROM. This is really first-rate software and includes county, municipal, and private airstrips and all the detail you would ever need. I used it to print out detailed road maps for each leg as well as extremely detailed written directions.

Communications. Good communications between the aircraft and chase vehicle are essential, especially if you have to land off field, turn back, or divert to another field. Just one incident like that can mean hours of delay! We have used various kinds of radio systems in the past but these proved less than ideal for a couple of reasons:

The 1999 communications solution was cellular phones. The Gyrobee carried one and we had another in the van. Wherever the aircraft landed, the pilot could simply "call home" (the van) on the cellular or, if out of range of cellular service, any standard telephone would do.

Navigation. This year we had a brand-new, 12-channel Magellan GPS 300, complete with a neat, custom knee-board mount. The mount is contoured ABS and it snaps on with a wide elastic strap. The receiver can be adjusted for any angle and won't shift in flight. However, if you are getting glare on the screen at specific flight angles, a slight twist will allow you to read the display.

While no substitute for studying the charts, a good GPS is a friend indeed when flying over countryside you have never seen before!

As Mentone 99 grew closer, both the positives and the negatives of the proposed flight began to come into focus. The electric VDU prerotator system was functioning perfectly, relieving the anxiety of manual prerotation at strange airports. The engine re-build had gone well and the engine was in top form. On the down-side, however, was the fact that the flight would occur in the 20 hour run-in prior to a required timing adjustment. We recalled no problems with this interval when the engine was new so we hoped, with some confidence, that it would be a non-issue. We had re-built the floor of the trailer and even painted everything, so the trailer was ready if needed.

The only remaining down-side was the weather. We were in a severe hot spell with daily highs in the 90's with humidity to match! This mean very unfavorable density altitude conditions, which I didn't appreciate with all the extra weight I was carrying after giving up smoking. It also meant very turbulent thermal conditions each afternoon, often capped by thunderstorms! Hopefully, if most of the trip could be made in the morning, many of these problems could be avoided.

Friday morning dawned with no wind and a temperature in the mid-60's when Don picked me up at 6AM. The only problem - fog, fog, fog! It wouldn't clear, so we headed out for breakfast, only to find it thicker when we got back! Once it became obvious that we couldn't get away early enough to avoid flying through the heat of the day, we reluctantly took off the blades and loaded the Bee on the trailer. The trip down to Mentone went smoothly and we arrived by 1:30PM (Michigan time). It was so hot we decided to kill a few hours looking at other machines before unloading the gyro and getting the blades back on.

By late afternoon the old gal was fully assembled and ready to go, but we would wait until the 8AM Saturday pilot's briefing to take it flying.

If you want to fly at a PRA Convention, you have to attend the 8AM pilot's briefing every morning! Here Doug O'Connor goes over the details of the pattern, noise sensitive areas, flag procedures, and the boundaries of the FAA waiver areas. After each day's briefing you are issued a colored sticker that must be on you or your machine if you are to fly. In addition, you also have to sign the standard liability waiver and present your credentials to be issued a P.A.S.S. card.

All the formalities taken care of, Don blasts down the runway and is just starting to rotate in this picture.

Up, up, and away as Brett Wendt snaps merrily away with his camera on maximum telephoto. One of Brett's biggest frustrations last year was missing the chance to see the Gyrobee in flight. I hope this year made up for that.

This year the Gyrobee had some real company on the flight line. Rodney Endsley brought his partially completed Bee and has done a wonderful job. The amazing thing is that he got this far in just about 3 weeks! It doesn't have to take a long time if you can get most of the materials together before you start. Rodney expects to be flying yet this season.

Scot White, who most of you know through the Rotorcraft Conference, also brought his project, which is moving right along. The finish is superb and Scot has an original Bumble Bee tail and instrument pod, which he got from Ron Herron.

Brett Wendt was planning to bring his "Bee of Many Colors", but last-minute truck problems intervened.

Jim and Bob from GyroTech had the Honey Bee Gyro on display just down the flightline. Jim went flying Friday evening and had the misfortune to get behind the power curve while sorting out a crosswind in front of the crowd. The end result was that he slammed the gyro in very hard! Almost any other gyro would have turned over, but the Honey Bee stayed upright! That's the reason for the wide gear! Secondly, for those who think that an ultralight has to be fragile, the structure stayed together and did its job of protecting the pilot. Jim was a bit dazed but unhurt. The only damage to the Honey Bee was a broken wheel that was fixed by Saturday morning. If something like this happens, it's nice to have those Bee design features doing their job!

Part of a nice panoramic shot by Larry Goodhind, showing a crowd around the Honey Bee, plus a lot of folks taking advantage of the shade provided by the GyroTech tent! Since the GyroTech boys were just down the flight-line, we set up our chairs here too! Only trouble was, when you wanted to rest your weary feet, you had to kick some nice person out of your chair! The steady stream of folks looking at the Honey Bee, Gyrobee, and Scot and Rodney's Gyrobees in the making, confirm a solid interest in Part 103 gyroplanes!

Here is Jim Stephenson, chief honcho for Aero Sports Connection. Despite the small size of the ultralight gyro movement, compared to other forms of ultralight aviation, ASC has been a big supporter of expanding the options for our aircraft. It is ASC that runs the ultralight gyroplane training program recently approved by the PRA Board.

The next big step is the formation of a gyroplane wing within ASC. Hopefully, we can have this done by the end of the summer. In my opinion, the active gyroplane pilot belongs in both PRA and ASC. PRA provides the connection to gyroplanes, while ASC provides a local and regional connection to the larger ultralight movement. Jim has been to the last few conventions, but was more-or-less ignored. This time he reported lots of interest and enthusiasm. Look to ASC to provide both the ultralight pilot certification and aircraft registration you need to prove you are both serious about and competent in our sport!

Sundays are usually a bit of a let-down, for as the sun rises on the airport, it looks like a gypsy camp where most of the gypsies have headed home! Most of the vendors are still there, but the flight line looks deserted compared to the day before. We are usually a tad depressed, since there is nothing to look forward to but packing up the gyro for the drive home. NOT THIS YEAR! Frustrated because we couldn't fly down, we concocted this wild plan to fly it home if the weather cooperated. Well, the weather was perfect, SO WE DID!

The only real problem with this leg is that I actually left Mentone twice! The first time I had neglected to hook up the venturi ASI sender to the Digipod when I got it out of the van and mounted on the gyro. When I rotated and started to climb out, I had no airspeed display!! I had to fly the pattern, land, get off the runway, fix the problem, and get back into the air before I completely lost my rotor speed! Fortunately, traffic was very light (just Steve McGowan and Ernie Boyette) at 7AM so there was no hassle.

The second time everything went fine and it was off to the northeast to find the little college town of Goshen. The GPS was working perfectly, which was very comforting since nothing was the least-bit familiar. All the little burgs look the same, as do the two-lane roads! I recognized Atwood because of the combination of the railroad tracks and the small lake NW of town! Power lines (big ones!) are very common along the route and I must have crossed at least four. The flight was relaxed and beautiful and I got there in about 40 minutes, flying at about 800 feet AGL. I landed with 20% fuel, despite having burned up gas in two takeoffs! Don arrived by road just about the time I had the blades tied down and had begun looking for something cold to drink. I had worn my PRA jacket for the flight, but it was already getting too warm to wear it on the ground!

This was Don's leg and it was interesting that he had the same appreciation I expressed for the GPS. While still quite nice, it was definitely getting warmer and, by the end of the leg, the thermals were much more active.

This leg took Don about 35 minutes, but it was much slower going in the van. It was good to get a cell-phone call, about the time I was getting into Michigan but still 15 miles or so from Sturgis, telling me that he had arrived in good shape.

This one was mine and the major problem was getting out of the airport in the steadily increasing heat. The hot air was slowing the climb rate and the engine CHT was reading 435^oF in no time at all. Unfortunately, you just had to keep on the throttle, for the airport area was completely covered with all kinds of light industrial buildings that would make for a most unpleasant forced landing. Just to make matters interesting, there was nothing but woods to the NE where I had to exit, so the pressure was really on.

It was quite a relief to finally break out into open country and pick up the railroad right-of-way that led straight on to Coldwater. At cruise power the CHT was running about 390 - quite an improvement over the climb-out but at least 20 degrees warmer than normal. The landing was quite interesting as thermals wanted to constantly balloon my little craft upward - except for the strong sink out over South Lake where you had to turn on base and start the final approach! The flight took about 30 minutes and I gave the gyro a thorough going-over as I waited for Don.

Don flew this one, another short leg with relatively easy navigation, since he just had to follow I-69. Conditions were pretty rough due to the heat and the thermals. Just to make life interesting, the sky was littered with jumpers, jump planes, sailplanes, and tow-planes when Don arrived at Marshall! There were also a few Quicksilver MX ultralights outside the ultralight hangar on the south side of the field. None of the ultralights was showing the least inclination to fly, which was not a surprise, given the conditions!

With only one leg left to go, we were back in familiar territory, as we had both flown this route many times. It was now after 2PM. I was not at all sure I could make the leg, given the high temperature and density altitude. Don, who weighs in about 25 pounds lighter, felt he could make it if he did a very gentle climb-out so as to not to push the CHT readings into the stratosphere.

We fueled the Gyrobee, swapped in a freshly-charged set of prerotator batteries, and gave it a very careful inspection. About 2:30, Don took off to the west, circled the field with a very gentle climb, and departed the pattern to the NE toward Mason. About 3:15, as I was just going by Eaton Rapids with the van and trailer, I got the cell-phone call that he was safely on the ground at Bergeon Field in Mason!

After all the years of planning, dreaming and frustration, we had finally succeeded! Granted, we did it backwards, flying from rather than to the Convention, but who cares! We flew 132+ miles in one of the worst heat waves anyone could remember, and the Gyrobee did the job, with an able assist from the electric prerotator and the GPS. Not too shabby for a real Part 103 ultralight!

Aside from actually finishing your gyro and getting it flying, there are few things that give greater satisfaction than cross-country flying. You can start simply with goal and return flights. Just picking some nearby spot, fly out, and then return to your starting point. Once you get confident in both yourself and the aircraft, try actually going somewhere by flying to another airport within range. Getting experience in landing and departing at new airports will significantly improve your flying skills. After that, if the spirit moves you, it's time to string airport to airport legs for a real cross-country adventure!