A few pics I took. I mostly was busy visiting with friends. I love to see them.
Too bad we don't get to see each other more often.

Are you selling the Dom Scotty?

That thing looks KuuuuL

You made your gyro great again....

Make sure you hang around Gerald and get some video of it in flight

So I take it lots of ppl showed up?

Not a lot of coverage......damn wish I could have made it. I would have taken a book full of pictures and video, although
I am sure Gerald had that covered...best to let ppl who are good at it do that.

Any way hope to hear more stories and happenings.

Scott...what are you up too......getting a two place going are we? maybe?

I must say that ELA was showing strong with some nice quality built gyros.
Greg and Abid has done tremendous work making the "original" design into an actual flying gyro.
The quality and the workmanship is second to none on the AR-1 machines.
I had the pleasure to see 3 of them. Impressive! Not because I know and like Greg.
It's because it really is a great and well thought out machine with good flying and safety characteristics.
If it were a piece of shit I would say so no matter who made it..... which I have done when I saw the Apollo!!!!!!!!
They need to stick with their Kite business and not venture into the complicated gyro world.
Putting a rotorhead on a kite doesn't make it any more of a gyro then putting a solid rocket booster on a Yugo won't turn it into a space shuttle.
Scotty's has done a freaking great job on the Dom!
Even Norm was impressed.....and that's a hard thing to do!
I think besides the known manufactures the constant quality machines carry Jake's name on them.
Soooo all yall did good!!!!!

Thank you so much for the pictures and part of the rest of the story... U-ROCK!!!

Great fly in, I got to see lots of people, Sorry I didn't get to spend more time with you Gab!
Gerald did not show up, Barry Days is in May and 1/2 the Georgia/Carolina guys bailed on Bensen Days
to attend Barry Days instead..

I put a for sale sign on the gyro just well you know, A large cash infusion might help get the other projects completed...

The AR is awesome, I am sure that in about an hour worth of takeoffs and landings I would be comfortable for solo, Greg took me out in the blue one, Greg's personal machine, That is what you get when you actually take the pilots input into the design instead of just a bunch of engineers that are not pilots, very nice indeed,
Grand Champion by the way...

I did get Best Craftsmanship, and that is not bad for a cookie cutter dominator!
So now the price goes up since it is an award winning gyro!

Scott- Your gyro is a beauty. I bet the closer you look, the more appreciation to your detail comes out.

Yes Stan, I tried to have all the bases covered on the detail, I mean shoot, I have been using that gyro as a test mule for years, and finally wanted to show what I was capable of, sometimes it was embarrassing being an A&P mechanic and flying an ugly gyro, it was never unsafe, just unattractive it did come out much better than I thought it would originally.

I mean it is a dominator, hard to be unique or innovative with that, so yes it was the attention to detail, the little things. And thanks to people like Jake that keeps the bar high for the rest of us..

That award makes it at least 1k more!

Now you know why I did not show up.....never woulda got a looksie from the judges with all that fancy hardware!

So how much for the Dom...? Jus remember I'm a You gotta throw in the award too!

I actually priced it fair (compared to others that were for sale) at $23,000. You could not build it for that, with low time engine, paint, etc.
I do not have to sell it, don't really want to sell it, but I will for the right price, never expected it to come out so nice, but now I have to finish the ultralight and the 2 place....But at least I know the Dom will be good to go for quite a few years.....what bothers me is all these gyros that get sold, and then never seen again.....

Gabors, My old soma, lots of jake gyros....old air commands etc....

Old Air Commands is an easy explanation....

They end up crashed into bean fields and stuff

Just like they were designed to do... by Mr Fisters

That is a shame Gerald never went?? I was sort of counting on some video from him....

Is there an issue that they didn't go? Or just they find the May event more important?

It never crossed my mind that Gerald would not go..........

Gerald called several times. He said he was ill.

There were several from Peach State there. Some of those who didn't go had work conflict issues. It is true, though, that being forced to choose with only the option of one event OR the other (typically for work reasons), a few choose Barry Days over Bensen Days. It is significantly closer from here and certainly closer for the Carolinians. The environment is also less stressful as a rule.

Peach State members officiated ALL the contest show events and took a large share of the load for the Air Boss station again this year at Bensen Days.

Yeah that whole "trying to take time off work to have fun".....that is usually my problem, especially when school is out and family's plan vacations and stuff, here we can only have a certain number of people off at a time, then the seniority thing, so yes I understand about the work-play thing, then there is family issues thrown in etc.

By the way the new Tango gyros are getting much better and I hear they have some very cool things in the future!

I have my opinions about that Jon. Don't seem fair to come down every year and have to work at volunteering for all those
duties on your alls vacation fun time. I get all the reasons why this is but a lil more planning might go along way and growing the clubs numbers from Sunstate would help mitigate the need for warm bodies. I don't bring it up to be critical more of an
observation. Maybe someone could bring in a management group like BDO or something to do all the heavy lifting.

What do the T-shirts look like this year.....hats too!

I am not sure why and what the reasons might be but don't count out the people who will no longer make the trip for no other reasons but simply not having the time or money.
It is a commitment. Norm spends 12 grand year after year.....
He should be recognized as the best customer for BD!
As for Georgia guys not being able to make it.... well they have done so well in the past we got used to their presence and sure did appreciate the work they have put into it.
Texas group was also missed. And so were the Rocky guys.
Vance seemed to be the only one from CA and even the locals didn't show!
Sooooo we had the tribe elders do a great job making it happen.
If we don't bring new young blood into this it will slowly disappear and live on different places where they do have the members all pull the wagon....
This is just an observation and I am known to be completely wrong about a lot of things in the past.

It is getting expensive, it cost me around $1000 just for 4 days, camper, gas groceries etc.....that's why I bring Phil, He helps split the cost, Plus He is a pretty good guy!
And it is a pain to load and unload the gyros and all the stuff, but that is just part of it.

Now If I had Greg Spicolas' gyro,........I would just fly down.....

I was disappointed more of the Florida guys didn't show up.

Actually, the Georgia folks who volunteer LIKE doing the work. I don't mind throwing my hat in the ring every so often myself. I think it makes one feel "connected" to the event. I drove down and back with Mark, and he says that he looks forward to being part of the setup and judging for the contests.

THAT SAID...perhaps it was just me and perhaps part of what I noticed was because flying for the Tango folks, but I felt a great deal of tension this year that I have not felt in previous years. This was especially true in the air. This year, it was not a particularly "fun flying" environment.

For the record, I have never charged Tango nor a passenger for a flight in a gyroplane at a gyro event, nor do I accept donations for such service. I have no fiscal relationship with Tango other than for flight testing (Phase I testing) their newly built machines at Cedartown airport.

I believe the reason was that there were too many vendors. There is a great deal of pressure between the vendors of high-dollar machines. I believe that pressure boiled over to the event in places it should not have. I do understand the need to move products when you have a lot of money invested, but it certainly changed the tone in the display area as well as flying in the patterns. More than one person came up to me and said they did not enjoy flying as much this year. A person I knew to be new to Bensen Days said he didn't really enjoy it. That's something I never heard before.

I'd be the last person to restrict vendors. They are good for the Sunstate club income and provide a venue to view new products and ideas. This year however, the pressure to move high-dollar products seemed to have an impact. I don't have an answer for how to manage that going forward, but I do intend to think about it some...hence this post.