Bensen days has it's ups and downs as any event.
Some years are better than others.
The Morons are still acting mad at the city and I feel they want Bensen Days closed down.
I guess they feel the loss of money in the city would serve them right .
They do not sign up for membership and do not help in any way.
In the last few years Besen days has been a freeloading party for them.

That's sad and childish of them.
I am very sad indeed. I had noticed that none of them wanted to talk to me.
Rick hardly shook hands with me and last year he purposely avoided me and so did Joe.
I haven't done a damn thing that they should be mad at me for....at least not that I can remember of.
I however remember having spending lot of hours driving with family and bringing new blood so they could have people there who needed "stuff" !
So when this stupid Jimmy shit exploded they decided that I was the bad guy because we had to go with a few leading members to see Terry and straighten things out so we could have Bensen Days going on.
So that's our crime? And once the Bensen Days is over then what?
The city don't care. They will find a way to replace the now pretty much disappearing attendance.
They only make money when we have the hundreds coming and staying there....
I think this is stupid and childish. A lot of people are planning their vacations around this event.
I'd hate to see the once greatest gyro gathering go away.
I would really hate it....

I thought the attendance was OK....not stellar, but certainly not horrible. I don't know the income numbers, though my feeling is that it was down quite a bit from some banner years. I told someone who had never been to a Bensen Days that it "felt" like about a 65% crowd.

What I was talking about with the "tense" feel this year along with what you are talking about with participation from the Florida group are tweaks, I think, and nothing to seriously threaten the demise of the event. Certainly, those things need correcting, but the best correction may be to just allow time itself to sort them out. It is always hard to be sure about those kinds of problems.

I also believe that the adversarial climate in Rotary Forum, which has caused me and many others to refrain from active posting, and the resulting "lack of buzz" contributes to mute all the events around the country. It was the hype on Rotary Forum that got me interested in going to my first Bensen Days.

Agreed Jon. The Rotary Forum is essential!!!!!
Although I don't go there nor do I plan to but even in the rough times I did use the RWF to hype the event and reach a lot of lurkers.
Because I know it for a fact that a lot of them don't even dare posting but do read the forum.

So, there was no man in the red suit this year?

Well, there's the problem? That could explain low attendance?

need to make Bensen days great again...

I think the future of Bensen Days will track right along with the future of gyros and aviation in general; and it's hard to fight it. This is not a judgement of Bensen Days or the organizers, just an observation of reality.
First question to ponder - how many people who are new to gyros are building complete home built like Scottie and Jake and Gabor, and how many are going with factory kits like AR-1, Tango, Autogyro, etc, etc.? The numbers and demographics are simply not there to sustain Bensen Days as it used to be.
Second question - if Bensen Days were at a completely different time from Sun n' Fun, would the numbers and interest in Bensen Days from vendors and people coming from far away be up or down?
So I think the answers are sort of obvious, even if they are a little depressing, kind of fighting a losing battle. And then when you place that in the overall picture of private, general aviation in the US, the picture gets even worse. Sun n' Fun numbers are way down, general private aviation in general in the US is decreasing, fewer young guys coming in, probable privatization of airports etc, increasing the costs etc, etc.
For the time being, the factory gyros are the only bright spark in the gyro world (from a numbers perspective) as they draw more traditional gyro people and as they draw a few people from traditional FW fliers. However the connection between these factory gyros and the Bensen heritage is really disappearing. Were Autogyro even at Bensen Days this year? And if they were, did they announce their new model gyro there or are they waiting till today to announce it at Sun n' Fun.
The problem with Bensen Days, is that it's really from another time and place. The guys and their machines who made Bensen Days what it is, are getting older, moving away, dying out etc, etc and not being replaced by younger guys. Wauchula is no longer a 'center' of the gyro world. Just 5 years ago when I wanted to get into Gyros, Wauchula was the place to start in Florida, when I researched gyros, my search led me to Wauchula - that is no longer the case. And then of course you add the 'bad blood' that surfaced the last few years, not only around Wauchula, but also PRA , RWF,etc, that can only detract, not help. On a personal level, I have made a few good friends that started in Wauchula, and keeps going here through this forum, but there's hardly any effort from the old gurus like Chuck Beaty et al to encourage new blood to the sport.
Maybe if Bensen Days moved to Lakeland and merged into Sun'n Fun it might go on for a while longer as it really becomes a place where the 'new blood' in gyros are on show. I doubt that would ever happen of course, because neither the old school gyro guys, nor the gyro companies, nor the Sun n Fun organizers, would have any interest in that.
It is sort of depressing, I guess to see cool stuff like Bensen Days fade, but the numbers aren't there in the long term, and Wauchula is no longer 'the place' for gyros in Florida. Guys with the energy of Gabor are few, and even Gabor could not sustain it. Jake has done an amazing job considering his health concerns and surgeries etc, a job that would be impossible for most mortals in his position, but that's not enough to change the realities of the gyro and aviation world.

It is kind of like that with the future of many things, seems that We are the last of the generations of makers and doers, The new generations coming up have never had to "work" for anything, they have never had to make sacrifices to have something, for instance, young boys used to have paper routes and cut grass to earn money to buy a mini-bike, or go kart, Girls used to baby sit, Now kids get all the way through college and have never had a job of any kind and have never had any responsibility even for themselves.
And when they get out of college they have $100K worth of debit, they will spend the rest of their lives paying off and they will never own a home, or have extra cash to take flying lessons....by the way lessons take time, and are not "Instant"..

Everyone wants to have it now and pay for it later, no one wants to invest the TIME it takes to learn, build, save, or sacrifice, like drive a used car while saving money... instant gratification, no risk, no wait, no failure, everyone gets a trophy.
The whole mentality is "can I afford it this month?" no one care how much the final cost is, they just want to know what it costs this month...I.E. TV for instance, I got rid of TV years ago because i refused to pay over $1000 a year for 200 channels of useless crap, AND when you turn off the TV you find extra time to do things..same with cell phones, $1200.00 + , a year to be rude and have your face glued in your phone 24-7
and stay connected....
I can see it with young children, they have no imagination, they play games on phones and tablets all day instead of getting outside and rolling in the grass and dreaming about flying among the clouds, they are oblivious to anything around them. Even Legos has taken away the imagination, now you just buy a lego kit in a predetermined object, we used to just have the blocks, wheels and gears, we had to build our own cars tractors, space ships etc.

So I guess my point is, there are less and less people that have that independent spirit, ones that are more self reliant, willing to go out on a limb, invest some personal time and effort, don't want to live as just a consumer
and part of the herd.

Plus many people after working their entire life and finally getting to retire, don't want to spend lots of time building, I understand that!
I am tired of fixing broken crap all the time, but it still pays descent, but I think young people just don't care to make the effort anymore.

It would be nice to get the egos and personal butt-hurt out of the way and have more participation of the ones that are already involved in the sport, but I think it will evolve into the euro style gyro for people that want an expensive toy, and the old school home built will eventually fade away just because the next generation is not interested, motivated or whatever..

just like the dinosaurs, here we go, but until then, I am going to have fun.

There isn't one thing you wrote Jeff and Scott, I could disagree with.
The fight against the "Eurotubs" and complete loss of interest from people whom are at the beginning stage of this hobby are detrimental.
I miss a lot of people. But you are absolutely correct.
The infight scares people because they are looking for recreational time and not choosing sides between two or three different groups.
I told them that the problem was that they talked too much about people and not enough to people!
Greg is doing a fantastic job in Zephyrhills. But that's all about what we have now in FL.
As for me. The Queen yanked the parking brake so hard on the whole thing I ended up on the windshield.
So did Phelinda for Dave. And a lot more other women whom did not like the "single guy" mentality of the place.
Once that place was inviting and fun to go to. When the "Jimmy style" took over the event all has changed forever and for the worse.
I remember when that asshole started making Jimmy's rules on the airport and would threaten Bensen Days with shutting it down several times depending on the alcohol level in his blood.
Cussing people out on the frequency and chasing away families from the event because his kid was an asshole too and was hurting other kids and telling off parents.....
Fucking jerk! And the Morons there didn't dare to say shit because they were in his pocket by Jimmy the King over looking the fact that too many gyros were stored in the hangars and gasoline was stored there and people slept in the hangar and shit like that.
So Jimmy had become a fucking tyrant. And then came the city....who were not dependent on Jimmy the king and threw his redneck alcoholic little insecure bitch ass out.
AAAAAAAAnd from then on it was all downhill. The city took away their king!
Ha! Instead of allowing the unstoppable change, the few liberal asses decided to fight the city!!!!
Talking about biting the hand that feeds you.....they gave a whole fucking new meaning to it......
And they got their ass handed to them. So now in return they will destroy a 43 year old heritage.
It's not the event that's going away.....it's the people who used to attend and love the camaraderie.
Because of a few childish insecure bitches who feel they have a case here and in typical liberal fashion "if I can't have you nobody will!"
It is what it is..... Maybe just maybe a relocation of the event could save it.
There are other friendly airports like Valkaria right off I95 and they love gyros!!!!!!!
And they have the facilities plus the area is full of attractions from NASA to Orlando and families would have a reason to come together.....
Just an idea......
PS. I hate the fact that those lying mother fuckers had Bud move there and then they destroyed everything. The man has done more for the gyro community than I can thank him for!

Yeah, I neglected to mention Bud, and all the work he has done.....
So what about Valkaria, who are the gyro guys there now?

I love seeing excellent displays of gyros being designed and built from scratch. I personally am not in this elete group of people Even though I built an RAF 2000, a SparrowHawk, and a Helicycle.....I am nothing but an assembler with just a touch of creativity with metal. My name can never be used in the same sentence with you true craftmen that built your gyros from scratch. Oh, and let me include Don's amazing helicopter creations he designed and built from scratch.

I always felt just a pimple on these peoples butts , but I loved hanging around these craftsmen as I am one with my curved stair building profession. When I came to Bensen Days....it had a lot to do with admiring true craftsmen in metal who designed and beautifully built flying machines from scratch....that I can relate to doing the same in wood. Different material, but the craftsman part is what connected me to you guys. Again, I will never be such a craftsmen with metal.

My personal flying experiences are unlikely to ever resume, but it was by choice. It is kind of like John Rountrees handle....All In. I either get All In or All out.

But I still live vicariously through this forum and the diminished RWF forum as I still see a few true craftsmen living their passion. This group is waning unfortunately as all handcrafts are.

I feel so fortunate to have experienced being a craftsman with wood, and getting to know other craftsmen that build flying machines from scratch. You guys are remarkable!

Steve the airport manager at Valkaria is very very very very gyro friendly. He used to secure a whole area just for us.
Mike Hughes is now a big shot there and Art, Dale, Lee are all on hand to help.
Valakria fly in used to showcase Roy Davis 4 times a day.
They LOVED watching him.
The vendors were awesome and plentiful.
The atmosphere was just exciting and people loved the gyros.
Maybe it is time to bunch up with fix wing events.
Maybe I am totally wrong and that won't be the first nor the last time

You are right Gabor, the whole Wauchula soap opera didn't help....

A video popped up!!

When I started flying gyros in the early 90's, her in Aus we had a lower level minimum of 300' and an upper limit of 500'

We had to avoid towns and real airports.... (although, having my spam can licence I had an exemption to fly 500-5000').... but in general, we had to avoid 'people' and not fly over 'things'...

We would fly at places like Lake George, I had use of a private strip, alot of guys out west like Tim at Broken Hill and many farms had strips and flew everything off them.... and yes, we built and flew our pieces of shit (but well built pieces of shit) ...

We had no specific requirements of what instruments.... most had an airspeed indicator and a piece of wool.... where we parked, the spectators would sit all over the trailers and be 20' from the action. We would taxy in with the rotors spinning down and before we parked, someone would already be slowing the rotors by hand from the center before we even had our seat belt off. When we got up to go to our machine to fly, there would be someone get to your machine as you do, them being ready to start hand spinning the rotors for you....It was a very 'social' thing back then.

I never saw a person get anywhere near injured nor hurt.

Now-a-days, the rules are:

People are not allowed within 20 meters of a gyro or the pilot gets fined/loses licence
machines taxy with rotors stationary or the pilot gets fined/loses licence
it is illegal to put fuel in on the flight line or the pilot gets fined/loses licence
The correct instruments have to be used at all times or the pilot gets fined/loses licence
Photos have to be sent in of the hang test, has to be signed off or the pilot gets fined/loses licence
CASA (our FAA) does random ramp checks... any issues the pilot gets fined/loses licence
Seat belts have to be less than 10years old from date of manufacture or the pilot gets fined/loses licence

people now buy the machines and don't understand them at all and have to go by some misguiding manual... the people get interested quickly, want to learn immediately... then lose interest quickly
Training used to be learning about gyros, how to hand start and stop rotors, hand spin propellers, taxi with rotors turning and get them up to flying speed without prerotator

I will just do what I used to do, fly from private land or bush airstrips and leave the 'real airports' to people who consider themselves to be flying 'real aircraft'..... Alot of pilots of gyros today and spectators feel ripped off, where we used to take off and land from right in front of the spectators... todays gyro pilots and spectators taxi off from where the people are waiting to see a gyro fly... the machine taxy's away with the rotors stationary... then 5 minutes later, you see this little thing take off 500 yards away.... then in an hour or so, it taxy's back to the people with rotors stationary.... so, for the pilot, no one saw them fly (so they have to wear a shirt with shoulder straps so people recognise them as a pilot) and the spectators miss out on seeing the gyro fly (up close) and never hear the rotors wop as they land and get rid of their lift....

IMO, hopefully there will always be a bunch of guys who fly open machines, home built, even if it is a small group, like the rat rodders in the hotrod movement..... As I see it, not alot of people who want to drive a sports car drive a bus instead.... and alot of people I know of with Euro tubs have had a fly of an open machine... and a few have built/bought open machines because they found they actually liked how the open flew... like owning a Harley and a motorcross bike.... nothing wrong with that.... to me, having a clone and a home built is the ultimate... because one gyro cant do everything perfectly, same as one bike/car/boat/horse cant do everything ....

Wouldn't it be great if Bensen days went back to being a small gathering of people flying Bensens?





Another video popped up. Turn down the volume if you don't want to hear about the ultra basics... It is supposed to be 2017? I didn't see your Dom Scotty?

Sorry Darren, I didnt see you had put that video up. In Windows, I run without add ons, so when I look at the site, I dont see videos, just a big white patch.... which I know must be a video, but I dont know what it is.... so to see videos, I open the page in chrome. So, I didnt see you had the same video

I am not against progression. We can't turn time back and I am not sure I would want to.
The gyro world has been running because all the guys in the background quietly helping us beginners.
I too had a guardian angel making sure I didn't kill myself by my own stupidity.
He knows who he is! And thank you!!! I can't thank you enough....
Unfortunately we had a culture change where the big mouth know it alls took over and ruled the forums.
They are nowhere to be found nowadays by the way....
So if I could bring back anything that would be the time where bringing new guys into the gyro land was more important than making a few bux off of unsuspecting and not knowing any better guys.
The culture has changed and the Eurotubs have nothing to do with it.
What I am so sad about most is that our great minds who pioneered this are no longer participating because it's just not worth it.
Once they are gone.....this is gonna be a sad sad place

Well the FAA did not help much by doing away with the LODA for gyroplanes, and getting rid of the BFI stuff,
and sport pilot regs were questionable....

The sport will evolve just like anything else, these are the good old days! nothing stay the same.

I go to fly-in's for the party and I suspect many new euro gyroplane owners would like to come to a party of gyro planes if they new it existed.
Sell the party and they will come...

I can provide some other incite here...

I'm in the PRA trenches more than anyone else as I'm now also running the office and booking joins and renewals.
PRA was almost bankrupt 4 years ago when I 1st became a board member.

Back then we only had one or two new members join each month and some of the chapters and x-members actually HATED PRA.

Now some of those chapters are actually working with PRA again and two smallest gains of new members were 5 in Feb and 8 in Mar.
The average has gone from 1 new member to 12 new members each month and increasing.

Many of the new members as you have all pointed out want or own the new quick build or bought a used new Euro gyro.

Also the last Mentone was the worst attended, we had a heat wave and even those who had paid did not come.

But attendance has been very good and we are not a training center only a convention airport once a year for the party.

Many of the new people joining are coming to Mentone!!!

I see the future of fly-in's only increasing as the new Euro tubs owners start showing up at the fly-in's only increasing our numbers as long as the old guard does not go way or die on us.

I have heard about all the hard feelings as rumors and I know a very few who stayed away because they have been hurt.
Just everyone say they are sorry and start working together again making the gyro community a better place to PLAY.
Most of us want the same things so just FORGIVE and get back to being friends who do not always agree 100% on things.
We agree 100% we love gyro's and women!!! ...Oops or Men.

I tried to spread the good cheer, I even gave Jake some pointers!

I was on my fat tire unicycle with authentic Australian bush hat..

This got me thinking about marketing!!!!
We do and will advertise all PRA chapters fly-in's in PSF magazine as we have a 1/2 page ad as part of the contract.

For all the fly-in we should consider sponsoring group fly-in where pilots can meet at airports along their common route and join together as a group to fly to the fly-in and they could share the expense of rooms at the hotel and safely as a group.

Flying as a group for new pilots is a great way to learn real cross-country and they are going to a party??

What do you think and what can PRA do to help advertise your events?

The bad part of that learning experience was me sitting on my NUTS !!! Ouch