www.PSFmagazine.com | October-November 2018 | 35 34 | October-November 2018 | Powered Sport Flying • All Carbon Fiber Construction • Ground Adjustable • Individually Replaceable Blades • Optional Inlaid Nickel LE • $100 Trade-In Credit • Low Price • Smooth and • Superior Durability • Over 140,000 Blades Sold • In Business Since 1988 • Lifetime Satisfaction Guarantee Factory Website Manufactured in the USA Warp Drive Inc. 1207 Highway 18 E Ventura, IA 50482 The only Solid Carbon Fiber Composite Propeller Phone: 641-357-6000 Fax: 641-357-7592 Toll Free: 800-833-9357 Warp Drive Propellers www.WarpDriveInc.com Check the Mailing Label on the Back Cover to See if Your Subscription is Running Out Gyroplane Report breaking the altitude restriction. I didn’t want to go higher, so I throttled back a bit to begin a descent. As I left Yosemite Valley and the snowy areas behind, I breathed a little easier. There were still no good landing sites, but it just felt less intimidating somehow and I was exhilarated by what I’d just seen. I headed for Turlock, a small airport in the Central Valley another 50 miles away. I landed there and had a great chat with a guy who had grown up there and whose dad was very involved in Turlock years ago. He had two kids with him and they were fascinated by the gyro and couldn’t get over the idea that I’d just flown over Yosemite. I had some lunch and took off several of the eight layers–it was much warmer down there. I couldn’t fit all of them in my rucksack, so I put what I could into it and stuffed the puffer jacket I no longer needed down underneath the rucksack. Given that it was tied down, I felt it would be fine. So I took off again and headed home for San Martin. Shortly after that is when I had my first midair emergency and completely unplanned off-airport landing. And you can probably guess the reason. The coat that I had thought was adequately secured, turned out not to be. A few minutes after taking off, I started to smell burning. I checked the gauges and they were fine and I couldn’t see anything burning on the ground but the smell was strong. I looked over my shoulder and realized to my horror that my coat was now draped over the engine and could go through the propeller at any point. It’s a strange experience going through something like that. I felt an almost overpowering urge to turn back forwards and ignore it, hoping that the situation wouldn’t get worse and that ‘things would be OK.’ But this clearly was a dumb idea. I picked a field underneath with a dirt strip running through it, killed the engine and set up for a landing. Gyros need very little room and I had good choices, though I was lucky to avoid a power line that I almost saw too late. The gyro was fine though the coat didn’t fare so well. Turns out they melt when draped over the turbo, cylinder heads and exhaust. I’m extremely fortunate the coat flew in such a way that it got stopped and didn’t go through the prop, potentially tangling it. Also that nothing (except the coat) was damaged. Having checked the gyro thoroughly and this time adequately securing the remains of the coat, I turned the gyro around and did a short-field takeoff–the path I’d stopped on was dusty but smooth enough and I turned for home with my tail between my legs. The rest of the flight was uneventful, and for that I’m extremely grateful. The Yosemite flight was the best I’d had and I’ll remember it the rest of my life. Not securing the coat more carefully seemed OK but in hindsight it was not clever at all and I was very fortunate to get away with it. The impulse to carry on and ignore the situation and not deal with it was momentary but powerful. I think I’ll remember both aspects of that flight and hope the lessons stay with me as well as the memories. •
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