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Bay Area
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A visit with Thurm!Dave Yant and Tom Taylor had the opportunity to visit with Thurm Barrett at his home this summer on July 3, 2003. Thurm was very gracious and showed us all his beautiful gyroplanes, related equipment, parts, and workshop. A good time was had by all. Thurm suffered a heart attack about a year ago, which has caused him some difficulty with circulation in his legs. That's why he hasn't been able to attend our monthly meetings recently. Also because of this, Thurm has come to the conclusion that his flying days are pretty much over.  Thurm has been flying and designing gyros since the 1960s. He is also the first person to adapt the VW engine for gyro use, with many articles to his credit. Thurm, you are missed by all at our meetings. We hope to see you soon. |
 Thurn's personal VW-powered Gyro!  Thurm shows us how it's done!  This one still needs an engine! |
Weather didn't help Fly-in!We scheduled our August, 2003 meeting to coincide with the Gross Airport Annual Fly-in. This event had some weather problems. Weather forecasts looked good with a light rain in the morning then clearing before noon. Well, it started out that way, but the light rain cleared, then kept coming back until around 1:00 PM. It finally cleared up and was a beautiful day. But the damage was done for attendance. For those who did attend, we still had a pretty nice time. A lot of interest in the club Gyro and ultralights that were there. The kids had a ball and all won some cool door prizes.  Jim Wade in deep thought as he inspects Tom Taylor's Quicksilver Sprint.
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 An unidentified young lady says, "This is really COOL!"  6 month old Nicholas Taylor becoming a true "Ultralight Pilot!"  3 year old Joseph Taylor doing a "Pre-Flight Check!" |
 Great food & good friends! What more could you ask for? |
 10 year old Alex Taylor takes his first airplane ride in a Kitfox and receives his EAA Young Eagles Certificate. |
Two new Quicksilver 2-place Aircraft join the Club ranks!Bob johnston is flying his recently obtained Quicksilver Sport 2-place. This ship has a very unique Air-Tech nose bubble. I am told it works great and actually increases cruise speed. It is powered by a Rotax 503 with dual carbs. It is a beautiful ship to see in the air. Jack Whyte is now flying his brand new Quicksilver Sprint 2-place. First took to the air June 14, 2003. Jack hand picked several key components for this ship for the possible future addition of floats. This ship has a water cooled Rorax 582 with dual carbs and a special 4-bladed prop. It can climb out like the Space Shuttle! It really looks sharp in the air with its red, white & blue colors. The difference between the Quicksilver Sport & Sprint are that the Sport has "flat bottom" wings and the Sprint has the "high lift" wings. |
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It appears that the club will be obtaining a hangar at Gross Airport, hopefully somethime in the Spring of 2004. More to come on this as it becomes available.
In the mean time, our club gyros are being moved to Gross Airport for Winter storage in Bob Johnston's T-hangar. They will be stored along with Tom Taylor's ultralight until the new hangar becomes available.
In addition, the club now has permission to use our Boom Trainer at Gross Airport. This means we can run it with the original balloon tires on the grass. Jack Whyte, president of the Gross Airport Association requests that we use it on the taxiway instead of the runway.
Club Website news!Many changes have been made to our website over the past year, including a new menu bar shown in the photo on the top right. Another major change is the ability to have multiple photos of each plane in the Photo Album, shown in the lower right photo. A tremendous amount of time and effort has gone into making this happen at no cost to the club. More information is being added all the time. The Members Area is being brought up to date now. A lot of minutes are missing from the year 2003. If you have comments or suggestions, don't hesitate to let them be known. The menu bar change was a direct result of a suggestion from a visitor to the site. A Job Well Done goes out to Michael Taylor. Your efforts are highly appreciated by all. Future Articles!
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(All articles & photos by Tom Taylor) |
