I wanted to share a story will all of you about my good friend Allan.
Back in 2015, when I was still pretty active in producing kits, Allan dropped by my house one day and started talking to me about producing a kit of a gyro that Dick Mathis had designed years ago called “Otto the Giro”. I asked Allan what in the heck was that. I had never heard of it. He started explaining this thing to me and drawing sketches and I looked at him like he had lost his mind. But he persisted and started engineering a hub for the rotors made out of some polystyrene material that he found at home depot that the rotor blades would plug into. He actually, somehow, rigged up a way to make these things. I still was not convinced. I told him I didn’t know how we were going to cut the proper angles on the edges of the rotor blades and get the proper taper on them and he went home, designed a jig to go on my band saw, and we carried my band saw into the back yard and started running 3/8” thick balsa through this jig and started cutting rotors.
I built a prototype and told him we would be lucky if we sold one kit. I showed it to Eric Rule and he said we might sell two but he would be glad to cut the kits for me. All the while, Allan was like a little kid about this project and could not wait to get a prototype to the field and give it a test run.
Allan fiddled around with the angle of the rotor post about a gazillion times (driving me crazy all the time) until he found the angle that suited him. That is the kind of perfectionist he was.
Finally we had a couple of prototypes built and we took them to the field to give them a test run. I swore they wouldn’t get off the ground. I had put a OS LA 25 on mine and he had a .40 on his. We decided to fly mine first. I cranked it up, walked to the center of the circle, told Allan to let it go. The thing started running around the circle on the ground and I gave it a little up and the damn thing jumped off the ground and the rotors started turning and it was flying. I couldn’t believe it. It was flying good. I was about 2 minutes into the flight when the wheel collar that was holding the rotor hub on decided to come loose, the rotors flew off the fuselage and went into the clouds somewhere and I can tell you, this thing did not glide.
Allan was rolling on the ground laughing his butt off and I just stood there looking at a horrible pile of balsa on the concrete with an engine attached to it.
Allan cranked his up, took it off and made a loop and just looked at me and grinned. He was like a little kid and having a ball.
I decided to go ahead with the kit and it turned out to be the biggest selling kit I ever put out. I was astonished, Eric Rule was astonished but Allan just said, “I told you so.”
I am going to miss him so much.
Mike
Topic: Allan Perret (Read 4010 times)
