Chances are you’ve never heard of Bensen Days, one of the oldest continuously running fly-ins in the world , second only to EAA’s annual gathering in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. Bensen Days is a four-day annual gathering of gyroplane builders, pilots, and aficionados held in the lovely farming community of Wauchula in central Florida. Devoid of the glitz and glamour of the more well-known fly-ins (such as AirVenture and Sun ’n Fun), Bensen Days is a quirky celebration of one of the most exhilarating forms of aviation: gyroplane flying.
Bensen Days is named after Igor Bensen, the creator of the wildly popular Bensen Gyrocopter in the ’50s and ’60s. Although Bensen Gyrocopters went out of business in 1987, those small experimental craft sparked a fire in the belly of a thrill-seeking segment of aviators that continues today. They are drawn to the performance of gyroplanes and the thrill of astonishingly nimble handling, often in open cabins.
Most of the faithful attendees at Bensen Days camp out on the field of Wauchula Municipal Airport (KCHN). While there are food vendors and a few gyroplane vendors in attendance, there are no workshops, forums, or formal events to speak of. The real draw is the actual flying of gyroplanes, all day and even into the sunset. Pilots and builders are in the air almost as much as they are on the ground. They give rides to would-be builders, owners, and even non-pilot fans. When not at altitude, gyro pilots are often involved in epic hangar flying sessions with everyone from newbies to legendary gurus.
For decades, Bensen Days was organized and run by seasoned veterans. However, following recent retirements, a youthful new captain, Corey Kirkwood, has taken the helm. Although Corey is only 30 years old, he has a wealth of experience in general aviation and gyroplanes.
Originally from north Georgia, Corey moved with his family to Foley, Alabama, when he was seven. With no particular interest in aviation, Corey took a job as a lineperson with Lightning Aviation in Foley. As can be expected, the spark of aviation nestled in his heart, and he was soon trading work for flight instruction. Corey completed his private, instrument, commercial, multi-engine, and certificated flight instructor (both VFR and instrument) ratings with Lightning. He then took over running the flight school, with lucrative contracts to conduct initial flight training for Navy and Marine pilot candidates. After the passage of time and hard work, Corey Kirkwood became partners with the owner of Lightning Aviation. He now owns all of it.
Corey’s dedication to gyroplanes began one incredibly windy day at the airport when he saw Mark Sprigg, a dealer for Magni Gyroplanes, fly an open-cabin Magni 16 in from Gulf Shores, Alabama. His own operation had ceased instruction for the day because of the ripping crosswinds. Corey asked Sprigg how he could manage such punishing winds. Sprigg just shrugged and stated that he really did not notice them in the gyro. Corey was incredulous, but an immediate demonstration flight proved the claim that, because of high wing loading (actually rotor disk loading), gyroplanes are highly resistant to turbulence. Even strong crosswinds have little effect on gyros because the rotor disk flies about as well wherever the fuselage is pointed.
Corey was hooked. His interest became a passion, and he quickly obtained commercial and certificated flight instructor ratings for gyroplanes. Now, Foley, Alabama, is one of the few airports that offers gyroplane instruction. Corey and his instructor pilots have accomplished thousands of hours of instruction and have minted scores of new pilots. In a way, Kirkwood is the Apostle Paul of gyroplanes. Before that fateful windy day when he took his first ride, he had a low opinion of gyros in general. In fact, he would term them “sky roaches.” Now, having seen the light, Corey is one of the greatest evangelists for gyroplanes.
Corey Kirkwood has attacked his new role as the captain of Bensen Days with the same determination that brought him from fueling aircraft to owning and running Lightning Aviation. He expects 100–150 gyros to fly in for the event and for a raft of spectators to enjoy the spectacle. AvBrief will report on the happenings at the show, which starts today. We invite you along for the un-bumpy ride.
Wow! My Dad started building Bensens in S. Cal in the late ’60s with the assistance of his good friend Ken Brock. He would trailer them up to the dry lake bed out east of Palmdale. Ken checked me out, and I began flying them also. Flying them out across the desert reminded me of airborne dirt bike riding. My Dad is long gone now, but I know he would have loved to see this. Because the desert gets cold in the winter, he put enclosures on them for comfort. I have a few pictures of a youthful me and Dad’s gyro, but don’t know how to post them. Ken got hit in the head with a Bensen rotor blade. Recovered from that, but a few years later, he got killed while landing his 2 place taildragger out on the lake bed and the tailwheel broke. The plane flipped and Ken got killed with a broken neck. His wife Marie who was with him, didn’t get a scratch.
Ken used to put on a heckuva show at Airventure, too. Flying out of Edwards, once in a while I’d see the gyros flying around El Mirage dry lake.
I think it’s the flapping nature of the rotary wing rather than disk loading that gives it excellent gust rejection. Thanks for reporting on Bensen Days and gyros…looking forward to more.
My rotor is rigid but it’s still a non-event to take off and land in high winds, no matter the direction. My wife doesn’t like the high winds because we fly low over the New Mexico desert. When it’s really windy, it gets bumpy due to orographic effects.
Takeoffs in high crosswinds are simple just by tilting the rotor into the wind. It’s amazing how much the fuselage weather vanes at liftoff! On landing a simple crab on approach handles drift and kicking the nose to runway heading as the up wind tire touches the ground finishes the job.
It’s a lot like flying my Cessna 180…
Back in the fifties I was a kid enamored of helicopters. I place the blame squarely on the Saturday morning cereal/serial “The Whirlybirds”, a half-hour of B&W TV whose scripts were interchangeable with “Lassie”, “Sky King”, “Fury”, et al. Basically, {someone} gets in trouble and {hero} comes to the rescue. But the heroes on “Whirlybirds” had a Bell 47 helicopter.
A few years go by and I realize that I’ll never mow enough grass to pay for helicopter lessons. But I was flying Cubs/Champs/TCarts long before I had a drivers license. (Out where we were, they were considered more like boats, not street vehicles. And we never saw a Fed.) But as soon as I had my DL, I made the three-hour trek to KRDU where Igor Bensen had set up shop. It wasn’t much; a couple of sheds in the piney woods down a dirt road just off the airport property.
I drove up totally unannounced, as one did in those days. There were a couple of guys working with metal parts and various mechanisms that didn’t resemble anything in particular. We exchanged pleasantries, but they were busy so I just wandered around. Then a man who was obviously the boss, dressed in a five-piece suit (in June) came through the door, shook my hand and introduced himself (in a thick accent) as Igor Bensen.
We talked about what I flew and that I wanted to build a Gyrocopter. He proceeded to show me everything he was working on, including a version that used a chainsaw engine with a model aircraft prop mounted about a quarter of the way out on each blade. He said it started out as a simple pre-rotator mechanism to shorten the takeoff roll. He thought a totally self-powered rotor might eliminate the need for the heavy 4-cyl drone engine and pusher prop, making it a true helicopter, but the added mass was messing up the rotor dynamics. I asked how he was going to get fuel to the engines, and he said he’d worked that out.
Then he showed me his “flying bedstead” which was a flat grid of aluminum square tubing with a a chainsaw engine&prop in each cell except the center, where the pilot stood, with a fist-full of throttles. He said he was working out the best way to control the engines, because weight-shift had proven to be a non-starter. He fired it up (what a racket!) but didn’t leave the ground. But the image of him (fully suited) in the middle of that maelstrom is indelible.
I started to feel bad for the amount of time I was taking, but he seem genuinely happy to have someone to explain things to. He never gave any indication that taking time to talk to an interested kid, who obviously wasn’t going to buy a Gyrocopter anytime soon, was not the most important thing he had to do that afternoon. He was formal and respectful, and the visit with him left an indelible impression on me.
Later, I hung around a group of Charlotte-area Bensen pilots, usually on Sunday, when they would bring their birds out to the stretches of paved-but-not-yet-opened stretches of what would become I-77. Most of them were still tow-training. A couple of years later, I went back to Raleigh to enroll in the Aerospace Engineering school at NCState. I visited Igor a few times in those years but, well … Life …
Igor Bensen was a creative and curious engineer, and a consummate gentleman.