asc7

ASC Rotor Wing

AWARDS PROGRAM

Ever since I brought the Gyrobee to its first PRA Convention (1991), I have been irked by the awards judging. Given the fact that few judges appreciate what is required to create a legal ultralight gyro, there is no way that a real ultralight can be competitive in a field dominated by glitzy Experimental machines with their big engines and 100 pounds of accessories! One of the major goals of the Wing should be to promote and recognize exemplary examples of real ultralight gyros.

One option I would like us to consider is the creation, by the ASC Rotor Wing, of specific ultralight awards that would be awarded to ultralight pilots/gyros at the annual PRA convention. This modest awards program would have a number of benefits:

It would serve to emphasize the productive relationship between ASC and PRA
It would encourage ultralight designers and pilots to bring their machines to the Convention
It would permit the ultralight machines to be judged by reference to their peers
By emphasizing ultralight machines, it would spotlight what I expect to be an ever-increasing number of ultralight aircraft
It would highlight the activities of the ASC and the ASC Rotor Wing
It would provide recognition for exemplary ultralight gyroplanes in the context of the larger rotorcraft movement.

I would expect that we could start with two basic awards - Grand Champion Ultralight Gyroplane and Best New Ultralight Gyroplane Design. The awards could be fairly simple (but nice) plaques. I am pretty sure that we could count on some subsidy from ASC toward these awards as it seems obvious that Jim intends for ASC to have an ongoing presence at the annual PRA Convention.

Again, we have some time to consider this idea, but we do need some feedback from the Wing members to know if this is something we should be doing.