AndyKeech

Andy Keech

2004 WPSA Recipient

Oklahoma City -- As far back as he can
remember, Andy has been interested in
aircraft. By the age of seven, he was building
balsa, rubber band propelled model aircraft
and reading all the books a young person
could find on flying.
When he was eight, he had his first flight in
a barnstorming itinerant aircraft, and from then
on he had a passionate interest in aviation. He
clipped articles and pictures from newspapers
and magazines to be pasted into scrap books,
and he was able to recognize any aircraft that
existed at that time.
At seventeen, he earned his first full-time
employment check, part of which was invested
in his first flying lesson. He soloed later that
year, but unfortunately moved to a town that
had no flying club.
However, that did not hold him back. He
segued into sport parachuting at 19, and
developed a passion for the sport which lasted
for the next 20 years.
During that time he became one of
Australia’s pioneer skydivers. He was, with his
jump partner, the first Australian to
successfully make contact in free fall (relative
work). He became a senior as well as chief
instructor, national champion parachutist and
held the first two expert parachutist licences
issued to an Australian (E1 and F1). He
competed at a world competition in Germany
and was the top scorer on his team.
Andy came to the US around this time and
continued skydiving, but also resumed flying
lessons.
He became one of the world’s top free fall
photographers, and produced three books on
skydiving. He had assignments with Sports
Illustrated, TIME magazine, the London Times
and other publications, which took him to
Africa, Europe and the Pacific as well as all
over the United States.
Andy built and jumped his own parachute,
and was the first freef all photographer to
transition on to the moder, high performance
ram air parachutes. He was one of the small
handful of skydivers to dive off El Capitan in the
Yosemite Valley. His El Cap number is 83
(83rd person to freefall down that cliff face).

Andy organized the visit to, and jumped in China as still a
photographer on the US Skydiving team in 1980. His work hung in
the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum in Washington DC, and he
was honored with the Master of Sport award by the Australian
Parachute Association in recognition of his international
achievements.
While accomplishing the above, he also earned the following
certificates and ratings: senior parachute rigger, commercial, single
engine, multi-engine, instrument, rotocraft, helicopter and gyroplane.
With the help of several friends, he built and flew an ultra-light, and
repaired a wrecked light aircraft which became his private plane. He
also few jump aircraft, gliders, tow planes, helicopters and
autogyros. However, it was the world of autogyros that began to
fascinate him and eventually Andy decided to build a new design
gyroplane (Little Wing Autogyro). He worked with Ron Herron, an
airframe and power plant mechanic, instructor, designer to build a
light, high-performance, safe aircraft, which he called ‘Woodstock’.
The collaboration took five-years.
In October 2003, Andy flew Woodstock across the U.S. and back,
resetting three trans-continental speed records. Then, in February
2004 he set a new world distance record of 617 miles, and in May, a
new altitude (26,408’) and time to climb world records. The LW 5 is
unique. It is the only aircraft to ever hold records in all parameters
of performance...speed, distance, climb and altitude. Andy now
looks forward to setting further world record.
The Wiley Post Commission believes that Andy Keech meets all the
criteria for the Wiley Post Spirit Award’ by best exhibiting the
engineering and innovative pioneering
legacy of Wiley Post.
A formal banquet was held for Mr. Keech at the Servicenter FBO at
Wiley Post Airport in Oklahoma City, January 28, 2005.

by Andy Keech
But for every headwind there is an equal but opposite
tailwind, as they say, and by the time I am turning around
on leg two back at NLR, I have made up four of those
minutes. Tailwinds may be equal but they do not work for
as long as the headwind penalizes a pilot. Now the race is
truly on.
A speed flight is a demanding cliffhanger from start to
finish. That much is evident, and thankfully it is evident
early on. In transcontinental flying, the mind is attuned
toward endurance and the principal challenge is to be able
to cope with the unexpected. In distance flying, patience
is the name of the game because there is little to do but
watch the scenery go by and keep track of fuel burn.
For altitude and climb records the eye and brain are
pretty much glued to indicated air speed, location, and
dealing with ATC.
With speed flying it's: faster and cleaner.. When you're
behind you have to make it up, and when you're ahead
you have to keep amassing minutes to draw interest in
your bank account. You are focused for speed. You feel
a genuine need for speed that Tom Cruise never quite
communicated, the whole purpose of this flight.
The next NLR-Hazen leg was 50 minutes exactly. Right
on target, except we are still two minutes behind. Ditto for
the third leg. But we are lightening up as Woodstock
burns off her fuel load, and we make leg four in 48
minutes. So we are beginning the fifth and final lap even
with the board, and now the whole record attempt is
hanging this last leg.
One more time east on I-40. I feel I have flown it a
hundred times now instead of just four. I can call all the
landmarks by their first names, as if they are cousins of
mine. Hello, Lonoke. Hi Carlisle, you old bomber base
with your long concrete runways now the home to a
squadron of crop dusters. Good morning all you catfish
farms, where the cafes along this stretch of I-40 get their
fish to fry up and serve with hushpuppies to hungry
truckers out chasing their 47 cents per driver mile as
fervently as I am chasing Ken Wallis' speed record.
We make the big swing around Hazen, Woodstock and I,
we who have flown so far and high together. We pivot
around Hazen with Woodstock's blades almost completely
perpendicular to the surface. This whole thing about
turning points is an art in speed flying -- you tend to
deliberately overshoot in order not to cut too fine and
disqualify your record attempt.
There are nine turns on this attempt and all are wasteful
of time and speed But right now we are feeling the need.
Wind is penalty enough with the difference between
upwind and downwind speed at 35 kts on these circuits.
Insurance overshoots are more so we have to do
everything exactly right. Speed comes not just from power
but also from flying the shortest distance between two
points and staying right down the middle of the course line.
Speed comes from accuracy and finesse, seconds saved
here and there. Iscramble for all I can get.
Little Rock is once again visible, the moment we complete
the turn. It is a Sunday in Arkansas, and on this day most
people who are outside their homes will be in church. Little
Rock is still a small southern city, a pleasant and unhurried
place, modern and
metropolitan in all the ways it needs to be but yet a small
town at heart. I fancy that it is drawing me to itself,
somehow trying to help me win this contest I am having
with myself.
The feeling might be fanciful, but the GPS says it's
happening --we are making up the minutes, and by the
time we are crossing the highway that leads to the big
C-130 training base north of North Little Rock Airport, it is
evident we have won. Woodstock does the last circuit in
47 minutes, meaning we have surpassed the old record. A
victory roll would be fun, but that's a realm of flight where
Woodstock would be out of her depth.
There are no bands playing when we land, but our
reception is not without some fanfare. Kris and Ron
Herron, Woodstock's designer is there, as is Zane
Anderson, who is a person of standing in Little Rock's
aviation community, and finally Ted the NAA witness. Amid
the smiles and handshakes, it begins to settle in my
thoughts and this little flying machine in which I sit for a
lingering moment is now the holder of every possible type
of performance record that can be set with any class of
aircraft: speed, range, altitude and time to climb. It is time
to call home with the news.
At this writing, I only know that we exceeded the old
record held by Ken Wallis by four percent (pending final
verification by the NAA). Looking back into my GPS like
Hansel following the breadcrumb trail, I found that we
covered 602 km where 576 kilometers were to count.
Turns and overshoots were expensive. Had I become
more alert earlier in the game, we would undoubtedly have
done better. All flights are learning experiences. We will
certainly do better nexttime.
A final footnote: as I said at the beginning, only two other
aircraft in the world ever held all four performance records
for their class. It happens that both were Russian.
Woodstock is the first aircraft from the west to accomplish
this feat. The only rotorcraft, ever to do so.

  Ron Herron has good reason to be pleased with his
creation. If there is a David and Goliath story here it would
be that of an Arkansan country boy designer vs the design
bureau of a super power.
There is not a great deal to setting an aviation record
except just doing it. There is a lot of preparation, of
course, and it is a form of mental rehearsal. But when the
day comes, you go fly and that's that.
  I had thought of Tom Cruise strutting across the ramp
with his F-15 hulking in the background, chanting, "I feel
the need....for speed. It seemed so cocky and silly at the
time. The truth was, I also feel that need. After setting the
transcontinental speed record in Woodstock, the LW5
Autogiro designed by Ron Herron of Little Rock, AR., and
later, the world distance, altitude and time-to-climb
records in the same ship, it was now time for an assault on
a closed-course world speed record held by my friend and
mentor Ken Wallis. Ken has held all 5 speed records over
distances from 2 km out to 1,000km for several decades.
If Woodstock acquired one of these then she would be one
of only 3 aircraft in all of aviation history to hold class
records in all four categories of performance (speed,
distance, climb and altitude.)
To involve you for a moment in the detail of planning:
since the planned course would take between 3.5 and 4
hours to fly, fuel was a consideration. The LW5 has more
than sufficient internal tankage to handle this, so there
would be no drag penalty from bolt-on tanks. Weight of
fuel is obviously another factor, and still another is wind. I
had painstakingly laid out five different circuits with the
intention of leaving on the most advantageous one at the
most propitious moment.
But no such moment presented itself, or if it did there was
always some detail left undone, and the days meanwhile
continued to parade onward. By mid-March, with winter on
the wane, wind was becoming progressively less
predictable. Daily guesswork with variable wind directions
and closed courses had turned into a game, like playing
chess with invisible pieces. In the end I chucked all the
fancy calculations up in the air, saddled up Woodstock and
launched.
The new plan was to do a series of five out-and-back
flights between Little Rock and a sleepy little village about
35 miles to its east called Hazen. This would be ten legs
and by my best guess (Ihad stopped using the term
"calculation") each leg had to average no more than 25
minutes in order to stay on the required speed and
accomplish the record.
At 6:06 on March 20, with dawn beginning to light the
eastern sky, I lifted off North Little Rock Municipal airport
and aimed Woodstock into the rising sun. I knew that I was
flying into a quartering headwind but one of unknown
strength and uncertain direction, the whole venture had
more the feeling of a barroom brawl than a
meticulously-planned attempt at a world aviation record.
There was an atmosphere of reacting to one surprise
after another, rather than holding the reins of the situation
in a confident hand.   It was a nice morning for flying, and
there was no reason not to relax and enjoy the ride.
Little Rock lies at the foot of the Ozark Plateau, and by
the time one is east of Little Rock he is over the Mississippi
Delta, a wide swath of flat farmland that stretches 120
miles to Memphis and the Father of Waters. Even at six in
the morning there is an endless line of traffic on the
arrow-straight Interstate 40, east and west bound. In some
ways the experience of watching them from my perch in
Woodstock is like being invisible, watching openly without
being seen.
I should be tending to business, or else this will be
nothing more than a sightseeing tour above the Bible Belt.
According to the GPS the groundspeed is distressingly
low, far below that necessary to accomplish this mission,
and therefore all my planning about the winds -- including
a detailed briefing from Flight Service immediately before
departure -- may as well have been a dance of worship
before an unappreciative deity.
How boring aviation could someday be, should we ever
learn to predict weather with absolute accuracy.
It is with this thought echoing through the hallways of my
mind, while staring into the endless distance across the
vast delta, that I manage to fly a half mile past Hazen
before realizing where I am and making the turnaround.
This makes the first leg 31 minutes, or six minutes slower
than target speed, which is a pretty dismal way to open an
undertaking such as this.

click on hargar for home page

Faster Than Lance
Armstrong
Slower Than the SR-71

Faster Than Lance Armstrong and slower than the
SR-71...faster than any other gyro, is the way Andy
Keech characterized his latest attempt at setting a
new world class gyro plane speed record. And
indeed, he and "Woodstock" did set a new record.
Andy explained that there are two kinds of records,
speed or distance; either vertically or horizontally.
This record run was over a 500 kms course at 139.67
km/hr.

Andy Keech was the winner of the 2004 Wiley Post
Spirit Award. At the awards banquet, Andy assured
everyone that he had several more record attempts
coming in the near future...this was one of several.

Andy has identified one-hundred records that he
plan on smashing. When he retires Woodstock, it will
be the most record setting aircraft in history. It is
slated to go to the National Air & Space Museum.

For more information on the continuing efforts of Andy
Keech, Cheryl Stearns Jon Johanson, their personal
stories, clickhere

Woodstock's all "Gussied Up" With
Plenty of Places to go

Andy Keech owner and pilot of "Woodstock", along with Ron
Herron, owner of "Littlewing Autogiros" recently completed some
aerodynamic cleans ups. Wheel pants, a faired and streamlined
landing gear, along with mast improvements has help Keech and his
record breaking aircraft to go higher, further and fast than ever
before.
Andy has been conducting flight test and very soon may be
reporting new records. At present, "Woodstock" holds more records
for a gyroplane than any other single aircraft.
Watch this space for the Andy's results as soon as they
become official. (Andy's Recent Records)

For complete information on this line of
remarkable aircraft, please visit Ron Herron's
website.
littlewingautogyro.com

500 Miles in a Hurry!

"Woodstock's" New Nest"
by Andy Keech

        The LW5 autogyro project was initially started by Ron Herron
and myself to reintroduce what has been aviation’s safest form of flying,
after 70 years in hibernation we resurrected the gyroplane with the
engine on the front. While doing that we also decided to see how well
this aircraft would do once she was built. To our ongoing surprise and
delight she exceeded our expectations and continued to do so over 4
years. In fact she set 29 world performance records in the four
measures of performance (speed, distance, climb and altitude) with
never a failure. Each round exceeded the previous year’s performance
through minor refinement of the design and through what one learns
from experience.

       I was completely self sponsored from start to finish, and
while I could see that the following round would have largely
filled the potential envelope of her capabilities I was running
out of finance to go further. At this point we were well beyond
where we expected at he time we started and very satisfied
that the next record setter would have to be an exceptional
and extraordinary aircraft if these performances are to be
bettered.

       Our aircraft was designed, built and flown by EAA
members. The EAA was pleased to take her as she represents the best
in class as do the Global Flyer and the Voyager aircraft which are also
EAA member designed, built and flown. With the EAA “Woodstock”
would be in appreciative hands and on display to people of the same
spirit.

       When I landed at Oshkosh Whittman field I realized that this would
be the last time that I would ever sit in her. I felt an intense sense of post
partum depression that was mixed with relief that comes from letting go
of the enormous focus that comes with such an obsession.

The depression prevented me from signing the ownership document
passing the old friend over to new (and appreciative ownership) for 3
months. Some realizations, while immediate on the conscious level
take a while to adjust to emotionally. People ask ”What next?” Recovery
is like that of grief... It takes awhile. Rest, and recuperation starting to
learn to play guitar is the next challenge.

       The legacy that this aircraft has given me is beyond normal means
of measure. Friendships of old have been reinforced, new, pleasant and
surprising friends and acquaintances came with the adventures that
come from flying across this country and dealing with the incidents that
come from precarious and novel events. Even a surprising and
unexpected brush with celebrity and celebrities that has evolved from
the “Spirit of Wiley Post” project in OKC. The Wiley Post Award seeks
and recognizes the self propelled people in aviation who face and
surmount the headwinds that confront those who bootstrap themselves
to follow their dreams and finally reach the leading edge of their
specialty.

Top:   Andy Keech with his beloved "Woodstock"

Center:   "Woodstock's" New home at EAA Museum,
Oskosh, WI.   Click ">here for more of the story.

Bottom:   "Woodstock" as the center piece for the
first Wiley Post Spirtit Award honoring Andy Keech