By Bernadette Cahill, Special to The Post

If you think you have seen a flying lawnmower over town, it was just one of Charlie’s Gyrocopters.

Charles Harrison, a Vicksburg resident originally from Meridian, is almost unique in Mississippi. He owns and flies not just one, but two, gyrocopters which he houses at Vicksburg Municipal Airport. The only other gyrocopter he is aware of in the state is at Louisville, “but I am sure there are others around,” he said.

A gyrocopter is a kind of small helicopter, “that can do almost everything a helicopter can do,” said Harrison in a recent interview, adding, “mine are Walmart blue and crop-duster yellow.”

They are small enough to be housed together in a T-hangar – and light enough to maneuver by hand when he is readying for one of his frequent local flights.

“It’s the most fun flying I’ve ever done,” Harrison said.

Now 77 and retired, Harrison chose to fly gyrocopters after a 15-year break from 30-plus years of flying mostly fixed-wing planes.

“I was CFO for almost 30 years at the Mississippi Baptist Medical Center, during which time the hospital had a helicopter,” he said. “Since I was the only one in administration with a pilot’s license, I got to oversee the program.

“In that capacity I was able to log over 50 hours of helicopter time, but also I’ve been fortunate enough to log time and fly over 33 different aircraft. They ranged from motor gliders, seaplanes, numerous single-engine aircraft, along with aircraft such as the Beechcraft King Air, Cessna Citations and Sabreliners. I was having a ball, and looking back on all my years of flying, I realized that helicopters were the most fun.”

Helicopters were too expensive, but a gyrocopter was affordable. Having decided that gyrocopters were the way for him to go, Harrison went for training to the renowned Ron Menzie in Searcy, Arkansas. His progress eventually stalled because it was time to solo and he needed his own aircraft. So he ordered an Autogyro MTO Sport from Germany with an expected four-month wait for delivery.

In the meantime, he visited family in Mobile, Alabama and while there, decided to look at the Magni Gyrocopter dealer in Gulf Shores, Alabama, where he was able to fly gyros. There, he found one in a hangar for sale.

“So I bought the blue Italian Magni M24 and became the third owner of an almost brand-new aircraft,” he said.

The yellow Autogyro was finally delivered after 11 months and he installed its rotor blades with the expertise of pilot Airport Director, airplane mechanic, and Authorized Inspector Ron Davis.

Harrison never intended to own two gyrocopters, but “I got tired of waiting on the yellow one, and the blue one just came out of the blue,” he said. 

The 100-horsepower Autogyro is open-cockpit with two seats one behind the other, bringing to mind Snoopy, the World War I flying ace, with the white scarf flapping like a flag in the slipstream.

In the 144-horsepower blue Magni M24, pilot and passenger sit side-by-side in an enclosed cockpit, surrounded by light. Flying in it is like sitting in a bubble floating over the land below and seeing our local sights, like the two Vicksburg bridges, the Old Court House and the National Park laid out far below, Harrison said.