OUCH, guess I am incompetent/lazy. Kinda sounds like my wife :-]
I race planes, taildraggers have less drag then tri gears and thus go faster. The races generally go no matter what the wind conditions. My firs goal is to get the plane off the ground no matter what the wind conditions are. This is not the time to be messing with cross runway takeoffs etc. Enter the gyro. It can be a real life saver. Miss one takeoff and it can be 4 points of the season score. Also as with the pattern folks, things can get pretty busy in the air and happen fast. The gyro also helps there in the turns etc.