As a member of the Nor-Vise pro staff for many years with my son (since he was about 14) I see a huge advantage in the rotary for a lot of different reasons. Simply being able to look at the entire fly from every angle is worth having the rotary, True rotaries (no Dan-Vises, Renzettis, Regals, etc) are far faster and the ability to lay down materials EXACTLY where you want them is priceless. Trying to add up the hundreds (actually many thousands) of hours I have worked on a vise makes the little additional cost very cheap per hour. Watched my son tie a handful of complicated flies the other evening and realized just how much he gained with the rotary.
I tied commercially for years and was very fast, but nothing compared to what Riley does now. We have spanked the competition in tying contests for years. At 14 the Alaska Fly Fishers rewrote the rules to prevent Riley from running the table, again. His almost-three-year-old is trying her hand at it now.
True rotaries are worth the investment and they will last a lifetime.
