and a new pilot/engineer is born.

[William Hung[_2_]]

http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/homemade-helicopter/nigerian-man-builds-working-helicopters-from-junk-313408.php

Way to go Muhammed!

Wil

[[email protected]]

True homebuilt spirit. He should join this group.

On Jan 14, 7:19 pm, William Hung > wrote:
> http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/homemade-helicopter/nigerian-man-builds-wo...
>
> Way to go Muhammed!
>

[Ricky]

On Jan 14, 7:19*pm, William Hung > wrote:
> http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/homemade-helicopter/nigerian-man-builds-wo...
>
> Way to go Muhammed!
>
> Wil

I remain extremely skeptical that the thing flys until I see a picture
or video of it in the air.
I mean, 133 hp?? With heavy Toyota car seats (4 of them)? Don't the
smallest helios have over 200 hp?

Ricky

[Charles Vincent]

Ricky wrote:
> On Jan 14, 7:19 pm, William Hung > wrote:
>> http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/homemade-helicopter/nigerian-man-builds-wo...
>>
>> Way to go Muhammed!
>>
>> Wil
>
> I remain extremely skeptical that the thing flys until I see a picture
> or video of it in the air.
> I mean, 133 hp?? With heavy Toyota car seats (4 of them)? Don't the
> smallest helios have over 200 hp?
>
> Ricky

Other articles on the helicopter have reported its maximum altitude as
seven feet. He is hoping to build one that will achieve fifteen feet.
Still an achievement, as that is untethered.

Charles

[cavelamb himself[_4_]]

An accomplishment? Or an accident looking for a crash site?



The 12-meter-long aircraft, which has never flown above a height of
seven feet, is powered by a secondhand 133 horsepower engine from a
Honda Civic. In the basic cockpit there are two Toyota car seats, with a
couple more in the cabin behind. Controls are simple, with an ignition
button, an accelerator lever to control vertical thrust and a joystick
that provides balance and bearing. A camera beneath the chopper
connected to a small screen on the dash gives the pilot ground vision,
and he communicates via a small transmitter.

Mubarak says he learned the basics of helicopter flying through the
internet after he decided it would be easier to build a chopper than a
car. Flying his creation is easy, he claims. "You start it, allow it to
run for a minute or two and you then shift the accelerator forward and
the propeller on top begins to spin," he explains. "The further you
shift the accelerator the faster it goes and once you reach 300 rpm you
press the joystick and it takes off."

Undeterred that his home-made transporter, which lives in a hangar on
campus, lacks the gear to measure atmospheric pressure, altitude and
humidity, Mubarak is working on a new machine which "will be a radical
improvement on the first one in terms of sophistication and aesthetics."

A two-seater with the ability to fly at 15 feet for three hours at a
time, Mubarak's new creation will be powered by a brand-new motor
straight from Taiwan, normally found in motorbikes.

[William Hung[_2_]]

On Jan 15, 12:29*am, Bertie the Bunyip > wrote:
> cavelamb himself > wrote in news:13oogue62hl6fc7
> @corp.supernews.com:
>
> > An accomplishment? *Or an accident looking for a crash site?
>
> I've been in Nigeria. It's probably still safer than taking a bus.
>
> Bertie

I would rather see him do this than have him run 409 scams.

Wil

[[email protected]]

On Jan 14, 11:22 pm, cavelamb himself > wrote:
> An accomplishment? Or an accident looking for a crash site?
> .........

Hmmmm.... it did not crash yet. But plenty of homebuilts here in North
America have while testing. Plenty of homebuilts here never got off
the ground because they are still in the garage after 20, 30? years
and never get built. Come on... give the youth credit for ambition.

[Larry Dighera]

On Mon, 14 Jan 2008 22:37:27 -0800 (PST), wrote in
>:

>Plenty of homebuilts here never got off
>the ground because they are still in the garage after 20, 30? years
>and never get built. Come on... give the youth credit for ambition.

Exactly. Not only that, but:


http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/homemade-helicopter/nigerian-man-builds-working-helicopters-from-junk-313408.php
A 24-year-old undergraduate from Nigeria is building helicopters
out of old car and bike parts. Mubarak Muhammed Abdullahi, a
physics student, spent eight months building the yellow model seen
here, using the money he makes from repairing cellphones and
computers.

Eight months! Who has built anything that flies in 8 months?

MMmmm..I guess I have:
http://www.dighera.com/otto_meet_5-23-71_larry.avi :-)
http://www.dighera.com/otto_meet_5-23-71.avi
(These take a little time to load; be patient.)
It still took about a month of weekends to complete.

Historical information here:
http://groups.google.com/group/rec.aviation.soaring/msg/59b3168722fa85ca?dmode=source

[Ron Natalie]

William Hung wrote:
> http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/homemade-helicopter/nigerian-man-builds-working-helicopters-from-junk-313408.php
>
> Way to go Muhammed!
>
> Wil
>
All he needs is my help in collecting his $18.2 million dollars.

[[email protected]]

>
> I would rather see him do this than have him run 409 scams.
>
> Wil

Come on guys. I say this is an "urban" legend. Except that its rural.

All the hallmarks are there: No picture or video of the contraption
doing what its claimed it can do, no serious technicalities given, no
real location. The angle of the only picture supplied prevents the
ability to assess in any way the claim that this thing actually flys.

You can't see a motor, the gas tank, the plumbing, or any supporting
equipment. You can't see the controls. It looks positively nose heavy,
overweight in general, and utterly un-airworthy. If this were real
they'd have AT LEAST ONE picture of hit hovering -- and probably a
youtube video of it as well. It would be something to amaze people
with.

Next thing you know they will have set up a website or blog asking for
money to build the new project (the one that will hover 15 feet in the
air)

I think it's fanciful yard art -- and a practical joke on gizmodo. The
Yahoo links don't work and the "raw feed" links to another blog.

Right.

It's internet BS.

[[email protected]]

On Jan 15, 3:21 am, Larry Dighera > wrote:
> Eight months! Who has built anything that flies in 8 months?
> ....

The late Tim Crawford built a complex homebuilt that flew for a long
time (a long EZ) in nine months. Its not the months or years, it's the
hours. Took me about 2300 hours to build mine http://www.abri.com/sq2000
Some people do 2 hours per week and some 40.

But the Nigerian unit is hardly complex - got only a few feet of the
ground. So I say to all those guys putting him down, he still deserves
credit for ambition - not that I would want to fly in the thing.

And I don't agree with the hinted implication. Just because the kid is
from Nigeria does not mean he is guaranteed to be dishonest..... Just
because somebody is from North America does not guarantee they are
honest.

[Mortimer Schnerd, RN[_2_]]

wrote:
> On Jan 15, 3:21 am, Larry Dighera > wrote:
>> Eight months! Who has built anything that flies in 8 months?
>> ....
>
> The late Tim Crawford built a complex homebuilt that flew for a long
> time (a long EZ) in nine months. Its not the months or years, it's the
> hours. Took me about 2300 hours to build mine http://www.abri.com/sq2000
> Some people do 2 hours per week and some 40.


North American Aviation took the P-51 from doodles on a napkin to lifting off
the tarmac in 117 days.



--
Mortimer Schnerd, RN
mschnerdatcarolina.rr.com

[Stuart & Kathryn Fields]

Well as we said about an elderly gentleman we met at an airshow with his
homemade coaxial helicopter with a Geo engine connected such that the cyclic
tilted the entire engine-drive train to obtain forward, sideways and
rearward flight. It had no collective but just used more throttle to climb
and less to descend. There were places where you could see the threads on
the ends of the water piping used to make the frame. He was actively
looking for a test pilot to try out his bird. I declined saying that while
I was fearless, I lacked the necessary qualifications to test fly his bird.
He didn't just set around talking, he built one that he learned a bunch from
and was going to learn a bunch more if he tried to fly it. We did ask him
to let us know if he was going to start it up. We had definite plans to
move our helicopters to the other end of the field if he was going to
demonstrate his bird.
Our work producing the Experimental Helo magazine has brought us in contact
with some pretty amazing devices.

"Ron Natalie" > wrote in message
m...
> William Hung wrote:
>> http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/homemade-helicopter/nigerian-man-builds-working-helicopters-from-junk-313408.php
>>
>> Way to go Muhammed!
>>
>> Wil
>>
> All he needs is my help in collecting his $18.2 million dollars.

[Dudley Henriques[_2_]]

cavelamb himself wrote:
> An accomplishment? Or an accident looking for a crash site?
>
>
>
> The 12-meter-long aircraft, which has never flown above a height of
> seven feet, is powered by a secondhand 133 horsepower engine from a
> Honda Civic. In the basic cockpit there are two Toyota car seats, with a
> couple more in the cabin behind. Controls are simple, with an ignition
> button, an accelerator lever to control vertical thrust and a joystick
> that provides balance and bearing. A camera beneath the chopper
> connected to a small screen on the dash gives the pilot ground vision,
> and he communicates via a small transmitter.
>
> Mubarak says he learned the basics of helicopter flying through the
> internet after he decided it would be easier to build a chopper than a
> car. Flying his creation is easy, he claims. "You start it, allow it to
> run for a minute or two and you then shift the accelerator forward and
> the propeller on top begins to spin," he explains. "The further you
> shift the accelerator the faster it goes and once you reach 300 rpm you
> press the joystick and it takes off."
>
> Undeterred that his home-made transporter, which lives in a hangar on
> campus, lacks the gear to measure atmospheric pressure, altitude and
> humidity, Mubarak is working on a new machine which "will be a radical
> improvement on the first one in terms of sophistication and aesthetics."
>
> A two-seater with the ability to fly at 15 feet for three hours at a
> time, Mubarak's new creation will be powered by a brand-new motor
> straight from Taiwan, normally found in motorbikes.

I make it an accomplishment, AND probably also an accident waiting to
happen;hopefully not.
Just figuring out the hard numbers and applying them to available parts
and achieving untethered flight for even a few feet, considering
everything involved in doing that, marks this fellow as someone with
unusual talent.
Fron the looks of that thing however, I sincerely hope some legitimate
helo company offers this guy a steady job before his talent ends up
being wasted by his experimenting any deeper into the highly complicated
world of helo flying.
After accomplishing what he has done already, I'd not like to see him
injured or killed for lack of suitable employment.

--
Dudley Henriques

[[email protected]]

> But the Nigerian unit is hardly complex - got only a few feet of the
> ground.

Really?

Do you *know* this?

No one on this list has seen the aircraft flying, nor a video of it
flying, nor a picture of it flying.

If a link to a legitimate new source can be found (not to a blog),
then it will at least be some evidence. As it stands now, there is no
evidence this is anything but a hoax.

[[email protected]]

On Jan 15, 12:43*pm, wrote:
> > But the Nigerian unit is hardly complex - got only a few feet of the
> > ground.
>
> Really?
>
> Do you *know* this?
>
> No one on this list has seen the aircraft flying, nor a video of it
> flying, nor a picture of it flying.
>
> If a link to a legitimate new source can be found (not to a blog),
> then it will at least be some evidence. As it stands now, there is no
> evidence this is anything but a hoax.

"new" should be "news"

Also I got nothing against Nigerians, if one of the above was hinting
that I was hinting that Nigerians are scam artists.

My DE was Nigerian. An excellent pilot from my perspective. I don't
think he was scamming me, nor was he a hoax.

[[email protected]]

On Jan 15, 12:43 pm, wrote:
> > But the Nigerian unit is hardly complex - got only a few feet of the
> > ground.
>
> Really?
>
> Do you *know* this?
>
> No one on this list has seen the aircraft flying, nor a video of it
> flying, nor a picture of it flying.
>
> If a link to a legitimate new source can be found (not to a blog),
> then it will at least be some evidence.

OK. Maybe you are right. Some of us will have to arrange a trip to
Nigeria to verify it. You go ahead, I can't afford it.

> As it stands now, there is no evidence this is anything but a hoax.

So where is this evidence that it is a hoax?

Lets see this logic. If a report is from the western world it is
assumed true (innocent until proven guilty). If a report is from
Nigeria (and some other places) than it is assumed to be a hoax
(guilty, of anything we want to assume, until proven innocent).

I am not leaving out the possibility that it is inaccurate or a hoax
or whatever. But we got to give all a fair chance without jumping to
conclusions - even though notorious scams come from Nigeria.

[[email protected]]

> OK. Maybe you are right. Some of us will have to arrange a trip to
> Nigeria to verify it. You go ahead, I can't afford it.

Not worth my time. The burden of proof for a claim like this is on the
person making the claim, not the person reading about the claim. How
hard can it be for Muhammed to have a friend take a picture of the
contraption in flight? Not as hard as making it fly, I presume.

> So where is this evidence that it is a hoax?

Lack of credulity on my part:

1) Failure to show the aircraft in flight.
2) No valid source exists for the news as reported by the blogs. The
"Yahoo" link is bogus. The "raw feed" link is merely another blog.
3) The craft looks like it can't fly for various reasons.
4) It was built from junk in 8 months of spare time. He found all
these parts in a junk yard and made them work together for controlled
helicopter flight in eight months -- but only in his SPARE TIME. Hmm.
Must have a lot of that spare time and some damned fine junk yards at
his disposal.
5) No machining required. Apparently he didn't have to machine
ANYTHING for a completely custom, one-off vehicle. Or does he have
lathes and other machine tooling stuff at his ready disposal? Welders,
sheet metal manipulating equipment, digital equipment and interfaces
to make the "joystick" work as a controller. That stuff takes time.
More time than 8 months of spare time.

And you know, he's never done anything like this before!

This would be an amazing, and very unlikely, job to pull off ANYWHERE
in the world.

> Lets see this logic. If a report is from the western world it is
> assumed true (innocent until proven guilty). If a report is from
> Nigeria (and some other places) than it is assumed to be a hoax
> (guilty, of anything we want to assume, until proven innocent).

It has nothing to do with location in my opinion. If that contraption
were in my neighbor's backyard here in "the western world" and he
said, "hey, it flies. It flies up to 7 feet in the air," I'd say
"great, let's see it."

It has to do with lack of evidence that flight was ever performed in
the unique device pictured in a single picture only SITTING FIRMLY ON
THE GROUND.

The burden is not on me to prove that it can fly or that it can't.
It's at least possible I think, so, let's see it. Is it too much to
ask to see more pictures before you believe a story like this?

[Maxwell]

> wrote in message
...
>> OK. Maybe you are right. Some of us will have to arrange a trip to
>> Nigeria to verify it. You go ahead, I can't afford it.
>
> Not worth my time. The burden of proof for a claim like this is on the
> person making the claim, not the person reading about the claim. How
> hard can it be for Muhammed to have a friend take a picture of the
> contraption in flight? Not as hard as making it fly, I presume.
>
>> So where is this evidence that it is a hoax?
>
> Lack of credulity on my part:
>
> 1) Failure to show the aircraft in flight.
> 2) No valid source exists for the news as reported by the blogs. The
> "Yahoo" link is bogus. The "raw feed" link is merely another blog.
> 3) The craft looks like it can't fly for various reasons.
> 4) It was built from junk in 8 months of spare time. He found all
> these parts in a junk yard and made them work together for controlled
> helicopter flight in eight months -- but only in his SPARE TIME. Hmm.
> Must have a lot of that spare time and some damned fine junk yards at
> his disposal.
> 5) No machining required. Apparently he didn't have to machine
> ANYTHING for a completely custom, one-off vehicle. Or does he have
> lathes and other machine tooling stuff at his ready disposal? Welders,
> sheet metal manipulating equipment, digital equipment and interfaces
> to make the "joystick" work as a controller. That stuff takes time.
> More time than 8 months of spare time.
>
> And you know, he's never done anything like this before!
>
> This would be an amazing, and very unlikely, job to pull off ANYWHERE
> in the world.
>
>> Lets see this logic. If a report is from the western world it is
>> assumed true (innocent until proven guilty). If a report is from
>> Nigeria (and some other places) than it is assumed to be a hoax
>> (guilty, of anything we want to assume, until proven innocent).
>
> It has nothing to do with location in my opinion. If that contraption
> were in my neighbor's backyard here in "the western world" and he
> said, "hey, it flies. It flies up to 7 feet in the air," I'd say
> "great, let's see it."
>
> It has to do with lack of evidence that flight was ever performed in
> the unique device pictured in a single picture only SITTING FIRMLY ON
> THE GROUND.
>
> The burden is not on me to prove that it can fly or that it can't.
> It's at least possible I think, so, let's see it. Is it too much to
> ask to see more pictures before you believe a story like this?
>
>

More food for thought.

Am I the only one that can't see a tail rotor on the tail boom?

Also, the main rotor shaft appears to be about 1" in diameter, with little
if any outboard bearing near the hub, perhaps even a universal joint. Could
this really be successful at harnessing 133 hp, at 400 rpm or so?

I have serious doubts as well. Here is a couple more photos but still not
much help.

http://www.afrigadget.com/2007/10/22/mubarak-abdullahis-home-made-helicopter-takes-nigerias-kano-plains-by-storm/

[Gig 601XL Builder[_2_]]

Maxwell wrote:

>>
>
> More food for thought.
>
> Am I the only one that can't see a tail rotor on the tail boom?

There is a tail rotor back there I just can't see what could be driving it.

[[email protected]]

Here are a few more pictures of the guy.
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5hV0rzEDq7TWnlm7tMmr2zeQmiRig

[[email protected]]

And here is a statement from the same link page:

Although some government officials got very excited when they saw him
conduct a demonstration flight in neighbouring Katsina state,
Nigeria's Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) has so far shown no interest
in his aircraft.

[[email protected]]

On Jan 15, 8:09 pm, wrote:
> Here are a few more pictures of the guy.http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5hV0rzEDq7TWnlm7tMmr2zeQmiRig

From the photos its amazing simplicity - he's got a front-wheel car
driveshaft running the rotor and implementing rotor tilt. Hey if he
only gets it off the ground thats flying. Don't forget helicopter
ground effect, valid for height of one rotor length. Thats probably
where he could get the 7? feet. Less power needed to hover near ground.

[Anthony W]

wrote:
> On Jan 15, 8:09 pm, wrote:
>> Here are a few more pictures of the guy.http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5hV0rzEDq7TWnlm7tMmr2zeQmiRig
>
> From the photos its amazing simplicity - he's got a front-wheel car
> driveshaft running the rotor and implementing rotor tilt. Hey if he
> only gets it off the ground thats flying. Don't forget helicopter
> ground effect, valid for height of one rotor length. Thats probably
> where he could get the 7? feet. Less power needed to hover near ground.

He could still have a tether at up to 10 feet negating the need for a
tail rotor until it's ready for solo flight.

Tony

[Harry K]

On Jan 15, 9:14*am, Bob Moore > wrote:
> Mortimer Schnerd, RN wrote
>
> > North American Aviation took the P-51 from doodles on a napkin to
> > lifting off the tarmac in 117 days.
>
> Mortimer...Do you know what the "Tarmac" is?
>
> From Wikipedia:

<snip>

> While the specific Tarmac pavement is not common in some countries
> today, many people use the word to refer to generic paved areas at
> airports, especially the airport ramp or "apron", near the terminals
> despite the fact that many of these areas are in fact made of concrete.
> This term seems to have been popularized when it became part of the news
> lexicon following live coverage of the Entebbe hijacking in 1976, where
> "Tarmac" was frequently used by the on-scene BBC reporter in describing
> the hijack scene. The Wick Airport at Wick in Caithness, Scotland is one
> of the few airports that still has a real Tarmac runway.

It was in the lexicon long befor 76. I was taught it in the USAFSS
(intelligence service) back in 54 when I was studying Russian.

Harry K

[[email protected]]

On Jan 15, 8:09*pm, wrote:
> Here are a few more pictures of the guy.http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5hV0rzEDq7TWnlm7tMmr2zeQmiRig

Now that's a story that's more believable.

Maybe there are some pictures of it flying.