Most reliable homebuilt helicopter?

Jim wrote:
True, but "I" wouldn't want to be flying one at 1550 hours when something
major broke, just as predicted by the "parts supplier."

You wont get an argument from me on that one Jim. ; ^). Like I said
befo

Anyways, not many of them have more than
300hrs total and 80%+- of that 300 hrs is hovering and testing time
anyways, from what I hear.

So more than likely, the 1,500hr airframe retirement time is
irrelavent. Maybe the factory ship will reach that mark maybe not.

I doubt that any customer's machine will reach that point, but than
again, they are flying them a whole lot in England from what I gleamed
in PPRUNE's Rotorhead forum.

Bryan "The Monk" Chaisone

A note of interest: I'm flying a Safari, have 250hrs and have not had any
real maintenance that was not caused by me fooling around with different
ideas other than oil and filter change. The CHR factory ship, I believe,
just reached 2,000 hrs. It has received numerous mods and a lot of updates
and general trial and error designs. I have been involved with the
experimental helicopter community since 1995 and have some opinions about
reliability, but nothing really based on database analysis. Some Rotorways
have a bunch of hours successfully, I can think of one guy who has logged
over 1,000 hrs Rotorway time, but I don't know how many ships were involved.
Don't know how the Jet Execs are standing up, but I think that I've heard of
several gearbox failures. Most of these gearboxes were sprint car variants.
I guess one thing to think about is the title of " Experimental". None of
the Safaris that I know of are exact copies of the other. I doubt if many
of the Rotorways are carbon copies of each other. I don't believe that any
attempt at categorizing different ships as being more or less reliable makes
any kind of sense due to the variability of each ship manufactured by each
builder. If someone wants a really reliable helicopter, then they had best
be looking at the certified ships where a reliability study has a chance of
being more meaningful.

--
Stuart Fields
Experimental Helo magazine
P. O. Box 1585
Inyokern, CA 93527
(760) 377-4478
(760) 408-9747 general and layout cell
(760) 608-1299 technical and advertising cell

www.vkss.com
www.experimentalhelo.com


"Flyingmonk" wrote in message
oups.com...
Jim wrote:
True, but "I" wouldn't want to be flying one at 1550 hours when something
major broke, just as predicted by the "parts supplier."

You wont get an argument from me on that one Jim. ; ^). Like I said
befo

Anyways, not many of them have more than
300hrs total and 80%+- of that 300 hrs is hovering and testing time
anyways, from what I hear.

So more than likely, the 1,500hr airframe retirement time is
irrelavent. Maybe the factory ship will reach that mark maybe not.

I doubt that any customer's machine will reach that point, but than
again, they are flying them a whole lot in England from what I gleamed
in PPRUNE's Rotorhead forum.

Bryan "The Monk" Chaisone

"Stuart & Kathryn Fields" wrote in message
...
A note of interest: I'm flying a Safari, have 250hrs and have not had any
real maintenance that was not caused by me fooling around with different
ideas other than oil and filter change. . . snip

Here's an anecdote BTW. I think it was in Laurel, Montana as we were fueling
after a RON on the way to Oshkosh.

There was a red helicopter at the pumps with "EXPERIMENTAL" placards. He had
just flown the same route across Washington, Idaho and Montana one day
earlier than us. The headwinds were nothing short of ferocious that day - I
was really glad they had calmed a bit when we came through.

He told me they were home based at Paine Field if I remember correctly. They
had to lay over an extra day for some part to be delivered. I think he told
me they flew over Mullen Pass accompanied by a Super Cub or something
similar. Kind of a buddy system.

In any case, he was headed for Oshkosh, too at a staggering 90 mph or so.
Two souls on board - I hope they made it all the way. The machine had Marine
Corps decals on it and looked sharp.

Rich S.

Rich: They made it to Oshkosh. They were switching off. One flying and
the other driving a van towing a small trailer with some tools, oil and
misc. They flew at Oskosh including two circuits of the main show when they
let us fling wings have about 15 minutes of show time. However, on the way
home, and about 30 miles out of Paine Field, the pilot experienced a problem
and did an auto that had a landing that didn't really render the ship
useable again. Pilot was uninjured. Probably on an NTSB report by now.
The Safaris are built very well when it comes to survivability. I know. I
crashed mine once. (Pilot error). The two partners were retired Marine
Pilots. The pilot at the time of the auto had in excess of 3500 hrs helo
time; much of it in Vietnam.
The kit manufacturer, Canadian Home Rotors once flew their ship from Ear
Falls Canada to Sun'n Fun. The pilot had no chase crew.

--
Kathy Fields
Experimental Helo magazine
P. O. Box 1585
Inyokern, CA 93527
(760) 377-4478
(760) 408-9747 general and layout cell
(760) 608-1299 technical and advertising cell

www.vkss.com
www.experimentalhelo.com


"Rich S." wrote in message
...
"Stuart & Kathryn Fields" wrote in message
...
A note of interest: I'm flying a Safari, have 250hrs and have not had
any
real maintenance that was not caused by me fooling around with different
ideas other than oil and filter change. . . snip

Here's an anecdote BTW. I think it was in Laurel, Montana as we were
fueling
after a RON on the way to Oshkosh.

There was a red helicopter at the pumps with "EXPERIMENTAL" placards. He
had
just flown the same route across Washington, Idaho and Montana one day
earlier than us. The headwinds were nothing short of ferocious that day -
I
was really glad they had calmed a bit when we came through.

He told me they were home based at Paine Field if I remember correctly.
They
had to lay over an extra day for some part to be delivered. I think he
told
me they flew over Mullen Pass accompanied by a Super Cub or something
similar. Kind of a buddy system.

In any case, he was headed for Oshkosh, too at a staggering 90 mph or so.
Two souls on board - I hope they made it all the way. The machine had
Marine
Corps decals on it and looked sharp.

Rich S.

"Stuart & Kathryn Fields" wrote in message
...
Rich: They made it to Oshkosh. They were switching off. One flying and
the other driving a van towing a small trailer with some tools, oil and
misc. They flew at Oskosh including two circuits of the main show when
they
let us fling wings have about 15 minutes of show time. However, on the
way
home, and about 30 miles out of Paine Field, the pilot experienced a
problem
and did an auto that had a landing that didn't really render the ship
useable again. Pilot was uninjured. Probably on an NTSB report by now.
The Safaris are built very well when it comes to survivability. I know. I
crashed mine once. (Pilot error). The two partners were retired Marine
Pilots. The pilot at the time of the auto had in excess of 3500 hrs helo
time; much of it in Vietnam.
The kit manufacturer, Canadian Home Rotors once flew their ship from Ear
Falls Canada to Sun'n Fun. The pilot had no chase crew.

Kathy..............

Good news and bad news. I am very happy to hear they made it, I hope they
enjoyed the ride. Very sorry to hear it was so close to a complete round
trip. Thank God and the Marine Corps that the pilot came through.
Helicopters can be built or rebuilt.

Thanks for passing the word,
Rich S.