AeroScooter

Why wouldn't it auto rotate?... The blades are no different than a
gyrocopter's fixed blades and they autorotate...
I can confidently predict that like Moeller's Skycar they will still be
pitching it to "investors" for years to come... PT Barnum was a
genius..

There's no clutch on the blades to allow them to free spin in case
of the engine loss of power.

Right you need a clutch to disengage the engine and the ability to change
pitch
elstwise your in a heap of do do :-)

It looked like some "scary ****" even before any engine problems occur!

I couldn't figure out how it is supposed to be controlled in pitch and roll,
since there is no cyclic, or even how it is to be accelerated and slowed
back down...

But, somehow, it fits my sense of voyeurism. As such, I have duct-taped
(the everyman's tool) a hand-held mirror to the end of a length of 1x2 at a
45 degree angle--so that I can watch a demo flight while cringing behind the
nearest solid structure (wearing safety goggles in case my mirror gets
shattered).

Peter
(Curious, but Yellow)

"Peter Dohm" wrote:

Why wouldn't it auto rotate?... The blades are no different than a
gyrocopter's fixed blades and they autorotate...
I can confidently predict that like Moeller's Skycar they will still be
pitching it to "investors" for years to come... PT Barnum was a
genius..

There's no clutch on the blades to allow them to free spin in case
of the engine loss of power.

Right you need a clutch to disengage the engine and the ability to change
pitch
elstwise your in a heap of do do :-)

It looked like some "scary ****" even before any engine problems occur!

I couldn't figure out how it is supposed to be controlled in pitch and roll,
since there is no cyclic, or even how it is to be accelerated and slowed
back down...

But, somehow, it fits my sense of voyeurism. As such, I have duct-taped
(the everyman's tool) a hand-held mirror to the end of a length of 1x2 at a
45 degree angle--so that I can watch a demo flight while cringing behind the
nearest solid structure (wearing safety goggles in case my mirror gets
shattered).

You mean, something like this....

http://www.habcycles.com/helocrash.wmv

Mark "don't try this at home, kids" Hickey

In article . com, Harry K
says...
But not before our ignorant media convinces a few people to buy them...


I'm sure if they advertize on ANN zoom would give it rave reviews and a puff
piece on how well it flys. That's what he has done before.

See ya

Chuck S

Waiting on pins and needles for his flight test report. Exhilerating
loops, spins and rolls.

When Fetters was advertising in zooms US Aviator zoom was giving Dennis rave
reviews.When Dennis quit advertising zoom quit the rave reviews. When I first
zooms "pilot report" on the mini 500 I read something in the article that had me
fall on the floor laughing. When I worked for Scheutzow Helicopter we often took
potential customers for a demo flight .If our pilot felt that the potential
customer was a good enough pilot to solo he would let the guy take the
helicopter up.

If he wasn't good enough the pilot would land and tell me "we're gonna do a
little post flight debriefing before we go again, how about giving it a quick
once over". That was my signal to pull the magnetic plug on the tail rotor gear
box get some oil on my finger and go to the drill press for a little bit of
shiny metal debris to mix with the oil. Then I would solemnly walk into the
office and tell Tim .Gee I just found some metal on the plug and I really should
tear down the gear box and check it while showing the oily finger with tiny bits
of metal to both him and the customer.

Naturally we all agreed that it was better not to fly then take a chance on a
tail rotor failure. Thereby letting the customer down without having to damage
his pride by saying "your a crummy pilot and we don't trust you with our
machine".Webb who was the owner of the company said that was a move they did
when he worked for Hiller Helicopter.

So when I read zooms account of his test flight of the Mini 500 he wrote ,and
I'm paraphrasing, "I landed and we took a lunch break but my afternoon flying
session was cut short when some debris was found on the magnetic oil plug."

I often wondered if Dennis knew the old trick or if there really was some debris
on the plug and that was his way of keeping zoom out of the machine:-)

Chuck (Rotor Flagging) S

You mean, something like this....

http://www.habcycles.com/helocrash.wmv

Well, that was the scenario I was thinking of.

However, I was wrong. I had forgotten how gyrocopters are controlled. So
the only problem should be the atorotation issue. That's a big one, but the
fact remains that I was wrong.

Peter
Looking for some worms to eat... :-(