Mini-500 parts selling on eBay

Dennis Fetters wrote:

Now, you mentioned above "that's not the first time I've read something
like that from Dennis". So put your money where your mouth is and prove
your statement, post something I did write to back up your comments.

Dennis Fetters

"I'll be winning the apeal soon. Afterwards, I'll be filling against
you to collect the money you took from my personal account, plus about
$10,400 of expenses and attorney fees. At the same time, I'm going to
file a breach of contract, and sue you for two years of rent payments
I've had to loose because I was turned down to buy a house due to my
Credit-Report, plus the equity I lost and from the price of houses
going up. I'll go after anything else I can get compensated for too.
My new attorney has figured it to add up to about $121,400 so far. But
I got to give him one third. We have seen by your credit report that
we'll have no problem collecting. I'll soon be having a judgment placed
on your Credit-Report."

knock it off.. you sound like old ****in women.. im new here and I'd prefer
if you would act like men and lay the cards on the table.. these engines
seize up or what.???. gonna get in one and head out over water? dont split
hairs.. lawyer talk over minutiae save it for the he said she said daytime
soap ****sticks
"Ron Snipes" wrote in message
newsQqEe.56903$iU.50657@lakeread05...
Now another Revolution Mini 500 appears on Ebay.

I stand corrected on a couple of points by MR. Dennis Fetters. I just
recall back in the late 90's when this newsgroup posted almost daily
"Dennis Fetters Sightings" Mini 500 discussions were lively.
Ron Snipes
New Bern, NC


"planeman" wrote in message
oups.com...
I see Mini-500 helicopters selling on eBay, but much less these days.
Is there someone in the marketplace that can sell me parts if I was
compelled to buy the incomplete one selling now?

rudolph berthold wrote:
knock it off.. you sound like old ****in women.. im new here and I'd prefer
if you would act like men and lay the cards on the table.. these engines
seize up or what.???. gonna get in one and head out over water? dont split
hairs.. lawyer talk over minutiae save it for the he said she said daytime
soap ****sticks

knock yourself out and head out to fish feeding frenzy

wrote:
Dennis Fetters wrote:

Now, you mentioned above "that's not the first time I've read something
like that from Dennis". So put your money where your mouth is and prove
your statement, post something I did write to back up your comments.

Dennis Fetters

"I'll be winning the apeal soon. Afterwards, I'll be filling against
you to collect the money you took from my personal account, plus about
$10,400 of expenses and attorney fees. At the same time, I'm going to
file a breach of contract, and sue you for two years of rent payments
I've had to loose because I was turned down to buy a house due to my
Credit-Report, plus the equity I lost and from the price of houses
going up. I'll go after anything else I can get compensated for too.
My new attorney has figured it to add up to about $121,400 so far. But
I got to give him one third. We have seen by your credit report that
we'll have no problem collecting. I'll soon be having a judgment placed
on your Credit-Report."

"I'll tell you what. I'll make a one time offer, take it or leave it.
Take this deal now, because it's not there after I win the appeal.
You withdraw the judgment and keep the money you took from me, and the
matter will be dropped and I won't come after you for damages or breach
of contract.
You shouldn't have sued me personally, it was a corporate matter. The
war fought by Fred Stewart was a dirty one, and we lost, plain and
simple. I do promise if I can ever get strong enough to sue him for my
personal losses, I would give the money to the corporation to give back
to the customers, but I can't do that with you around my neck.
I know your instincts to resist this offer is high because like me,
your a fighter and I respect that. But the fact is that even if you
win, you will never get another dime. People in this state call it
judgment proof.
I am placed in a position where I have to fight you until I win, but
you are in a stronger position simply because you have the choice to
end it all now. Let's end it here and stop loosing money. Your the
winner even if you take this deal, I've lost everything from the RHCI
ordeal and you."

As with anything...

I feel that my biggest mistake was assuming anyone could build, operate
and maintain a kit helicopter. I was wrong there, very few can do so,
even with the certified helicopters. Our assembly manual was excellent.
Very nice exploded drawings, pictures and step by step instructions. The
common mistake that about 90% of the Mini-500 builders made was the
same; they didn't read the instructions and only followed the drawings
and pictures. Believe it or not, but true. This lead to many common
mistakes, from not heating the parts before installation to missing
parts. I can't tell you how many times an owner would come to the
factory with his Mini-500 for the free inspection we offered, only to
hold out his hand and ask why he had extra parts, and always after he
had 40 hours of flight time on his Mini-500. They most all came to the
factory after something was going wrong, and it was always a simple
overlooked procedure or something assembled wrong, and always after they
flew it until it broke. Some aircraft were so far out of balance that
they shock themselves apart in only 40 hours, and only because the
builder didn't bother to balance it, or did it wrong and ignored the
fact that he did it wrong.

== This is probably true of all kit a/c, it's just more critical in
helicopters. I
follow the Rotorway forums and they have the same problem with
their kits.


What would I have done differently using hindsight? I would have tripled
the price of the Mini-500 and sold much less of them to people that can
actually afford to own a helicopter, and built it under our complete
supervision. Then I could have had a much smaller factory with less
overhead, and fewer customers that would have paid more, and maintenance
or improvement costs would have not mattered to them so much, because
they could afford it, like in the commercial aircraft field. It would
have just been too bad for someone that wanted a helicopter but couldn't
afford one, which the Mini-500 did fit the bill.

== Price seems to be directly related to helicopter accidents. When the
Robinson
R22 first came out untrained pilots could suddenly afford a helicpter.
R22s were raining from the sky before Robinson started mandating proper
training.

Back in 1990, when I first started the Mini-500 project, there was only
one engine manufacturer that could provide 5 engines "new-in-the-box a
week", that had a performance history, and had service all around the
world. That was Rotax. The Mini-500 was designed around the 582 Rotax
engine. There was nothing else available. That is still as true today as
15 years ago.

The 582 Rotax is a good choice for the Mini-500. It has the power
necessary to do the job, at the price people will pay. The engine was
only ran at 6600 RPM's, which is still a 100% duty cycle for the engine
at 70% power reduction. Remember, the same engine in the snowmobile
industry will produce 110 hp at 8500 rpm's. Rotax simply derated the
engine for aircraft by lowering the RPM's. If you look at the power
charts of the snowmobile, the output HP at 6500 rpm is 64HP. No Rotax in
a Mini-500 has ever failed due to overexertion, if operated properly.
Only to improper installation or improper (or lack of) maintenance. It
is the finest light-aircraft engine ever made.

Also in the light-aircraft industry, 98% of all Rotax failures are due
to poor installation or inadequate maintenance. If you want a
bulletproof idiot-proof engine, buy an O-200.

The Rotax was, and is still the only choice of engine for the Mini-500
size helicopter, for the price people want to afford. Some people have
tried to replace the engine with something else, and all have failed.
Even the Solar APU engines will never work as intended. They burn more
fuel than you can carry, have no explosion proof protection, and the low
duty cycle makes them burn out quickly. They are not turbine engines,
they are merely self-propelled turbochargers meant to power generators
and pumps. To this day no one has been successful, except me with the
Rotax engine.

== Rotax is the engine of choice for most Ultralights and it performs well
and
reliably as long as it's installed and maintained properly. Would I
personally
fly with one in a light helicopter? Probably not, but that's just me.

Originally Posted by Dennis Fetters

Dear Ron,
The fact of the matter is that no Mini-500 has crashed due to improper design or bad flight characteristics. The only accidents have strictly been from pilot error, improper assembly or owner modifications. As all helicopters ever designed and flying, the Mini-500 has had a few problems from design oversights on my part, but none has caused an accident, and all were corrected and the upgrades made available to the owners for free or at our cost.

...

In fact, the Mini-500 auturotated as well or better than most helicopters, as demonstrated at air shows all over the world, and by customers that built and operated Mini-500's according to factory specifications.

I have never flown a Mini 500.

Thank you for qualifying your statements. There is nothing wrong with
commenting on a helicopter you have no experience with, but still, the
statements need to be corrected. I hope I have helped your better
understanding on the topic.

Most sincerely,
Dennis Fetters

Thanks for a very nice posting, Dennis. Although I have never had the opportunity to fly a Mini-500, I wouldn't hesitate to do so, given the opportunity. I think there are many people out there who love to pick on the Mini-500 simply based on heresay. The facts you provided should help clarify things a bit.

I often just don't understand why people are so hard on you and the Mini-500. They don't seem to pick on B.J. Schramm, even though he unfortunately died in his own machine.

Accidents happen, and they happen to ALL brands of helicopters. Most of them are not related to the airframe or engine, but to the pilot's skills (or lack thereof). I have a few hundred hours in Robinson R-22s and I still hate doing autos in them because everything happens so fast, whereas autos in the Hughes (Schweizer) machines are so slow and easy.

Anyway, just thought I'd say "Hi." Nice hearing from you.

Ed Newbold, CFII ASEL
Columbus, OH
http://enewbold.com/