Most reliable homebuilt helicopter?

For those of us that lost a friend in your deathtrap, seeing/hearing
your name makes our blood boil. You have a F'in nice day.

Bryan "The Monk" Chaisone

Flyingmonk wrote:

For those of us that lost a friend in your deathtrap, seeing/hearing
your name makes our blood boil. You have a F'in nice day.

Bryan "The Monk" Chaisone



Grow up Bryan. If you used just 1/4 of your brain and properly educated
yourself on the matter, you wouldn't have made such an untrue and vulgar
statement. You are welcome to offer any real proof that backs up your
statement. If you could, you would be the first.

On the other hand, I have always provided documentation for any of my
statements or defenses. Have the common decency to show your evidence
before trying to convicting someone. It looks better.

Dennis Fetters

On Thu, 8 Sep 2005 12:50:51 -0500, "PittsS1C" wrote:

Can we rank them in terms of reliability...

Based upon? Where do we find unbiased reliability reports for all models
amateur-built helicopters? Accident reports, yes, but these do not necessarily
reflect reliability. I suspect few people have owned more than one model of
homebuilt helicopter, and thus a relative ranking between two types is
difficult.

One can certainly study homebuilt rotorcraft accident rates as a gauge of
safety, but just because an aircraft has a lower rate doesn't mean that the
owner isn't out fixing a bunch of little stuff every time he opens the hangar
door.

Back when I did that study of homebuilt aircraft accidents, I calculated the
accident rate for 18 homebuilt types. The design with the worst record was a
fixed wing.... and the Mini-500 wasn't even the worst-scoring homebuilt
helicopter.

Ron Wanttaja

For a long time I drove by Rotorway in Chandler, AZ daily and would see
them flying all the time. I'd also see them at most of the AZ fly-ins.
No direct experience but from what I've seen and heard they are
towards "less peril" end of the scale.

Michele

wrote in message
oups.com...
For a long time I drove by Rotorway in Chandler, AZ daily and would see
them flying all the time. I'd also see them at most of the AZ fly-ins.
No direct experience but from what I've seen and heard they are
towards "less peril" end of the scale.

One thing for the OP to remember, is that the rotoway has an airframe total
life of 1500 hours. After that, the airframe is junk. I don't know about
the safari.
--
Jim in NC

"Morgans" wrote in message
...

wrote in message
oups.com...
For a long time I drove by Rotorway in Chandler, AZ daily and would see
them flying all the time. I'd also see them at most of the AZ fly-ins.
No direct experience but from what I've seen and heard they are
towards "less peril" end of the scale.

One thing for the OP to remember, is that the rotoway has an airframe
total
life of 1500 hours. After that, the airframe is junk. I don't know about
the safari.
--
Jim in NC

The Rotorways seem to be the best designed kit helicopters, but I think
"Best kit helicopter" goes in the same category as "friendliest NAZI". The
guys in the hangar next door to me have built, bought, converted, sold,
and/or owned 5 Rotorways, and all total, I've seen the skids off the ground
probably 10 minutes or less. They used to trailer them to fly-in's under 50
miles away.

KB

"Kyle Boatright" wrote in message
...

"Morgans" wrote in message
...

wrote in message
oups.com...
For a long time I drove by Rotorway in Chandler, AZ daily and would see
them flying all the time. I'd also see them at most of the AZ fly-ins.
No direct experience but from what I've seen and heard they are
towards "less peril" end of the scale.

One thing for the OP to remember, is that the rotoway has an airframe
total
life of 1500 hours. After that, the airframe is junk. I don't know
about
the safari.
--
Jim in NC

The Rotorways seem to be the best designed kit helicopters, but I think
"Best kit helicopter" goes in the same category as "friendliest NAZI".
The guys in the hangar next door to me have built, bought, converted,
sold, and/or owned 5 Rotorways, and all total, I've seen the skids off the
ground probably 10 minutes or less. They used to trailer them to fly-in's
under 50 miles away.

KB


If this is true, and it may well be, how do they keep selling the things?

"Gig 601XL Builder" wr.giacona@coxDOTnet wrote in message
news:lA1Ue.27423$7f5.17665@okepread01...

"Kyle Boatright" wrote in message
...

snip

The Rotorways seem to be the best designed kit helicopters, but I think
"Best kit helicopter" goes in the same category as "friendliest NAZI".
The guys in the hangar next door to me have built, bought, converted,
sold, and/or owned 5 Rotorways, and all total, I've seen the skids off
the ground probably 10 minutes or less. They used to trailer them to
fly-in's under 50 miles away.

KB


If this is true, and it may well be, how do they keep selling the things?

At least two of them were turbine conversions, as seen in a Sport Aviation
article a couple of years ago. Someone is always willing to believe that if
you hang a turbine on an airframe, it'll make a silk purse out of a sow's
ear. Unfortunately, the turbine conversion for the Rotorway is very
unproven. Probably under 500 flight hours (maybe as low as 250 flight hours)
among all 5 or 10 that have flown. The two I'm aware of both had unplanned
landings due to engine/drivetrain problems within the first 30 hours or so.
On one, the driveshaft for the tail rotor failed at 2' off the ground, and
on the other, the engine lost power resulting in an off-airport landing. My
acquaintances still own at least one airframe (maybe two).

Again, people are willing to believe what they want to believe. The dream
of a reliable homebuilt helicopter (turbine or otherwise) is still an
unfulfilled dream, but there are people who really, really want to
believe... For other examples of similar unfounded optimism, think of the
BD-5, the Prescott Pusher, and a host of other projects that sounded good,
but proved otherwise.

KB

Jim wrote:
One thing for the OP to remember, is that the rotoway has an airframe total
life of 1500 hours. After that, the airframe is junk.

If a homebuilt is registered as "Homer162" or "JiminNC162f" as the
manufacturer, I don't understand how a 1,500hr airframe limit is gonna
be enforcable. The Rotorways are not considered the manufacturer's but
parts suppliers intead. 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.

Bryan "The Monk" Chaisone

"Flyingmonk" wrote

If a homebuilt is registered as "Homer162" or "JiminNC162f" as the
manufacturer, I don't understand how a 1,500hr airframe limit is gonna
be enforcable.

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