7 hours ago
I am often asked about the safety and reliability of the Rotorway helicopters that I fly around 400-500 hours a year. “Are they safe to fly?” “Safe”, does that mean that there is no risk if one flies an experimental helicopter? Does that mean that there is no risk in flying any helicopter?
A query of the NTSB accident database certainly would support that fact that accidents happen to all kinds of aircraft, both fixed and rotary wing machines. Are cars and motorcycles safe? Lets take it back further before the age of the internal combustion engine we could ask if horses are a safe way to get to point a to b. Many people are injured every year by horses.
In truth the human body is fragile and nearly anything we do has an element of risk. When I was 31 years old I had pretty much made it financially. I was in the process of installing the first wind farm in the windy hills of southern Solano County in California and president of a large wind farm company. I also owned a hot tub, spa, and solar store in Suisun California, numerous apartments and rental properties, and thought that I had it made for life. At 10pm on June 6, 1982, as I was leaving my office and driving home to my new custom home, an oncoming vehicle swerved into my path and struck my truck head-on.
I woke up on October 1 of 1984 pennyless and homeless. The head injury that I sustained in the head-on collision with the drunk teen-aged driver had caused my brain to be unable of recording memory for nearly two and a half years, during which time my business and investments evaporated. It was a long road to recovery but by the late 1980’s I was back in business and financially able to start shopping for my first Rotorway helicopter.
Since then I have accumulated over 15,000 hours in helicopters, (of those hours over 13,000 have been in Rotorway helicopters of varying models) and have piloted my own airplanes for over 2000 hours. During those over 16,000 hours of PIC time I have never been injured one time when a Safari main rotor blade de-laminated during takeoff. The only other “crash” that I have had was when, as a green pilot on a high density altitude day at max gross wt., I lost main rotor rpm on lift off and entered an LTE spin. I took out the tail rotor on my own ship as I set it down. That was an easy fix and within a week I was flying again.
The below photo is of the Rotorway that had Safari main rotor blades installed and when the one blade delaminated it flipped us up side down causing the helicopter to initially land on the top of the rotor hub and then fall over onto its side.
![[Image: IMG-4786.jpg]](https://i.ibb.co/0yb4vcgq/IMG-4786.jpg)
The below photo shows the sod stuck in the top of the rotor system from the initial ground contact.
![[Image: IMG-4860.jpg]](https://i.ibb.co/tw9z2bRg/IMG-4860.jpg)
Based solely upon my own personal experience, I could conclude that driving a vehicle on the roads exposed me to more risk than flying helicopters and airplanes. I had always thought that flying a medevac helicopter would be exciting and rewarding. In 2005 I was approached my Air Evac Lifeteam recruiters to become a medivac helicopter pilot flying the Bell 206 Longranger. I committed to fly for one year so in 2006 I divided my time between Rotorway instruction and medevac helicopter flights.
There were many times when the circumstances would put the helicopter and crew on the edge of any safety margins. I came closer to unseen wires at night while approaching or departing remote emergency scenes than I had ever flying Rotorway helicopters. I experienced wind sheer while departing from the 17[sup]th[/sup] story roof top of a hospital as the 30 kt winds whipped around the elevator enclosure near the helipads. I even had a construction crane swing its boom directly into the path of the helicopter when I was on final approach to the hospital rooftop helipad.
On one flight I was sprayed with a patient’s blood in-flight and it was of such a volume that it was running down the inside of the wind screen and covering my instruments and my uniform. During that year of flying medevac helicopters I was exposed to more risk than during any other period of my flying career.
Already this year there have been a number of medevac helicopter crashes, I can think of 4 off the top of my head, in which the pilots, crews, and patients were all killed. From my own experience I would have to conclude that medevac helicopter flying is the most risky flying that one can engage in.
Now let’s go back to the original question, “Is the Rotorway helicopter safe to fly?” Based upon my own experience I would have to conclude emphatically, “yes it is”. During my years of involvement with this great little helicopter I have experienced a number of failures caused by either poor design or poor workmanship.
The Rotorway helicopter has slowly evolved from a very basic one person underpowered hard to control ship to a reliable two place helicopter over its production history. There were many issues with the prior models that I have discussed in articles and on my web site accessed by the green button at the top of this page, many of which have been addressed on the new Talon that Rotorway is now producing.
The fuel tank outlet fittings for the Talon are now incorporating the internal washer that I designed and offered to all builders over 15 years ago. The Fatal flaw in the overhead wiring (it is simple to fix if you have this model) of the 162F has been eliminated by the total redesign of the wiring system on the last year of the Talon.
At the time of this writing there have been over 20 fatalities involving medevac helicopters flown by highly trained and highly experienced commercial pilots this year alone. As I look back at my involvement with experimental helicopters I have personal knowledge of only 5 fatalities involving these helicopters.
A query of the NTSB accident database certainly would support that fact that accidents happen to all kinds of aircraft, both fixed and rotary wing machines. Are cars and motorcycles safe? Lets take it back further before the age of the internal combustion engine we could ask if horses are a safe way to get to point a to b. Many people are injured every year by horses.
In truth the human body is fragile and nearly anything we do has an element of risk. When I was 31 years old I had pretty much made it financially. I was in the process of installing the first wind farm in the windy hills of southern Solano County in California and president of a large wind farm company. I also owned a hot tub, spa, and solar store in Suisun California, numerous apartments and rental properties, and thought that I had it made for life. At 10pm on June 6, 1982, as I was leaving my office and driving home to my new custom home, an oncoming vehicle swerved into my path and struck my truck head-on.
I woke up on October 1 of 1984 pennyless and homeless. The head injury that I sustained in the head-on collision with the drunk teen-aged driver had caused my brain to be unable of recording memory for nearly two and a half years, during which time my business and investments evaporated. It was a long road to recovery but by the late 1980’s I was back in business and financially able to start shopping for my first Rotorway helicopter.
Since then I have accumulated over 15,000 hours in helicopters, (of those hours over 13,000 have been in Rotorway helicopters of varying models) and have piloted my own airplanes for over 2000 hours. During those over 16,000 hours of PIC time I have never been injured one time when a Safari main rotor blade de-laminated during takeoff. The only other “crash” that I have had was when, as a green pilot on a high density altitude day at max gross wt., I lost main rotor rpm on lift off and entered an LTE spin. I took out the tail rotor on my own ship as I set it down. That was an easy fix and within a week I was flying again.
The below photo is of the Rotorway that had Safari main rotor blades installed and when the one blade delaminated it flipped us up side down causing the helicopter to initially land on the top of the rotor hub and then fall over onto its side.
The below photo shows the sod stuck in the top of the rotor system from the initial ground contact.
Based solely upon my own personal experience, I could conclude that driving a vehicle on the roads exposed me to more risk than flying helicopters and airplanes. I had always thought that flying a medevac helicopter would be exciting and rewarding. In 2005 I was approached my Air Evac Lifeteam recruiters to become a medivac helicopter pilot flying the Bell 206 Longranger. I committed to fly for one year so in 2006 I divided my time between Rotorway instruction and medevac helicopter flights.
There were many times when the circumstances would put the helicopter and crew on the edge of any safety margins. I came closer to unseen wires at night while approaching or departing remote emergency scenes than I had ever flying Rotorway helicopters. I experienced wind sheer while departing from the 17[sup]th[/sup] story roof top of a hospital as the 30 kt winds whipped around the elevator enclosure near the helipads. I even had a construction crane swing its boom directly into the path of the helicopter when I was on final approach to the hospital rooftop helipad.
On one flight I was sprayed with a patient’s blood in-flight and it was of such a volume that it was running down the inside of the wind screen and covering my instruments and my uniform. During that year of flying medevac helicopters I was exposed to more risk than during any other period of my flying career.
Already this year there have been a number of medevac helicopter crashes, I can think of 4 off the top of my head, in which the pilots, crews, and patients were all killed. From my own experience I would have to conclude that medevac helicopter flying is the most risky flying that one can engage in.
Now let’s go back to the original question, “Is the Rotorway helicopter safe to fly?” Based upon my own experience I would have to conclude emphatically, “yes it is”. During my years of involvement with this great little helicopter I have experienced a number of failures caused by either poor design or poor workmanship.
The Rotorway helicopter has slowly evolved from a very basic one person underpowered hard to control ship to a reliable two place helicopter over its production history. There were many issues with the prior models that I have discussed in articles and on my web site accessed by the green button at the top of this page, many of which have been addressed on the new Talon that Rotorway is now producing.
The fuel tank outlet fittings for the Talon are now incorporating the internal washer that I designed and offered to all builders over 15 years ago. The Fatal flaw in the overhead wiring (it is simple to fix if you have this model) of the 162F has been eliminated by the total redesign of the wiring system on the last year of the Talon.
At the time of this writing there have been over 20 fatalities involving medevac helicopters flown by highly trained and highly experienced commercial pilots this year alone. As I look back at my involvement with experimental helicopters I have personal knowledge of only 5 fatalities involving these helicopters.