About 20 years ago I had a student with a 162f and an immaculate paint job. He did not like removing the inspection panels because it would mar his perfect paint job. One morning he and his wife met another Rotorway owner, also a former student of mine, to fly out to breakfast. He told me that he knew that the tail rotor belt tension was a bit loose but he had been flying with them loose and did not notice any issue with them. He elected to fly them in that condition because he did not want to remove the rear tail boom cover to access the tension bolts due to his perfect paint job.

On the flight home he elected to take a short cut over a densely wooded area instead of flying around it as I had instructed. When the helicopter was about midway over the forest he heard a bang, felt a mechanical slap on the helicopter structure, and knew to immediately enter an autorotation. The problem is that he placed himself in an area where there was no good place to land. Jim kept his cool and flared into the top of the 75’ oak trees.

The helicopter settled into the tree tops and when the main rotors contacted the oak branches the helicopter inverted and tumbled to the ground. Jim and Mia his wife were securely strapped into the helicopter as it plummeted down through the trees inverted. A limb came through the upper windshield and through Jim’s thigh impaling him in the cabin where he could not move. The fuel pump inertia switches did their job and shut the fuel pumps off killing the engine so there was no fire.

Mia was able to crawl out of the wreckage and had to hike to a spot to get cell coverage. Once connected she called 911 and shortly the emergency crews began the process of extricating Jim. While in the hospital Jim called me and told me that his concern over his perfect paint job cost him his helicopter. He also told me that he should have followed my instruction to not fly over areas that you don’t want to land in.

Upon inspection we found the middle tail rotor belt had broken due to running it too loose. It would be exceptionally rare for a properly tensioned belt to break. Always check your belt tensions prior to flying your helicopter. The tail rotor belt tensions can change with temperature, especially with a dark panted tail boom.

The Rotorway manuals do a poor job of listing which services are to be performed at what hour interval in my opinion. As such I put together this check list to hand out to all of my clients to help keep their maintenance on schedule. Your helicopter may have different components with their own time schedules but this guide should apply to most Rotorways. Feel free to use it if you want.

On a recent condition inspection I found the collective scissor bracket on that 162f had been fabricated incorrectly. The builder fabricated this bracket out of 4130 flat bar stock by bending the tabs 90



degrees to the base with a sharp bend. This bracket bolts to the top of the frame hood bracket and supports the collective scissor assembly. If this bracket broke loose the collective would be impaired or non functional depending on the severity of the break.

In this particular case the builder fabricated the bracket too wide causing the up bent tabs to not fit between the cast aluminum scissor yoke. They anlso made sharp bends instead of a smooth radius bend as shown in the installed bracket photo. Instead of making a new bracket they ground away a little more than half of each tabs thickness to make it fit into the casting. Of course this reduced the strength of the bracket and you would not want to be flying your helicopter with any part of your rotor control system compromised. Above are posted a photo of a properly fabricated installed bracket to compare with the improperly fabricated one laying on my workbench.

Here are some photos of Joe Huff assembling my new 172 engine and running it on the dyno.

On several Rotorway’s I have found bolts that have been severely bent due to the bolt holes being drilled through the frame tubes at an angle. The builder then realized that the bolt head and nut did not sit flat on the tube so they knocked the head and nut down flush. The photo from my wall of shame shows one such bolt. Would you trust that bolt on your helicopter?

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A quick note regarding the pitch links. I have come across several helicopters with bent pitch link rod ends link that must be replaced. This is caused by the owner/mechanic disconnecting the upper pitch link rod ends from the clevis for blade removal or maintenance but leaving the lower end of the pitch link still bolted in place. If the rotor system is rotated with the pitch links hanging down they will catch on something and the rod end will bend if not the pitch link itself. I make it a practice to remove the pitch links completely before any work on the helicopter that requires the upper end of the pitch link to be disconnected. N

ote the bend in the threaded portion of the pitch links hanging down in the photo.

Yesterday Jeff R. brought his severely rusted main rotor shaft assembly to my workshop for shaft replacement. He had taken it to at least one machine shop to have them remove the main shaft but they were unwilling to work on anything relating to aircraft. On this particular shaft assembled in South Africa the main thrust bearing was locktited onto the shaft so we had to heat it up with a torch then beat it off, the thrust bearing will be replaced with a new one. The slider ball internal bore was securely rusted onto the main shaft and after much penetrant oil and physical force with no movement, I cut the main shaft off just above the slider ball and was able to press the shaft out of the slider ball with my hydraulic press. We then installed the swashplate assembly onto his new main shaft after cleaning up all of the components and applying generous amounts of grease to all surfaces. 

If your helicopter has sat for several years without periodic greasing, it is imperative to inspect it for rust pitting especially in the area above the thrust bearing where the entire cantalevered portion is exposed to the most lateral stresses in flight. The first place to look is under the rubber boot because that boot traps moisture that begins to eat away at the shaft surface. Surface rust in that area can be cleaned up with emery cloth as long as there is no pitting that cannot be sanded off. If the shaft is pitted to the point where sanding will not remove the pits, the shaft is not airworthy and must be replaced. Don't let this happen to your main shaft. 

I suggest that the boot be lifted and the shaft greased with generous amounts of lubricant every 25 hours or if the helicopter is sitting, every year at least.

It is important to install steel or stainless skid shoes on the bottom of the skids behind the front curve and behind the rear gear leg shoe.

If you are fling an Exec 90 or earlier Rotorway with a carbureted engine do not use fuel with ethanol. A former student Eric B was flying his Exec 90 on a cross country when the engine lost power and died. He was able to auto into a small clearing with no damage. When we investigated the cause of the engine out we found that the carburetor bowl was filled with a clear gel that lifted the float closing off the fuel flow. The gel was caused by some reaction of the ethanol with moisture/humidity and that combination is not compatible with the carb engines. I try to always use non-ethanol fuel.

Those that have been around Rotorways for a while will have noticed that many ships have reversed the front landing gear and then extended and reinforced the skids. About 25 years ago Greg Anderson hired me to travel to Rapid City, SD to go over his new kit and to make recommendations as to what improvements I would make to the kit if it was my own. The Rotorway community had lost a number of helicopters due to rolling over during emergency or precautionary run-on landings. The first change that I suggested was to improve the helicopters ability to perform a run-on landing without the helicopter experiencing a dynamic rollover. Today most 162f gear and several Talon gear have incorporated this modification which allows a much more robust support for that one time that you need to slide it in. You can read the full story and view photos of the mod by clicking the green button at the top of the page, go to Hints and Tips, then Landing gear. Happy and safe flying.