Looking forward to exchanging some good information...

(Skip to the 10 minute mark) This one is an interesting accident involving the downwash of a nearby hovering R22 from the aft side. It's likely this created enough of a tailwind (probably combined with a fwd CG) that our rotorways simply cannot handle due to our limited cyclic authority and horizontal stabilizer angle. Tail winds of 15 knots or greater (depending on CG) like to pick up our tail even with full aft cyclic... A good reminder for us to always pick the helicopter up slowly enough to feel any control limitations before the hover—there's always time to set it back down. Feel free to discuss.

This rotorway video released in 2015 shows an engine failure from 500 ft resulting in two broken ribs, but the pilot recovered well!

I'm sure many have seen this video as it's one of the most popular related to rotorway accidents on YouTube. Feel free to discuss what went wrong!

I'll start off by saying I'm in no way shape or form an expert or highly knowledgeable about Rotorways, so take my opinions with a grain of salt. I'm not a builder so I don't have that first-hand knowledge and experience that many of you have. I've owned a 1998 build Rotorway 162F since 2018 that I purchased sight-unseen while deployed in Afghanistan at 23 years old, probably making me one of the youngest rotorway owners at that time?... Maybe. I'm 30 now. The helicopter sat at my property in a state nobody likes to talk about and I built a steel hangar for it in 5 days (too much welding...) while on leave once I got back from deployment. Unfortunately, I ran out of time to finish the door! But at least, it was kept out of the elements.

I got the opportunity to fly with Chris Tronaas when I was PCS'ing and we had a bit of an oil leak occur during the hover which ended our short flight, but Chris taught me a lot in that short amount of time! Then, I attended Jim Hardy's fly-in while stationed in El Paso, TX and he graciously gave me the opportunity to fly his rotorway! Jim became a good friend and is an excellent aircraft builder and a very respectable/highly knowledgeable pilot. It was actually quite easy to fly, so on my next leave block I finally took mine up in the air some time in 2020. Later, I took my Rotorway down from Oregon to Jim's 2023 MCG fly-in and spent a week there. Lots of flying and a lot of fun, I'd highly recommend it to anyone interested in helicopters at all! (Check the Calendar and Events forum to watch for any new events coming up!). 

Once I left the military after 6 yrs active duty as a helicopter mechanic, I moved to Oregon to finish my flight training and spent most of my hours flying Cabri G2's and later on Robinson R22/44/66 and Enstroms (480B) after relocating to Idaho. I still fly my rotorway but not as much as I'd like to, since I'm currently pursuing a bachelor's degree in Computer Science. 

Anyway, here are some pictures of my 162F:

   

In case we gather any users who are not already familiar with it, there is a very active Facebook group called "Rotorway Builder's Page" that we recommend you join!
Active administrators there are @Charlie Rogers and @Pablo Barroso  who are also active members of this forum!

https://www.facebook.com/groups/555897066275669

Owned a 162F Turbo since June 19 with a Joe Huff engine since Nov 25.  Looking for a larger capacity alternator that will fit.  Anybody have any suggestions?

While I start building, I'd like to start looking forward towards Avionics.   I have a new in the box MGL Lite discovery (the small one).   And I also have purchased an engine from Joe Huff with a stand alone fuel control, so I won't be using the Fadecs system from Rotorway.   

I'm interested in a basic panel, a single VHF radio with flip flop frequency controls from the cyclic, ADSB since I'm near controlled airspace.  Will be a glass panel of some variety, but I'm not committed to this MGL.

I'm interested in hearing what you may have, or have experience with and pros and cons of such

Thanks and Thanks for participating.

Sam

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