Good Day Rotorway Community-  I'm happy to be on this forum and hope it grows.  Retired a few years ago from a 42 year career flying helicopters in the Army and then Civil EMS.   I'm a long time looker of Rotorways since the scorpion days, but never really had the stars to line up until -  Unfortunately for me and many many others, RotorX resurrected kit sales.   I hemmed and hawed and swallowed their hook as their get in early sale ended.  Lost my shirt like many others.   After licking my wounds for a couple years, cashed out my kids inheritance and bought an engine from Joe Huff and found enough A600 parts on the open market to complete my project.

I no longer have a facebook account and know that many others in this community also refrain from using large commercial social media apps, so if you are on any of the rotorway facebook groups and see something interesting, I hope you will copy into this forum for those of us not on that platform.

This forum will be my platform for tapping into the knowledge base of current Rotorway owners/operators/maintainers for guidance and assistance as I get back on my RotorX Frankenkit project as I refer to is as.

Please feel free to comment on my progress or lack of it on my thread in the Rotorway Builders section.

Welcome Sam, at work this week i just got done handling/swapping components on six different LTS101-750/850's between two BK117-B2's mix and matching parts for time/serviceability/spare Stock is such a common thing when it comes to maintenance i think nearly every helicopter out there is a Franken-Copter in its own time. excited to see you get this think across the finish line and into its airworthiness stage. hoping this forum continues to grow and become a great resource of information.

Awesome to have you here, Sam! Terrible event with what happened with RotorX... At least, you'll get your heli done in short time with the resources we have! Even if I someday move on from Rotorways, I'll keep this forum alive and maintained.

(01-24-2026, 05:45 PM)Lyle Swallows Wrote: Welcome Sam, at work this week i just got done handling/swapping components on six different LTS101-750/850's between two BK117-B2's mix and matching parts for time/serviceability/spare Stock is such a common thing when it comes to maintenance i think nearly every helicopter out there is a Franken-Copter in its own time. excited to see you get this think across the finish line and into its airworthiness stage. hoping this forum continues to grow and become a great resource of information.

I flew BK117's for a few years.   Mostly A4, later B2's.  I enjoyed them immensely.   Flew them for two different companies, both had excellent maintenance.  We're rarely out of service except "scheduled maintenance".   

Welcome Lyle, I finally am able to access this forum and am eager to hear about what everyone is doing.

Welcome Orv.  This website shows great promise!

When I was 20 years old, I drove all the way to upstate New York to see my first helicopter, a sleek Enstrom F29A. I was going to buy it before I even knew how to fly, thinking it would be the cheaper route rather than renting; at least I'd have the equity of the heli to always be able to sell. Unfortunately, I didn’t buy it because it was a gem—and that was my first mistake. From there, everything else followed. I bought a Hughes 269A—beautiful, but a wolf in disguise. After a meticulous pre-buy by three mechanics with whom I tipped each of them $350,  $190k later, it was a lemon.
But then I found Rotorway. In the experimental world, I discovered something that spoke to my restless soul—the freedom to build, to test, to become a pilot who was also a creator. I called Homer Bell—my building mentor—and he pointed me to a machine he’d built in Clearwater. He and I  trailed it home, and we drove through the dark streets of Brooklyn—3 a.m., a dream on a trailer. Homer, who loathed the city, became the man who handed me the wings to try again.

I hired a guy from "NYC's West Coast Helicopters." Called him to teach me how to fly. Let's call him "Bob.......Bob," with over 20,000 hrs in Jet Rangers, had no clue about the 'Experimental world." Our first session, he "scud ran" trees in cold, freezing rain. The second lesson (although 2 passengers), he forgot to put the ballast weight on the back, cranked the collective stuck in mud, and off we went out of CG into a line of trees, destroying that heli.  But at the time I trusted him because I simply didn't know better. He was the most expensive, so I (in my naive self) didn't know better. I rebuilt that bird—every bolt, every frame, every dream. After two and a half years, I painted it bright yellow, flew it through the phases at Rotorway, and trained with Orv until the day I soloed—right there at Homer’s “Bean Patch.” Now, I’m back, rebuilding Frankenstein—Andrew Burr’s helicopter—and I’m 70% there.
I’m also an author, and I share these stories in my book, The Happiness Factors. You can find it here: on YouTube, or on Amazon. And I’ve toured 17 countries as the lead singer of my rock band—check out our official video here: . The Rotorway journey has been my greatest inspiration—it’s in my blood. I look back on those days building and flying with the Rotorway community as some of the best times of my life. I just want to thank everyone who’s walked with me—and also Paublo—for making this journey real. Rotorway is more than a helicopter—it’s my lifeblood. Let’s take flight again.

thanks for sharing your story! we're all passionate dreamers here i feel, thats my biggest attraction to the rotorway community, aswell as the freedom to tinker for a better design!

i am very curious about your chin windows you've been working on. i've seen a few pictures of them in progress.

Interesting journey/story into the world of "out of the main stream" as I characterize helicopters and Experimental helicopters in particular.  I can't think of a smaller community in Aviation.   And those of us not professionally trained and certified as aircraft technicians really need the extended Rotorway community to keep us out of trouble.

Wish you good luck in your rebuild effort and looking forward to following it on this forum.