[Hank Rouland]

Long shot, but does anyone know the story behind the unfinished Exec 90 pictured? The current owner, Roman "Vio" Lazar in NJ says he bought it about 20 years ago through an advertisement. He thinks the builder was in the midwest, but he doesn't remember, and there were no builder's logs.

Weird story, sort of. Sadly, the general arc of "unfinished and neglected" does seem like a rather common story for Rotorway projects. I figured I'd reach out in case it stirred anyone's memories.

He never did anything with it, it's been overrun by rats, and he'd like to get rid of it. I'd like to build an Exec, and I'm interested in using this one essentially as a base kit, to be fully rebuilt.

[Lyle Swallows]

if i were to guess i would say about half of all rotorway kits delivered ended up flying... and most abandoned or handed down to people who didnt care for them... this was the state of mine as i got it and i am undergoing a full rebuild aswell. almost harder than if it were an original untampered kit...

[Homer Bell]

I currently have 3 machines that fall into this category, all in much better shape than this one. 2 actually fly, 1 that has been upgraded and only needs instruments put back in or a glass panel installed, builders choice.
This appears to be to be an early EXEC , see body panels and doghouse, but has a elastomeric rotor system. No telling what engine it might have or the condition of same.
Blades? Symmetrical or asymmetrical condition of same.? the frame is older, which means it would have to have a couple of tubes added probably the landing gear is probably early early design so you will need to decide if you wanted to upgrade that. Some experienced roadway person would need to inspect this machine and determine its condition. They’re really isn’t a lot of stuff there that anyone that wanted to build an up-to-date machine could use I’d say a realistic value of that is between five and $10,000 probably closer to five..

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If the thing had a good set of asymmetrical blades if would be worth much more. But that would need to be determined. A set of symmetrical blades that were at least hot glued , could be used and I’d put a value of maybe $5k on a set of those.
What engine it has and it condition along with blades , is the big things that determine value. Unfortunately engines condition is going to be very hard to know unless it’s locked up, which is a strong possibility.

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If the thing had a good set of asymmetrical blades if would be worth much more. But that would need to be determined. A set of symmetrical blades that were at least hot glued , could be used and I’d put a value of maybe $5k on a set of those.
What engine it has and it condition along with blades , is the big things that determine value. Unfortunately engines condition is going to be very hard to know unless it’s locked up, which is a strong possibility.

[Orv Neisingh]

It will take a lot of work and a lot of $$ to make this ship airworthy. If you love the build process and have the money it would be a good project but the value is not very high as it sits. I would say it would be worth around $5K as it sits. As Homer stated, asymmetrical rotor blades add value, the main shaft is most likely rusted and pitted so would need a new one and they are very hard to come by. If the engine is to be upgraded to current with dual ignition ($10,000-$34,000) then you would need to upgrade to the 35mm secondary ($4500) the cog drive ($8500) new main rotor shaft ($6500) just for starters. A new set of rotor blades can set you back around $12,000. You could be investing more into an upgrade than just buying a very nice presently flying 162f for around $65,000.

[Lyle Swallows]

my model i "barn found" was a 1999/2000 model 162F, never flown but mostly finished, then upgraded with the cogdrive, 35mm shaft, even a governor, yet i'm still nearly $20,000 USD into it with regards to upgrading instruments, refreshing belts/bearings that were way too old, upgrading skids, the tailboom needed work, i needed doors, and i'm still yet to paint it!

its gotta be a love and passion or hope you have nearly unlimited time and attention.

Homer is your best bet for a flying machine right off the bat, and this one would be good for parts or a frankenstein experiment in the future.

i hope you do continue and join our community!

[Homer Bell]

You don’t have to upgrade the secondary shaft if you run the chain and oil bath, I ran them for over 30 years. Ran one coast to coast. Doesn’t even have to be the heavy chain for a hundred hours or so.
You don’t have to upgrade the ignition system but that would be one thing I would strongly advise. Again, I ran a distributor coast to coast, single plug, with dual point fixed points. Weak point was Mallory coil.
If this has at least a 145 engine which has 162cubic inches, you could get possibly hundreds of of hours out of it.
If the blades are what I suspect, hot glued if they are symmetrical, or even asymmetrical, with no corrosion, they can be safely run.

Probably has a 1.5 “ main shaft good for 300hrs. It’ll fly just as good as the machines today, and be 150 to 200# lighter than ones today. Frame and landing gear on these old kits are SO MUCH LIGHTER!! Plus no heavy tail drive system.

But again, condition of stuff is everything. Just calling it junk could be a big mistake. I found stuff like this that’s 25 or 30 years old that were just about as good as they were when they left AZ. RW did pack stuff pretty good. I’ve also saw stuff that was only 5,6 years old so rusty that it had to be scraped.

Problem is, everyone wants the latest stuff. If the condition of this thing is good with little rust and corrosion, it can fly with most of the stuff there for at least 100 hrs. This is a project for some young fellow with more time and labor than he has money.

[Lyle Swallows]

"more time and labor than he has money"

this sounds like me, but swap time with stubbornness. haha!

[Hank Rouland]

Thanks for the replies, everyone. I thought I would get an email notice when there was a response, but I must not have set up that option, otherwise I would have replied sooner.

I hadn't been concerned with the rust I saw, which looked like surface-rust only from what I saw (though I've supposed there might still be some that need replacing). Looked to me like any parts with rust only needed to be cleaned and recoated, as long as there didn't turn out to be corrosion on any bearing surfaces. However, I'm more accustomed to ships than aircraft, so maybe something stands out to some of you as more serious in an aviation setting (some pics below).

I haven't been aware of the different possible rotor blades. They look symmetrical in the picture I took (below).

The seller is interested in selling it for less than $5k, which has seemed about right to me, with potential for some parts to be more valuable, and for some to need replacement. I appreciate the estimates from these posts.

I've been reckoning it'll take about $20k more to get it ready to fly. Just one or two hiccups could add a lot to that, of course. I've supposed it would take me about the same amount of time to rebuild this barn find as it would to build from a kit.

Overall, I like the Exec (in general, not simply this one). I've read a couple dozen fatal accident reports, EPI's analyses, and a lot of forum posts, in addition to a bunch of hours reading through the construction manual to answer various questions I've had. I've gotten the impression of a home-built helicopter that is overall ok when built to spec, though rather under-engineered, and with various options to address relatively well-known problem areas.

[Orv Neisingh]

Hi Hank, I can see from the photos that the main shaft is severely rusted and is most likely rust pitted which will render it un-airworthy. You should check on the availability of a replacement rotor shaft before going too far with this project. Homer Bell should have most of what you need in his used parts warehouse so I would check with him first.