https://rotorwayforums.com/ Mon, 24 Aug 2026 19:10:29 +0000 MyBB https://rotorwayforums.com/thread-202.html Tue, 18 Aug 2026 13:22:29 -0500 Orv Neisingh]]> https://rotorwayforums.com/thread-202.html
One of the most serious problems that I have encountered is the falsification of the helicopter’s maintenance records. Most ads for used ships state something to the effect of “all service bulletins complied with”. It is very easy for someone who is less than ethical to log the 25, 50, 75, 100 and so on hour maintenance procedures in the appropriate log books for the prospective buyer to view. After all, the builder is the FAA certified repairman for that helicopter so that must make those log entries legitimate and believable, shouldn’t it?

Lets go over the history of one builder’s purchase and subsequent nightmare. Let’s call this particular builder Fred. For years Fred had dreamed of owning and piloting his own helicopter. Certified helicopters were out of reach financially so Fred began investigating the kit aircraft market. He wanted a 2 place helicopter so that he could take a passenger along on those long-planned adventures so that limited him to three choices. There are really only three kit helicopters on the market that are two place; the Rotorway, the Safari, and the Ultrasport.

Looking into these kits he determined that the Ultrasport was not an option. There are only a handful of them in the US and none of them were presently flying. The problem is the lack of a suitable engine for their 2 place 496. The only choice from Ultrasport, Fred discovered, is the Hirth F30 that has a dismal failure record when placed in this helicopter. Fred also remembered that every major air show that he attended in which the Ultrasport was flown, the 2 place model had experienced a catastrophic engine failure after only a few flight hours and was grounded for the remainder of the show. Engine failures in his new helicopter were not on Fred’s list of desirable attributes so the Ultrasport was eliminated as potential purchase.

Fred next looked at a Safari and liked it. He especially liked the fact that it used a certified Lycoming aircraft engine for a power plant. The fact that there was not much information from present owners to be found and that there are relatively few Safari kits around the USA caused Fred to shy away from this helicopter kit as well.

This left only one alternative, the Rotorway line of helicopters. There are several to choose from: Scorpion 133’s and 145’s (the Evinrude powered ones were not even considered), Exec 145’s and 152’s, Exec 90’s, Single FADEC 162F’s and the most recent dual FADEC 162F. Fred began perusing the web sites, Trade a plane, and other publications in his search for the “perfect” helicopter to meet his needs and fulfill his dreams.

Fred found an Exec 90 that had 369 hours on it for sale and hired an A&P mechanic to travel with him for a pre-purchase inspection. Now Fred is a high time fixed wing pilot and knows that at 400 hours, an aircraft is just getting broken in. Together Fred and his mechanic went through the aircraft logs and maintenance records to determine that all required maintenance was done and service bulletins were complied with. Everything was in Order so the purchase decision was made and Fred had a beautiful dream helicopter of his own.

After a second trip to the East coast to pick the helicopter up and trailer it home to the Midwest, Fred now needed to learn to fly his new toy. He looked in several of the older Rotorway-specific publications and called the flight instructors listed. Most of them no longer instructed in the Rotorway and only one of them(at that time) would travel to Fred’s location to provide him with the training he needed. An agreement was made and soon this CFI arrived at Fred’s hanger.

After a thorough inspection of the helicopter the CFI strapped a 10 pound weight to each of the horizontal stabilizers and another 10 pounds to the tail boom. This additional 30 pounds was needed because the CFI that Fred had hired weighed well in Excess of 240#. The helicopter was severely over gross weight, but Fred was relying on the expertise of this Rotorway-experienced professional.

The moment that Fred had dreamed of for so many years had arrived. There he was, strapped into the seat of his own helicopter with a CFI that was going to teach him how to fly it. They fired up the engine, did the required warm up and Sprague check, and then powered up for the liftoff. As collective pitch was applied and throttle added the CFI lifted the helicopter into a 3” hover. But there was a problem. As soon as they became airborne, the main rotor RPM would decay to the point that the helicopter settled back to the ground. After several attempts to pick up into a hover, the CFI informed Fred that he needed to do some adjusting on the helicopter and they would fly the following day.

The CFI arrived on Sunday, they attempted to fly on Monday, then Tuesday—oops it needs more adjusting, let’s try Wed----no good, a bit more adjusting and by Thursday they would be flying. Well Thursday came and went and finally on Friday when the CFI told Fred that he was pretty certain that he could have it flying by Saturday, Fred terminated their agreement and was presented with a bill in excess of $3,000.00. Fred wrote out the check and decided that he had been through enough! If this is the way that the Rotorway community operated, he wanted no part of it.

He had purchased a helicopter that would not fly and then was ripped off by a "professional" flight instructor to the tune of over $3,000.00 and had still not even gotten more than 6” off the ground. The CFI did not mention that Fact that the helicopter was severely over the maximum allowed gross weight by more than 60 pound of CFI and lead weight! Perhaps that had something to do with the lack of performance on this machine.

Fred was ready to put the helicopter up for sale. It was Saturday and he had just explained to his wife where the flight training money had gone with no training time logged. Low was too high for how Fred felt. As he was sitting at his desk contemplating the future of his helicopter dream, his first new issue of Rotorheads magazine arrived with the mail. He opened the magazine and found an article that I had written.

After reading the article he realized that there was anther CFI with a lot of Rotorway helicopter experience and decided to give me a call. We talked for around 30 minutes and Fred asked me if I could meet him at his hanger in the morning. Travel arrangements were made and I arrived the next morning. Fred did not tell me that he had just sent another CFI packing as he wanted to see how I did with an unbiased opinion.

As with every helicopter that I fly, I first performed an airworthiness inspection of Fred’s new ship. The log books revealed that just 5 hours prior the annual inspection had been performed and the aircraft had been deemed airworthy and returned to service. The engine logs revealed that every 25 hours the valves had been adjusted, lash cap clearances had been verified, and all belts, hoses, fluids, and filters had been recently replaced with new.

The helicopter was a bit rough, quite a bit of chipped paint on the frame, a number of wires that needed securing, and 4 control rod ends with loose(backed off) jamb nuts. It took a couple of hours to put the helicopter into airworthy condition, after which Fred’s A&P mechanic made the required entries into the aircraft logs. Fred is not the builder of this helicopter so the maintenance is either done or checked by an A&P.

After lunch we wheeled the helicopter out onto the helipad, buckled ourselves in, and fired up the engine. The engine started right away and after I demonstrated the engine and drive train checks, we picked up into a hover. Now Fred is no light weight. He weighs in right at 210 pounds. I weigh 185 and we had the tanks half full. The helicopter seemed a bit under powered but we were able to maintain a 24” hover.

After I hovered the helicopter for several minutes to get the feel of the controls (every one is different), we began Fred’s hover training. Now Fred was excited! He told me that he had been looking forward to this day for years and now he was actually learning to fly his own helicopter. Fred was just getting the feel of the anti-torque pedals when there was a loud bang and the engine suddenly quit. I set the helicopter onto the taxiway in a hover auto and there we sat for a minute wondering what had happened. We had logged a total of 30 minutes flight time so far. We decided that the safest thing to do was to pull the helicopter back to the hanger at the other end of the airport and check it out.

We walked to the hanger, secured the ground handling wheels, a length of rope, and Fred’s truck. Back at the helicopter we rigged it so that Fred could pull it with his truck while I applied some down force on the tail boom as I walked along side to keep the ship centered on the wheels. It started out as planned but somewhere about mid way down the runway Fred received a call on his cell phone and was distracted by the call. He forgot that he had a 65 year old flight instructor hanging onto the tail of his helicopter.

The speed of the truck steadily increased until I felt like a cartoon character with my legs moving faster than they were capable of. I did not dare let go of the tail or the helicopter would have gone sliding off the side of the runway and into a ditch. Finally Fred glanced into his rear view mirror and the scene behind him caused him to slow down to a more reasonable pace.

When we removed the valve covers we found that one of the intake valves had been pushed far down into the keepers and all of the lash caps were mushroomed down onto the keepers of all of the valves. It was apparent that the valves had not been adjusted in many hours, finally causing an engine failure. The maintenance records stated that the valves had been adjusted and lash cap clearances checked every 25 hours. This obviously had not been done and the records that the seller had provided the buyer had been doctored to reflect all maintenance was completed.

Fred had his A&P remove the engine and it was shipped back to Rotorway for a complete overhaul. When it was finished and shipped back, it was installed and we were back flying, this time with power to spare and to date the power plant has been working perfectly. We have put over 60 hours on it since the engine failure. I need to add that due to the erroneous entries in the maintenance logs, we decided that every maintenance item was suspect and replaced all components, belts, hoses, elastomerics, bearings, etc. that should have been replaced in the 369 hours since the helicopter had been built. With all components now with actual life times entered into the records, we know that the helicopter is airworthy and we can now accurately track those component hours.

This past several days I was providing Fred with phase II flight training. There was no wind, the sun was bright, the sky was “severe clear”. We just had to take an hour break from training to go exploring the countryside in Fred’s great-flying Exec 90. There just isn’t anything that is more fun or enjoyable as strapping your own helicopter onto your back and taking it out for a scenic flight.

Fred had surgery today so he won’t be flying for a couple of weeks. As he is recovering he will be closing his eyes and remembering that flight over the farms of Arkansas.

Be very careful if you purchase a pre-built helicopter. You don’t want to fall into the same trap that Fred was caught in. His great deal on his Exec 90 has now cost him over $58,000.00 to insure that it is airworthy. With the help of a professional builder, Rotorway, and some new parts from a Jet Exec builder, Fred is enjoying flying his Exec 90 and is still glad that he joined this elite fraternity of Rotorway helicopter owners
Until next time, fly safe and enjoy these wonderful helicopters.]]>
One of the most serious problems that I have encountered is the falsification of the helicopter’s maintenance records. Most ads for used ships state something to the effect of “all service bulletins complied with”. It is very easy for someone who is less than ethical to log the 25, 50, 75, 100 and so on hour maintenance procedures in the appropriate log books for the prospective buyer to view. After all, the builder is the FAA certified repairman for that helicopter so that must make those log entries legitimate and believable, shouldn’t it?

Lets go over the history of one builder’s purchase and subsequent nightmare. Let’s call this particular builder Fred. For years Fred had dreamed of owning and piloting his own helicopter. Certified helicopters were out of reach financially so Fred began investigating the kit aircraft market. He wanted a 2 place helicopter so that he could take a passenger along on those long-planned adventures so that limited him to three choices. There are really only three kit helicopters on the market that are two place; the Rotorway, the Safari, and the Ultrasport.

Looking into these kits he determined that the Ultrasport was not an option. There are only a handful of them in the US and none of them were presently flying. The problem is the lack of a suitable engine for their 2 place 496. The only choice from Ultrasport, Fred discovered, is the Hirth F30 that has a dismal failure record when placed in this helicopter. Fred also remembered that every major air show that he attended in which the Ultrasport was flown, the 2 place model had experienced a catastrophic engine failure after only a few flight hours and was grounded for the remainder of the show. Engine failures in his new helicopter were not on Fred’s list of desirable attributes so the Ultrasport was eliminated as potential purchase.

Fred next looked at a Safari and liked it. He especially liked the fact that it used a certified Lycoming aircraft engine for a power plant. The fact that there was not much information from present owners to be found and that there are relatively few Safari kits around the USA caused Fred to shy away from this helicopter kit as well.

This left only one alternative, the Rotorway line of helicopters. There are several to choose from: Scorpion 133’s and 145’s (the Evinrude powered ones were not even considered), Exec 145’s and 152’s, Exec 90’s, Single FADEC 162F’s and the most recent dual FADEC 162F. Fred began perusing the web sites, Trade a plane, and other publications in his search for the “perfect” helicopter to meet his needs and fulfill his dreams.

Fred found an Exec 90 that had 369 hours on it for sale and hired an A&P mechanic to travel with him for a pre-purchase inspection. Now Fred is a high time fixed wing pilot and knows that at 400 hours, an aircraft is just getting broken in. Together Fred and his mechanic went through the aircraft logs and maintenance records to determine that all required maintenance was done and service bulletins were complied with. Everything was in Order so the purchase decision was made and Fred had a beautiful dream helicopter of his own.

After a second trip to the East coast to pick the helicopter up and trailer it home to the Midwest, Fred now needed to learn to fly his new toy. He looked in several of the older Rotorway-specific publications and called the flight instructors listed. Most of them no longer instructed in the Rotorway and only one of them(at that time) would travel to Fred’s location to provide him with the training he needed. An agreement was made and soon this CFI arrived at Fred’s hanger.

After a thorough inspection of the helicopter the CFI strapped a 10 pound weight to each of the horizontal stabilizers and another 10 pounds to the tail boom. This additional 30 pounds was needed because the CFI that Fred had hired weighed well in Excess of 240#. The helicopter was severely over gross weight, but Fred was relying on the expertise of this Rotorway-experienced professional.

The moment that Fred had dreamed of for so many years had arrived. There he was, strapped into the seat of his own helicopter with a CFI that was going to teach him how to fly it. They fired up the engine, did the required warm up and Sprague check, and then powered up for the liftoff. As collective pitch was applied and throttle added the CFI lifted the helicopter into a 3” hover. But there was a problem. As soon as they became airborne, the main rotor RPM would decay to the point that the helicopter settled back to the ground. After several attempts to pick up into a hover, the CFI informed Fred that he needed to do some adjusting on the helicopter and they would fly the following day.

The CFI arrived on Sunday, they attempted to fly on Monday, then Tuesday—oops it needs more adjusting, let’s try Wed----no good, a bit more adjusting and by Thursday they would be flying. Well Thursday came and went and finally on Friday when the CFI told Fred that he was pretty certain that he could have it flying by Saturday, Fred terminated their agreement and was presented with a bill in excess of $3,000.00. Fred wrote out the check and decided that he had been through enough! If this is the way that the Rotorway community operated, he wanted no part of it.

He had purchased a helicopter that would not fly and then was ripped off by a "professional" flight instructor to the tune of over $3,000.00 and had still not even gotten more than 6” off the ground. The CFI did not mention that Fact that the helicopter was severely over the maximum allowed gross weight by more than 60 pound of CFI and lead weight! Perhaps that had something to do with the lack of performance on this machine.

Fred was ready to put the helicopter up for sale. It was Saturday and he had just explained to his wife where the flight training money had gone with no training time logged. Low was too high for how Fred felt. As he was sitting at his desk contemplating the future of his helicopter dream, his first new issue of Rotorheads magazine arrived with the mail. He opened the magazine and found an article that I had written.

After reading the article he realized that there was anther CFI with a lot of Rotorway helicopter experience and decided to give me a call. We talked for around 30 minutes and Fred asked me if I could meet him at his hanger in the morning. Travel arrangements were made and I arrived the next morning. Fred did not tell me that he had just sent another CFI packing as he wanted to see how I did with an unbiased opinion.

As with every helicopter that I fly, I first performed an airworthiness inspection of Fred’s new ship. The log books revealed that just 5 hours prior the annual inspection had been performed and the aircraft had been deemed airworthy and returned to service. The engine logs revealed that every 25 hours the valves had been adjusted, lash cap clearances had been verified, and all belts, hoses, fluids, and filters had been recently replaced with new.

The helicopter was a bit rough, quite a bit of chipped paint on the frame, a number of wires that needed securing, and 4 control rod ends with loose(backed off) jamb nuts. It took a couple of hours to put the helicopter into airworthy condition, after which Fred’s A&P mechanic made the required entries into the aircraft logs. Fred is not the builder of this helicopter so the maintenance is either done or checked by an A&P.

After lunch we wheeled the helicopter out onto the helipad, buckled ourselves in, and fired up the engine. The engine started right away and after I demonstrated the engine and drive train checks, we picked up into a hover. Now Fred is no light weight. He weighs in right at 210 pounds. I weigh 185 and we had the tanks half full. The helicopter seemed a bit under powered but we were able to maintain a 24” hover.

After I hovered the helicopter for several minutes to get the feel of the controls (every one is different), we began Fred’s hover training. Now Fred was excited! He told me that he had been looking forward to this day for years and now he was actually learning to fly his own helicopter. Fred was just getting the feel of the anti-torque pedals when there was a loud bang and the engine suddenly quit. I set the helicopter onto the taxiway in a hover auto and there we sat for a minute wondering what had happened. We had logged a total of 30 minutes flight time so far. We decided that the safest thing to do was to pull the helicopter back to the hanger at the other end of the airport and check it out.

We walked to the hanger, secured the ground handling wheels, a length of rope, and Fred’s truck. Back at the helicopter we rigged it so that Fred could pull it with his truck while I applied some down force on the tail boom as I walked along side to keep the ship centered on the wheels. It started out as planned but somewhere about mid way down the runway Fred received a call on his cell phone and was distracted by the call. He forgot that he had a 65 year old flight instructor hanging onto the tail of his helicopter.

The speed of the truck steadily increased until I felt like a cartoon character with my legs moving faster than they were capable of. I did not dare let go of the tail or the helicopter would have gone sliding off the side of the runway and into a ditch. Finally Fred glanced into his rear view mirror and the scene behind him caused him to slow down to a more reasonable pace.

When we removed the valve covers we found that one of the intake valves had been pushed far down into the keepers and all of the lash caps were mushroomed down onto the keepers of all of the valves. It was apparent that the valves had not been adjusted in many hours, finally causing an engine failure. The maintenance records stated that the valves had been adjusted and lash cap clearances checked every 25 hours. This obviously had not been done and the records that the seller had provided the buyer had been doctored to reflect all maintenance was completed.

Fred had his A&P remove the engine and it was shipped back to Rotorway for a complete overhaul. When it was finished and shipped back, it was installed and we were back flying, this time with power to spare and to date the power plant has been working perfectly. We have put over 60 hours on it since the engine failure. I need to add that due to the erroneous entries in the maintenance logs, we decided that every maintenance item was suspect and replaced all components, belts, hoses, elastomerics, bearings, etc. that should have been replaced in the 369 hours since the helicopter had been built. With all components now with actual life times entered into the records, we know that the helicopter is airworthy and we can now accurately track those component hours.

This past several days I was providing Fred with phase II flight training. There was no wind, the sun was bright, the sky was “severe clear”. We just had to take an hour break from training to go exploring the countryside in Fred’s great-flying Exec 90. There just isn’t anything that is more fun or enjoyable as strapping your own helicopter onto your back and taking it out for a scenic flight.

Fred had surgery today so he won’t be flying for a couple of weeks. As he is recovering he will be closing his eyes and remembering that flight over the farms of Arkansas.

Be very careful if you purchase a pre-built helicopter. You don’t want to fall into the same trap that Fred was caught in. His great deal on his Exec 90 has now cost him over $58,000.00 to insure that it is airworthy. With the help of a professional builder, Rotorway, and some new parts from a Jet Exec builder, Fred is enjoying flying his Exec 90 and is still glad that he joined this elite fraternity of Rotorway helicopter owners
Until next time, fly safe and enjoy these wonderful helicopters.]]> https://rotorwayforums.com/thread-199.html Mon, 17 Aug 2026 12:03:28 -0500 Orv Neisingh]]> https://rotorwayforums.com/thread-199.html



Many friends have been made over the years through contacts with other Rotorway builders. During the building of my helicopter I enrolled in the Rotorway pilot training program and found out what a challenge it was to get the hang of flying a helicopter. I was a fixed wing pilot and just knew that I would be flying that little factory Rotorway trainer within minutes, was I ever surprised! It took a lot of hard work just to learn to hover in one spot but by the end of the week of school I had accumulated 7 hours and my solo endorsement.
 
I went back to Rotorway for phase II training several months later and then a few months after that attended for phase III and my rotorcraft/helicopter rating. As it turned out I was the first person to complete all three phases of the Rotorway International flight school and for a number of years the photo of Stretch Wolter handing me my rating was hanging in the Rotorway headquarters. I was one of the few rated pilots in the Sierra Rotorcraft club at that time so I was able to spend many hours teaching other builders how to fly their helicopters, and I thoroughly enjoyed doing it.




I was told over and over that I should get my CFI rating and instruct with the authority to sign log books and give endorsements but I just never seemed to find the time to do it. Besides that I was having so much fun flying everyone else’s helicopters that I could not see going to school just so that I could sign their log books.
 
During those years the Sierra Rotorcraft club was very active and we did a lot of flying together. We would choose a location and agree to meet there the next month with our motor homes, vans, trailers, and of course our Rotorways. After work on Friday we would all drive from our respective homes and set up camp and rig our helicopters. There is just something special about waking up early in the morning after a good night sleep in the camper and hearing the Rotorway helicopter engines firing up and the slap of the main rotor blades beating air.

Soon the ramp, field, pasture, or parking lot was a beehive of activity with everyone anxious to be airborne and off on new adventures. This would go on for two days of flying, food, and fellowship. Several times we would awake in the wee hours of the morning to the sound of a heavy wind or rain and everyone would scurry out to insure that our precious Rotorways were secure and safe. I miss those days!
 
We moved from California in 1996 to the Ozarks of Missouri and here we built our own airstrip and helicopter training facility. Shortly after moving here I began working on my commercial rotorcraft rating and after that I really worked to earn my CFI rating. It has been a long time dream for me and now I am doing what I truly love to do, teach people to fly helicopters. I should add that in 1998 our Rotorway was stolen so we were without our helicopter, but life goes on.
 
There are a lot of new helicopter pilots out there and I thought that some of you might benefit from a few words from an old time Rotorway flyer. When I took my Phase II training at Rotorway we only did a couple of autorotation practices and then I was signed off or solo flight within my practice area. I returned home with my new solo-to-altitude endorsement and was anxious to get airborne. At this time I had around 50 hours of hover time on my Rotorway so I was pretty comfortable with it. I set my ballast weights correctly, did a very thorough preflight, used the restroom, checked the ballast weights again, and finally ran out of excuses. It was the hour of reckoning: this is what it was all about!!!

I was scared spit less! As I sat in my helicopter hovering at 24” altitude over the helipad, I felt real secure. What had my heart pumping and my body sweating was the thought of leaving the security of the hover and actually going high enough to get hurt and of being all ALONE without my flight instructor to make sure that I would be safe.
 
Finally I said to myself, c’mon wimp, go for it. The take-off was beautiful and I had flown for at least 40 seconds when out of the corner of my right eye I perceived a movement. Looking right I saw that the Velcro-attached seat cushion (they were about 12” square in those early ships) had become un-Velcro ed and was laying on the passenger seat. I immediately heard Stretch tell me “make sure everything in the cockpit is secure before flight so that nothing flies out the door and into the tail rotor”.

STAY! I thought as loud as I could, but that cushion had it’s own agenda. It slowly moved toward the door opening, I had to stop it but I was 200 feet in the air, what to do? First I tried holding the cyclic with my knees so that I could just very quickly grab the cushion, as soon as I released my death grip on the cyclic the helicopter dipped and I had to grab the cyclic back immediately. I next tried to stay in a left banking turn but the wind caught the cushion and out it went, I knew that I was dead meat. Miraculously the cushion missed the tail rotor and I was still flying.

At that time I did not have the skill level to fly the helicopter at low altitude while looking out the doorway for my seat cushion in the pasture below me. I made my approach to a hover and hovered around that pasture until I found the seat cushion, landed, secured the cushion under my butt, and took off.
 
I headed for home where my wife was still videotaping my first flight and I found that I still had a problem. You see, as all of the club members know, my property was only 150’ wide and I had only made landing approaches onto a runway at the Rotorway school, and that was around 2 miles long. Stretch always said, “keep that airspeed near 60 mph throughout your approach until you have to slow down, that way you are always ready with enough airspeed to do an autorotation and a flair in the very unlikely event that the engine should fail”.

I tried my first approach and ended up doing a beautiful low altitude fly-by, just missing the neighbors antenna in the process. This happened several times until I just slowed at around 100 feet, sorry Stretch, but I needed to use the restroom. I then just did a full power descending hover to the pad and parked it, my first every steep approach to landing. My wife told me that she got some great footage of my flybys and then wondered why I was sweating so profusely in the middle of January.
 
The thought that took all of the fun out of the solo flight without a flight instructor with me was "what if something breaks or quits, I have too much money and time invested in this helicopter to have it or me damaged". I think that this thought has occurred to most of us at times and is most likely the reason that we see so many Rotorways for sale with very low time on them. I decided right then and there that I needed more training in autorotations.
 
My good friend, the late Bill Cunningham, and Steve Lewis were at Rotorway for Phase II training. During a practice auto in which Bill was at the controls in the factory ship 56Tango, the instructor noticed that the engine had failed. The instructor took the controls and finished the auto, sans engine, to the runway. There was a problem though. This instructor had never done a touch-down auto in the Rotorway, only in Robinsons, and as usually happens the helicopter rocked forward and then onto it's left side totally destroying itself in the process.


This happened several times to the factory helicopters that I know of and is something that I did not want to experience with my ship. I should tell you that both occupants emerged through the kicked-out front windscreen without a scratch. Steve Lewis did show-and-tell at our next club meeting with the photos he took at the scene.
 
Knowing that I would not go back up any higher than a hover without proper autorotation training I began looking for an experienced Rotorway instructor. After many phone calls and references I found a flight instructor who had built two of his own Rotorway helicopters and was presently flying the surviving one. He had experienced an engine failure and while touring with his wife and after doing a beautiful autorotation and flawless run-on landing he crashed the helicopter, destroying it. It seems that after doing everything right the helicopter tipped up on the front of the skids and then rolled over onto the left side thrashing itself to pieces with the main rotor blades.

In this photo I am with my autorotation instructor Jim Sergesor next to my trusty old 152 Exec

 

This instructor was a friend of Bob Thorensen who was at that time Rotorways test pilot. Bob had numerous times performed touchdown autos with the Rotorways and without hurting himself or the ships. This flight instructor, Jim Sergaser, asked Bob how to do a proper ROTORWAY touchdown auto. Bob told him that Rotorway's had the nasty habit of wanting to rock forward (due to a high center of gravity and short front skid extension) and to the left when they contact the ground with any forward motion.

He said the "trick" was to repeat to yourself all the way down "make it stop!" The idea is that you need to hold your final flare at the bottom of the auto long enough to completely stop all forward motion of the helicopter before leveling the ship and then set it down with 0 mph ground speed. Without the forward motion the helicopter will not rock forward onto the skid tips and roll over.
 
Dan Van Duesen and I together hired Jim to teach us autorotations and we did hour after hour of them until they became second nature. About 6 months later the time came to prove the concept. Dan and I were flying Wayne Berry's beautiful Scorpion II and at about 250' altitude the engine quit. Jim's instruction to us paid off as we executed a 90 degree turn into the wind and set the little helicopter down without a scratch saying "Make it stop" all the way down.

We found that the single ignition Mallory coil had failed so I hiked home and got another one, installed it, and flew the helicopter home.
The practice procedure was to go up and do about an hour at a time of autorotations from 500 feet. When the flair was completed, the helicopter was leveled, and power was applied the forward motion of the helicopter should be Zero. With many hours of practice we just got better and better. It helps to have someone present initially that knows how to do a proper Rotorway autorotation so that they can critique your performance and give you pointers.

I made it a habit to do at least 5 autorotations each time I would go out for an hour of flying. I also was constantly aware that at any time I may need to actually do one for real, there is usually no warning, it just happens and you have about a second to react or you are in a heap of trouble. To date now with over 13,000 hours of Rotorway flying plus several thousand in other helicopters, I have had to execute 19 real to the ground autos. 
 
When I attended the Helicopter Adventures Inc. flight instructor course it was very intense. They believe that every graduate of their flight instructor school should be an able enough an instructor to be qualified to teach in their own flight schools. We did no less than 50 to-the ground-autorotations. It is quite unnerving to take a perfectly flying helicopter and cut power, knowing that it is not coming back on unless you really mess up the procedure. We always landed into the wind and with several knots ground speed. I got pretty good at it, I thought.
 
Due to the FAA examiner going ground hog hunting during the time I was ready for the Practical CFI exam I elected to arrange to take it once I returned to Missouri, I knew where I could rent a helicopter for that purpose. After the 5 hour oral exam for the CFI rating I was ready to fly. The flight portion of the CFI practical test went without a hitch until the examiner asked me to land and he exited the helicopter prior to having me do the touchdown auto.

I had never done one in a Hughes 269B(HAI uses Schweizer 300CB’s), never in any helicopter solo, and to top it off the examiner wanted to view it from the ground and at a safe distance. As it turned out the Hughes 269B has low inertia blades compared to the 300CB. It is flown solo from the left seat while the Schweizer 300CB that I trained in is flown solo from the right seat so everything was a bit different. The other factor was that at HAI I always had performed the touchdown autos into the wind with my master instructor for ballast and on the day of the check ride here in Missouri the air was dead calm.

The examiner put two strips of white tape on the tarmac 30 feet apart and told me that my skids needed to end up between the two tapes or I would fail. He instructed me to do a straight in auto from 500'. I told him that I had never done a touchdown auto straight in, they were always 180 autos. In a 180 you can adjust your turn rate to end up at an exact spot.

I did the auto, but without the wind I was going too fast as I approached the 30 foot circle in which I was required to stop. To slow down I did a rather radical flair (ala Rotorway) and then leveled the helicopter with the collective firmly in the pocket. Before I could raise the collective I noticed that the helicopter was sitting squarely on the ground, no bounce, no slide, it had just rotated forward and set perfectly and lightly like a feather. I was a bit unsettled as I had not had the opportunity to complete my part of the maneuver because the helicopter had already landed and the collective remained firmly in the down position.

When I exited I was greeted by both examiners (I was honored to have an FAA examiner in training watching the entire test along with the examiner who was giving it) and the owner of the helicopter. They told me that it was one of the neatest and cleanest touchdown autos that they had seen and I was appropriately congratulated and passed on the PTS for Certified Flight Instructor Rotorcraft/Helicopter.



 
What actually happened was that although I was flying an unfamiliar helicopter from an unfamiliar position with no wind, once again my training took over when I needed it and the result was a near perfect Rotorway set-down with no forward motion. Some habits are hard to break and that is one that I will always stick with.

The real point is that you all have a small fortune tied up in your helicopters. Be sure to practice your autos until you feel very comfortable doing them and your power recovery flares are smooth and right. When you level off the helicopter should have "0" mph ground speed. Both Robinson and Schweizer teach that some ground run is acceptable but it is not quite the same in the Rotorway.
 
Always keep in mind, it is not "if an autorotation will be needed some day, but when". Always be ready for it, keep a landing spot within reach at all times, fly over open areas whenever possible and if not possible climb to an altitude that will allow a safe auto to a safe landing area. Train by doing practice autos regularly, and you, your passenger, and your helicopter will come out in one piece.]]>



Many friends have been made over the years through contacts with other Rotorway builders. During the building of my helicopter I enrolled in the Rotorway pilot training program and found out what a challenge it was to get the hang of flying a helicopter. I was a fixed wing pilot and just knew that I would be flying that little factory Rotorway trainer within minutes, was I ever surprised! It took a lot of hard work just to learn to hover in one spot but by the end of the week of school I had accumulated 7 hours and my solo endorsement.
 
I went back to Rotorway for phase II training several months later and then a few months after that attended for phase III and my rotorcraft/helicopter rating. As it turned out I was the first person to complete all three phases of the Rotorway International flight school and for a number of years the photo of Stretch Wolter handing me my rating was hanging in the Rotorway headquarters. I was one of the few rated pilots in the Sierra Rotorcraft club at that time so I was able to spend many hours teaching other builders how to fly their helicopters, and I thoroughly enjoyed doing it.




I was told over and over that I should get my CFI rating and instruct with the authority to sign log books and give endorsements but I just never seemed to find the time to do it. Besides that I was having so much fun flying everyone else’s helicopters that I could not see going to school just so that I could sign their log books.
 
During those years the Sierra Rotorcraft club was very active and we did a lot of flying together. We would choose a location and agree to meet there the next month with our motor homes, vans, trailers, and of course our Rotorways. After work on Friday we would all drive from our respective homes and set up camp and rig our helicopters. There is just something special about waking up early in the morning after a good night sleep in the camper and hearing the Rotorway helicopter engines firing up and the slap of the main rotor blades beating air.

Soon the ramp, field, pasture, or parking lot was a beehive of activity with everyone anxious to be airborne and off on new adventures. This would go on for two days of flying, food, and fellowship. Several times we would awake in the wee hours of the morning to the sound of a heavy wind or rain and everyone would scurry out to insure that our precious Rotorways were secure and safe. I miss those days!
 
We moved from California in 1996 to the Ozarks of Missouri and here we built our own airstrip and helicopter training facility. Shortly after moving here I began working on my commercial rotorcraft rating and after that I really worked to earn my CFI rating. It has been a long time dream for me and now I am doing what I truly love to do, teach people to fly helicopters. I should add that in 1998 our Rotorway was stolen so we were without our helicopter, but life goes on.
 
There are a lot of new helicopter pilots out there and I thought that some of you might benefit from a few words from an old time Rotorway flyer. When I took my Phase II training at Rotorway we only did a couple of autorotation practices and then I was signed off or solo flight within my practice area. I returned home with my new solo-to-altitude endorsement and was anxious to get airborne. At this time I had around 50 hours of hover time on my Rotorway so I was pretty comfortable with it. I set my ballast weights correctly, did a very thorough preflight, used the restroom, checked the ballast weights again, and finally ran out of excuses. It was the hour of reckoning: this is what it was all about!!!

I was scared spit less! As I sat in my helicopter hovering at 24” altitude over the helipad, I felt real secure. What had my heart pumping and my body sweating was the thought of leaving the security of the hover and actually going high enough to get hurt and of being all ALONE without my flight instructor to make sure that I would be safe.
 
Finally I said to myself, c’mon wimp, go for it. The take-off was beautiful and I had flown for at least 40 seconds when out of the corner of my right eye I perceived a movement. Looking right I saw that the Velcro-attached seat cushion (they were about 12” square in those early ships) had become un-Velcro ed and was laying on the passenger seat. I immediately heard Stretch tell me “make sure everything in the cockpit is secure before flight so that nothing flies out the door and into the tail rotor”.

STAY! I thought as loud as I could, but that cushion had it’s own agenda. It slowly moved toward the door opening, I had to stop it but I was 200 feet in the air, what to do? First I tried holding the cyclic with my knees so that I could just very quickly grab the cushion, as soon as I released my death grip on the cyclic the helicopter dipped and I had to grab the cyclic back immediately. I next tried to stay in a left banking turn but the wind caught the cushion and out it went, I knew that I was dead meat. Miraculously the cushion missed the tail rotor and I was still flying.

At that time I did not have the skill level to fly the helicopter at low altitude while looking out the doorway for my seat cushion in the pasture below me. I made my approach to a hover and hovered around that pasture until I found the seat cushion, landed, secured the cushion under my butt, and took off.
 
I headed for home where my wife was still videotaping my first flight and I found that I still had a problem. You see, as all of the club members know, my property was only 150’ wide and I had only made landing approaches onto a runway at the Rotorway school, and that was around 2 miles long. Stretch always said, “keep that airspeed near 60 mph throughout your approach until you have to slow down, that way you are always ready with enough airspeed to do an autorotation and a flair in the very unlikely event that the engine should fail”.

I tried my first approach and ended up doing a beautiful low altitude fly-by, just missing the neighbors antenna in the process. This happened several times until I just slowed at around 100 feet, sorry Stretch, but I needed to use the restroom. I then just did a full power descending hover to the pad and parked it, my first every steep approach to landing. My wife told me that she got some great footage of my flybys and then wondered why I was sweating so profusely in the middle of January.
 
The thought that took all of the fun out of the solo flight without a flight instructor with me was "what if something breaks or quits, I have too much money and time invested in this helicopter to have it or me damaged". I think that this thought has occurred to most of us at times and is most likely the reason that we see so many Rotorways for sale with very low time on them. I decided right then and there that I needed more training in autorotations.
 
My good friend, the late Bill Cunningham, and Steve Lewis were at Rotorway for Phase II training. During a practice auto in which Bill was at the controls in the factory ship 56Tango, the instructor noticed that the engine had failed. The instructor took the controls and finished the auto, sans engine, to the runway. There was a problem though. This instructor had never done a touch-down auto in the Rotorway, only in Robinsons, and as usually happens the helicopter rocked forward and then onto it's left side totally destroying itself in the process.


This happened several times to the factory helicopters that I know of and is something that I did not want to experience with my ship. I should tell you that both occupants emerged through the kicked-out front windscreen without a scratch. Steve Lewis did show-and-tell at our next club meeting with the photos he took at the scene.
 
Knowing that I would not go back up any higher than a hover without proper autorotation training I began looking for an experienced Rotorway instructor. After many phone calls and references I found a flight instructor who had built two of his own Rotorway helicopters and was presently flying the surviving one. He had experienced an engine failure and while touring with his wife and after doing a beautiful autorotation and flawless run-on landing he crashed the helicopter, destroying it. It seems that after doing everything right the helicopter tipped up on the front of the skids and then rolled over onto the left side thrashing itself to pieces with the main rotor blades.

In this photo I am with my autorotation instructor Jim Sergesor next to my trusty old 152 Exec

 

This instructor was a friend of Bob Thorensen who was at that time Rotorways test pilot. Bob had numerous times performed touchdown autos with the Rotorways and without hurting himself or the ships. This flight instructor, Jim Sergaser, asked Bob how to do a proper ROTORWAY touchdown auto. Bob told him that Rotorway's had the nasty habit of wanting to rock forward (due to a high center of gravity and short front skid extension) and to the left when they contact the ground with any forward motion.

He said the "trick" was to repeat to yourself all the way down "make it stop!" The idea is that you need to hold your final flare at the bottom of the auto long enough to completely stop all forward motion of the helicopter before leveling the ship and then set it down with 0 mph ground speed. Without the forward motion the helicopter will not rock forward onto the skid tips and roll over.
 
Dan Van Duesen and I together hired Jim to teach us autorotations and we did hour after hour of them until they became second nature. About 6 months later the time came to prove the concept. Dan and I were flying Wayne Berry's beautiful Scorpion II and at about 250' altitude the engine quit. Jim's instruction to us paid off as we executed a 90 degree turn into the wind and set the little helicopter down without a scratch saying "Make it stop" all the way down.

We found that the single ignition Mallory coil had failed so I hiked home and got another one, installed it, and flew the helicopter home.
The practice procedure was to go up and do about an hour at a time of autorotations from 500 feet. When the flair was completed, the helicopter was leveled, and power was applied the forward motion of the helicopter should be Zero. With many hours of practice we just got better and better. It helps to have someone present initially that knows how to do a proper Rotorway autorotation so that they can critique your performance and give you pointers.

I made it a habit to do at least 5 autorotations each time I would go out for an hour of flying. I also was constantly aware that at any time I may need to actually do one for real, there is usually no warning, it just happens and you have about a second to react or you are in a heap of trouble. To date now with over 13,000 hours of Rotorway flying plus several thousand in other helicopters, I have had to execute 19 real to the ground autos. 
 
When I attended the Helicopter Adventures Inc. flight instructor course it was very intense. They believe that every graduate of their flight instructor school should be an able enough an instructor to be qualified to teach in their own flight schools. We did no less than 50 to-the ground-autorotations. It is quite unnerving to take a perfectly flying helicopter and cut power, knowing that it is not coming back on unless you really mess up the procedure. We always landed into the wind and with several knots ground speed. I got pretty good at it, I thought.
 
Due to the FAA examiner going ground hog hunting during the time I was ready for the Practical CFI exam I elected to arrange to take it once I returned to Missouri, I knew where I could rent a helicopter for that purpose. After the 5 hour oral exam for the CFI rating I was ready to fly. The flight portion of the CFI practical test went without a hitch until the examiner asked me to land and he exited the helicopter prior to having me do the touchdown auto.

I had never done one in a Hughes 269B(HAI uses Schweizer 300CB’s), never in any helicopter solo, and to top it off the examiner wanted to view it from the ground and at a safe distance. As it turned out the Hughes 269B has low inertia blades compared to the 300CB. It is flown solo from the left seat while the Schweizer 300CB that I trained in is flown solo from the right seat so everything was a bit different. The other factor was that at HAI I always had performed the touchdown autos into the wind with my master instructor for ballast and on the day of the check ride here in Missouri the air was dead calm.

The examiner put two strips of white tape on the tarmac 30 feet apart and told me that my skids needed to end up between the two tapes or I would fail. He instructed me to do a straight in auto from 500'. I told him that I had never done a touchdown auto straight in, they were always 180 autos. In a 180 you can adjust your turn rate to end up at an exact spot.

I did the auto, but without the wind I was going too fast as I approached the 30 foot circle in which I was required to stop. To slow down I did a rather radical flair (ala Rotorway) and then leveled the helicopter with the collective firmly in the pocket. Before I could raise the collective I noticed that the helicopter was sitting squarely on the ground, no bounce, no slide, it had just rotated forward and set perfectly and lightly like a feather. I was a bit unsettled as I had not had the opportunity to complete my part of the maneuver because the helicopter had already landed and the collective remained firmly in the down position.

When I exited I was greeted by both examiners (I was honored to have an FAA examiner in training watching the entire test along with the examiner who was giving it) and the owner of the helicopter. They told me that it was one of the neatest and cleanest touchdown autos that they had seen and I was appropriately congratulated and passed on the PTS for Certified Flight Instructor Rotorcraft/Helicopter.



 
What actually happened was that although I was flying an unfamiliar helicopter from an unfamiliar position with no wind, once again my training took over when I needed it and the result was a near perfect Rotorway set-down with no forward motion. Some habits are hard to break and that is one that I will always stick with.

The real point is that you all have a small fortune tied up in your helicopters. Be sure to practice your autos until you feel very comfortable doing them and your power recovery flares are smooth and right. When you level off the helicopter should have "0" mph ground speed. Both Robinson and Schweizer teach that some ground run is acceptable but it is not quite the same in the Rotorway.
 
Always keep in mind, it is not "if an autorotation will be needed some day, but when". Always be ready for it, keep a landing spot within reach at all times, fly over open areas whenever possible and if not possible climb to an altitude that will allow a safe auto to a safe landing area. Train by doing practice autos regularly, and you, your passenger, and your helicopter will come out in one piece.]]> https://rotorwayforums.com/thread-198.html Mon, 17 Aug 2026 11:27:56 -0500 Orv Neisingh]]> https://rotorwayforums.com/thread-198.html

Quite a few years ago I was hired to instruct Bob K. in his newly built 162f. Bob told me that the helicopter needed to have the main rotors balanced and I had just purchased my new Pro-drive balancer and I was eager to try it out. John Spurling, who produced the balancer, this was befor Microvibe offered one to us, told me that if I had any questions, just give him a call. 

I arrived at Bob's hangar and did a complete inspection of the helicopter, his workmanship was impeccable. After attaching the balancer sensors I fired up the engine and, sure enough, the main rotor system was really rocking the helicopter at idle RPM. I asked Bob if he had done a static balance and static lead/lag initial set up and he assured me that he had done them. As I increased the RPM, the helicopter began to shake even more dramatically to the point that I was afraid to take it to 100% RPM. 

I called John Spruling and asked him if I could take readings with the helicopter still sitting on the ground and informed him about the very pronounced shaking. He told me to just bring it to 100% and lift off to get the first reading no matter how bad it was shaking. Well, John was the expert so I gritted my teeth, ran the helicopter up to 100% RPM, or at least it sounded like 100% because the helicopter was shaking so badly that I could no longer see the rotor tach. I pulled the helicopter into a hover and all I had to do was to use my index finger to push the button that I had velcroed to the cycle to get that reading except I had such a death grip on that gyrating cyclic control that I could not even loosen the grip of one finger to push the button. 

At this point I thought that I was going to crash the helicopter but was finally able to get it back onto the asphalt pad safely. I still had no reading. I decided that once was enough of that kind of dangerous ride so I pulled out my rigging equipment and found that from the factory, the main blade rotor hub was off center by .007". That does not sound like much but the specs call for the hub to be centered on the main shaft to within .001". I reshimmed the rotor hub to spec and fired up the engine. This time the rotor system just purred smoothly and the reading in hover was around .2 IPS. 

After Bob's hover training he wanted to land at his business location down town Oroville. He owned a large dental practice in town with a huge lot and acres of open space behind his building. He had secured the permission of the city to be able to fly in and out of his business property so we departed the airport and flew to his business. 

We made a high recon and determined that there were no obstacles in our flight path. There was a McDonalds next door several hundred feet away from our intended landing spot and no pedestrians on his private property to be concerned with. We made our approach and landing, rolled the throttle down to idle and just then we were startled by two young boys on their stingray bikes just outside of the helicopter doorways. "Hey Mister, can we have a ride?". I grabbed the shirt of the boy closest to me and Bob grabbed the other one to keep them close to the helicopter as the rotor blades spun overhead. 

The boys had been over at the McDonalds, saw us make our approach and headed our way. One of them rode his bike just behind the spinning tail rotor to come around to my side of the helicopter. Fortunately no one was hurt by I certainly learned a valuable lesson: helicopters are kid magnets and that I needed to be very vigilant to insure that no matter where I landed, no one was nearby. 

Most cities now have ordinances that require public safety like the police or fire departments to be present for crowd control before a helicopter is allowed to land within their jurisdiction. In later years when I flew Medevac helicopters we would not land in a populated area without coordinating with the fire department or public safety at the scene to keep everyone safe.]]>

Quite a few years ago I was hired to instruct Bob K. in his newly built 162f. Bob told me that the helicopter needed to have the main rotors balanced and I had just purchased my new Pro-drive balancer and I was eager to try it out. John Spurling, who produced the balancer, this was befor Microvibe offered one to us, told me that if I had any questions, just give him a call. 

I arrived at Bob's hangar and did a complete inspection of the helicopter, his workmanship was impeccable. After attaching the balancer sensors I fired up the engine and, sure enough, the main rotor system was really rocking the helicopter at idle RPM. I asked Bob if he had done a static balance and static lead/lag initial set up and he assured me that he had done them. As I increased the RPM, the helicopter began to shake even more dramatically to the point that I was afraid to take it to 100% RPM. 

I called John Spruling and asked him if I could take readings with the helicopter still sitting on the ground and informed him about the very pronounced shaking. He told me to just bring it to 100% and lift off to get the first reading no matter how bad it was shaking. Well, John was the expert so I gritted my teeth, ran the helicopter up to 100% RPM, or at least it sounded like 100% because the helicopter was shaking so badly that I could no longer see the rotor tach. I pulled the helicopter into a hover and all I had to do was to use my index finger to push the button that I had velcroed to the cycle to get that reading except I had such a death grip on that gyrating cyclic control that I could not even loosen the grip of one finger to push the button. 

At this point I thought that I was going to crash the helicopter but was finally able to get it back onto the asphalt pad safely. I still had no reading. I decided that once was enough of that kind of dangerous ride so I pulled out my rigging equipment and found that from the factory, the main blade rotor hub was off center by .007". That does not sound like much but the specs call for the hub to be centered on the main shaft to within .001". I reshimmed the rotor hub to spec and fired up the engine. This time the rotor system just purred smoothly and the reading in hover was around .2 IPS. 

After Bob's hover training he wanted to land at his business location down town Oroville. He owned a large dental practice in town with a huge lot and acres of open space behind his building. He had secured the permission of the city to be able to fly in and out of his business property so we departed the airport and flew to his business. 

We made a high recon and determined that there were no obstacles in our flight path. There was a McDonalds next door several hundred feet away from our intended landing spot and no pedestrians on his private property to be concerned with. We made our approach and landing, rolled the throttle down to idle and just then we were startled by two young boys on their stingray bikes just outside of the helicopter doorways. "Hey Mister, can we have a ride?". I grabbed the shirt of the boy closest to me and Bob grabbed the other one to keep them close to the helicopter as the rotor blades spun overhead. 

The boys had been over at the McDonalds, saw us make our approach and headed our way. One of them rode his bike just behind the spinning tail rotor to come around to my side of the helicopter. Fortunately no one was hurt by I certainly learned a valuable lesson: helicopters are kid magnets and that I needed to be very vigilant to insure that no matter where I landed, no one was nearby. 

Most cities now have ordinances that require public safety like the police or fire departments to be present for crowd control before a helicopter is allowed to land within their jurisdiction. In later years when I flew Medevac helicopters we would not land in a populated area without coordinating with the fire department or public safety at the scene to keep everyone safe.]]> https://rotorwayforums.com/thread-187.html Sat, 15 Aug 2026 07:56:22 -0500 Orv Neisingh]]> https://rotorwayforums.com/thread-187.html As I was on the airliner to my students location to begin his flight training in his Rotorway Exec 90, he was checking his chain master link by slowly turning the main rotor by hand while looking down through the window in the chain bath to inspect the master link of the drive chain. He inadvertently steadied himself by putting his other hand on the non -rotating swashplate. When the rotating swashplate came around his finger was crushed and torn open between the two. He was there alone and due to the one way clutch (Sprague) that prevented the rotor system from reversing, he had to push the rotors further to finish tearing through his finger to free it. I took this photo when he arrived back from the hospital emergency room. Be careful where you put your hands around moving parts.

Another area of control movement that may be an issue on your helicopter is that you should not fly with the passenger collective control installed unless flight training is taking place. When you fly solo you will usually need more right cyclic travel to offset the shift in CG to the left. I suggest you try this if you have not already done so: Install your passenger collective control. Now sit in the pilot seat of your helicopter, finished or not, and raise the collective to the normal flight position, about parallel with your center thigh. Now move the cyclic control to the right as far as you can. You will find that your right thigh may be sandwiched between the pilot's cyclic control and the passenger's collective control. Now lift your right leg out of the way and see how much more cyclic travel you are able to achieve without your leg in the way. This is why I advise all of my students to remove the center collective control while practicing their solo flight maneuvers.]]> As I was on the airliner to my students location to begin his flight training in his Rotorway Exec 90, he was checking his chain master link by slowly turning the main rotor by hand while looking down through the window in the chain bath to inspect the master link of the drive chain. He inadvertently steadied himself by putting his other hand on the non -rotating swashplate. When the rotating swashplate came around his finger was crushed and torn open between the two. He was there alone and due to the one way clutch (Sprague) that prevented the rotor system from reversing, he had to push the rotors further to finish tearing through his finger to free it. I took this photo when he arrived back from the hospital emergency room. Be careful where you put your hands around moving parts.

Another area of control movement that may be an issue on your helicopter is that you should not fly with the passenger collective control installed unless flight training is taking place. When you fly solo you will usually need more right cyclic travel to offset the shift in CG to the left. I suggest you try this if you have not already done so: Install your passenger collective control. Now sit in the pilot seat of your helicopter, finished or not, and raise the collective to the normal flight position, about parallel with your center thigh. Now move the cyclic control to the right as far as you can. You will find that your right thigh may be sandwiched between the pilot's cyclic control and the passenger's collective control. Now lift your right leg out of the way and see how much more cyclic travel you are able to achieve without your leg in the way. This is why I advise all of my students to remove the center collective control while practicing their solo flight maneuvers.]]> https://rotorwayforums.com/thread-169.html Wed, 05 Aug 2026 16:38:39 -0500 Orv Neisingh]]> https://rotorwayforums.com/thread-169.html
You can contact Christopher at +1 (310) 779-5477
]]>
You can contact Christopher at +1 (310) 779-5477
]]> https://rotorwayforums.com/thread-122.html Tue, 30 Jun 2026 12:38:40 -0500 Orv Neisingh]]> https://rotorwayforums.com/thread-122.html