[Lyle Swallows]

Hi all, just want to introduce myself to these wonderful new forums, thanks Jared for your work in getting this site together.

I live in Alaska and i believe i may be the only active rotorway participant up here, i've looked at two rotorway 162F's one 1994 in sorry condition with 100 hours on a factory built machine but then long neglected and torn apart in someones back yard (RIP). the second was a 1999 passed between 3 different hands while building it to near completion but never to fruition due to their age/health/no experience flying the helicopters. i ended up purchasing this one.

about myself, i have been a Helicopter Mechanic for the last 10 years working on Astars, Robinsons, Bells 205/212, 206's, MD500's, and BK117's. i even worked on Bell/Boeing MV-22's in the Marines for 5 years and the legendary Falcon 9 Rocket production and launch operation at SpaceX for another 2.5
amongst all of this mechanical experience i have earned my Helicopter CFI flying mostly Robinson R22's and R44's but have had a tough time over the last 3 years getting a full time instructor job here in Alaska. so now i have my hands on a Rotorway Project, yet to be named, yet to be painted. much work to do.

Being in Alaska and not having a proper shop yet(just a two car garage) i do have some challenges to overcome. we have been having weekly windstorms gusting up to 70-80mph in my area. weekly... evey weekend... this has made initial progress slow, but today i have gotten the Mainshaft/rotor mast off to get it nestled inside my garage. have plans to check out all bearings. shafts for pitting, clean up alot of the fiberglass/body work, change every belt.

already have new door material to build up the doors, interior panels, lots of fun work ahead.

[Jared Hartzell]

Welcome Lyle, glad to have you here! Great pics. Looks like you've got a little bit of a project, good thing you have the background to get it flying safely! I've got a friend moving to Alaska to fly Astars there in a few months. It's a bit hard to build time in these things quickly for reaching 1,000 PIC due to the maintenance required to be safe, but it can be done in time. Congratulations on your CFI rating! I'm working on mine still, slowly.

Definitely share your progress on the forums and ask as many questions as necessary! You can create a single thread for your project updates to share with us here, if you feel like doing that, could help a lot of people in the future!

[Sam Oliver]

Welcome Lyle.   With your background, you shouldn't have too many problems completing that kit.  If the cabin and interior is acceptable, then the time consuming stuff is done.   I'm sure I don't need to say this but, I'd just get the instruction manual out and start at page one and use that as a checklist to do a complete QC inspection nose to tail. 

I've never built an experimental aircraft start to finish.   I've participated in dozens over the years, Not an FAA certified technician, but spent my entire career from High School to now in flying operations.    Some builders are excellent craftsman, very knowledgeable on technical aviation engineering.   And the one sure thing I'd bet on, is homebuilt aircraft run the gamut from the most technically solid, beautifully crafted, to outright dangerous and not remotely close to technically airworthy.

Luckily it sounds like you should have the training, experience, to go through your project and figure out pretty quickly.

With this new free to use forum, with the ability to query the community, free from ads, organized into the social, vs technical, hopefully many of the experts who are not and will never be on Facebook for personal reasons will discover this in due-time and re-enter the discussion and new project builders and maintainers like you and I can get some valuable information.

Sam