But dang that thing looked neat. Too bad the power to weight was so
lousy. And the hardware quality control was so lacking. And the
design was so questionable (my opinions only.) If I was surfing the
net in my rice paddy, I'd order up one too on the internet just from
the color shots alone. Not sure I'd go with the Russian truck engine
though! But *hay*, who wants to live forever right? ;^D

Besides, after you send the check, Allah or Buddha will watch over
your ball bearings.

pac "true believer" plyer

(thank god for free speech at RAH, who knows, I might have bought one
of those things!)


(Badwater Bill) wrote in message .. .
On Tue, 17 Feb 2004 04:51:35 GMT, "Dave" wrote:

from Fox News - too bad Le Van Danh chose a Mini 500 for his first project



HANOI, Vietnam (AP) - With directions from the Internet and an old Russian
truck motor, a Vietnamese farmer fulfilled his dream of making his own
helicopter. The job took two friends, seven years and $30,000.

Now, military officials say he can't fly it, because he didn't get approval
to build it, and they confiscated the makeshift copter.

"It's my hobby," farmer Le Van Danh complained by telephone Monday from his
hometown of Tay Ninh, in Vietnam's southwest. "I will do whatever I can,
including going to the prime minister, to get the permission."

True, he admits, the helicopter is still a work in progress: It only rises
about 18 inches off the ground. "We are in the process of a fifth test of
moving forward and backward, left and right," Danh said.

Getting approval to keep working on the chopper won't be easy. No Vietnamese
individual has ever been granted a government license to build an aircraft,
said Le Cong Tinh, director of the Air Transport Safety division of the
country's Civil Aviation Administration.

The farmer said he won't give up, vowing to sell his house or 25 acres of
land if that's what it takes to get the license. "If I cannot do it, my
children or my grandchildren will do it," he said.



That's really too bad in reality. This guy probably thinks he bought
a viable commodity; something that might take him aloft to self
actualize his most spiritual dreams of flight. From the little we see
written here it appears that he's hovered it (maybe) at 18 inches for
a bit. Depending upon how long he did that, he's probably worn it out
already.

Mine wore out in about 20 hours.

Let's see...$30,000 for 20 hours is about what?.....$1500/hr. Worst
cost to benefit ratio I ever saw for a homebuilder. I'm glad that
Fred Stewart gave it to me. Sorry for Fred's loss of money on that
deal.

This is the problem with what fetters did (in my HUMBLE opinion).
These kits were sold to anyone. All you had to do was be able to sign
your name on the check. I doubt that most of the buyers really knew
anything much about homebuilding. Most of the first time homebuilders
I met when they elected me the president of the builder's association
who built the Mini-500 helicopter had no other experience. They
didn't know if a castle nut, a pal nut or a nylock nut was required on
a component.

So they just blindly followed the plans and assembly instructions.

I mean, how many knew what type of bearings should have been used on
the main rotor transmission or if they were wrong? How about the
bearing in the tailrotor transmission? How many might know that needs
to be a special thrust bearing? How many might know how to use a
Chadwick tracking and balancing instrument to fine tune the moment if
inertia of the main and tail rotor blades so they don't tear the
machine apart when they spool it up?

So, this guy in Viet Nam with his life savings and a dream for flight
gets to buy this piece of ****, death trap, build it and attempt to
waste himself. Then to top it all off, he has to deal with the
Vietnamese government to fly it. Poor rice farmer! Duped from the
get-go and no where to turn.

Well, I have something to tell him if he could hear me. You are lucky
Mr. Vietnam Man. There are many who did fly it and they died. At
least you get to hold your children in your arms for another day and
tuck them into bed at night. Many others like my buddies Gil
Armbruster and Allen Barklage have been in the grave for many years
now from their faith in the Mini-500 while others proclaim their
destiny was from a lack of experience, or pilot error.

Yeah, right.

Allen with 32,000 (Thirty two thousand) hours of chopper time, punches
in and buys the farm in his Mini-500. Yep, must have been lack of
experience eh?

Have a nice day.

BWB