Note: Discussions with Blake Estes of Eagle R&D, the home of the Helicycle,
there were autopsies that disproved the heart attack rumor for B.J. The
most probable cause was fuel contamination causing engine stoppage while at
a low altitude.
BTW after reviewing a bunch of accidents involving experimental helicopters,
there are darned few that can be attributable to only a design flaw. Most
if not all were avoidable by proper pre-flight, proper inspection, or proper
pilotage. Obviously some of the maintenance issues involved in crashes
could have been avoided by a different, better, design, but that could be
said for a lot of the Bell 47 accidents and they have been successfully
operated for years.

--

Stuart Fields
Experimental Helo magazine
P. O. Box 1585
Inyokern, CA 93527
(760) 377-4478
(760) 408-9747 general and layout cell
(760) 608-1299 technical and advertising cell

www.vkss.com
www.experimentalhelo.com


"JohnO" wrote in message
oups.com...

Gem wrote:
JohnO wrote:
Hi,

Can someone point me to any official accident statistics that would
demonstrate the relative accident rates of various classes of
certified
and experimental helos? Specifically I would want to exclude any
accidents that were pilot error or failure of maintenance. and only
consider accidents where there was a design fault

I'm interested to know how safe the design is on the various kit
helos,
in particular for Rotorway in the KISS turbine version.

It concerns me that a lot of the luminaries of the kit helicopter
world
such as Schramm and Bedo have died in accidents, but I'm not sure if
the reasons were faults in the aircraft or pilot error.

Cheers,
JohnO

I believe Mr. Schramm suffered a heart attack, and died in the air.

Oh. There's worse ways to go I guess...