Just a comment on the worship of "Certified parts" I have a switch panel
containing Potter&Bromfields "certified" switch/circuit breakers. Two have
failed from internal mechanical (not electrical) failings. I've got a
couple of other switches that I added (mine's a homebuilt so I don't have to
just use "certified" parts) that have served for years without problem.
Note these were Radio Shack at approx. 1/8 the cost and so far 10 times the
reliability. Other stories of failed "certified" engines come to mind.
0320-H series for one.
I agree that "Certification" should buy some reliability over non certified
parts, but there is no real guarantee.
BTW I self taught in a Benson Gyrocopter in the 60's (no dual was available)
So did my wife. We never bent anything or scratched a blade. The ship is
as safe as the pilot is proficient and aware of the limits.

Stu Fields
"Badwater Bill" wrote in message
...


True. If you have to fly rotary-wing, a gyro is simpler. However there
have been an absolutely amazing panoply of fatals in those. Most of
them totally preventable.

It's mostly due to the tucking since the center of thrust is above the
CG and the drag component of the rotor system is way above the CG.
When you do a negative g pushover or even hit a bump that does the
same thing, you take away the drag. The thrust dumps you over in a
tuck.


Someone (Gig Giacona?) mentioned the low-timers pranging in Minis.
Well, that instantiates a much more general case. How many prangs
happen on first flights? Many, many, many. There are a bunch of
reasons for this... my personal belief is that if you are the builder,
mechanic and test pilot, not enough people are eyeballing the
flying machine, and you're gonna overlook something.

Yep. Right on.


I deleted your comments about Allen Barklage, but I wanted to respond.
The Mini-500 has a higher inertia rotorsystem than the R-22 as I
recall. Allen loved flying that Mini-500 and his weight was good for
it too IIRC. You can blame fetters about a lot of stuff but Allen, of
all people, should have known about clearing the wires and the
capability of that machine. Gil Armbruster called me the night before
he died. We talked about the problems of warming up the engine before
you pulled pitch. Gil told me he had pulled pitch and saw the
tempertature drop as the thermostat opened. He knew that he hadn't
warmed the thing up all the way. Rotax said if you do that you
probably scuff the bottom of the piston since it expands into a water
cooled (constant diameter) cylinder wall. Once you do that you get
aluminum all over the bottom end of the cylinder and you are setting
yourself up for a complete seizure. I old Gil that the night before
he died. But Gil went out and flew over trees the next day. Why
would he do that? Why would Allen fly over wires when he's had some
problems with his engine just prior to the thing killing him.

Not me. You wouldn't have caught me in these without tearing them
down to inspect them.

I think there were/are lots of problems with the parts on the Mini-500
as I've said for years. They wear out too soon. They are not like
the Robinson helicopter parts that are proven over and over to 2000
hours or 10 million cycles. But, with that in mind, why would anyone
fly an Exec 162 over wires or over trees when they are made out of the
same NON-helicopter, NON-certified components? I don't get it.

I've killfiled fetters long ago, but someone will tell him of this
thread an I'm sure that he will have his 2 cents to say too.

BWB