RotoWay Helicopters

Kyle Boatright wrote:

"James Taylor" wrote in message
et...
Hey All,

I just caught the tip of a thred the past two weeks where pretty much
everyone derided RW helicopters.

I don't know all the personalities here yet so I won't mention names.

As a person seeking serious input, can someone guide me to info from
informaed sources, not just opinions?

I would like to find accident reports, perhaps owner logs and the like to
help me make my decision.

I understand that many folks hesitate when someone mentions "Kitbuilt" and
"Helicopters" in the same sentance...but is it really all that tough?
Igor
Sikorski did a pretty good job out of his garage :-)


James Taylor
www.AICompany.com]

My airport neighbor(s) have been through 5 Rotorway Exec's. One of the two
men built his own Exec, and probably has 20 hours on it in the two years
he's had it. He's spent 10X as much time working on it as he has spent
flying it, and it is a nicely built helicopter. The problem is that it
isn't a robust design, and something is always loose, wonky (i.e. electronic
ignition), or suspect.

The other gentleman has gone through 4 Rotorways, and buys unfinished kits,
finishes or reworks them, and sells them after putting a few hours on them.
Again, even with the two birds he kept for a while as "his" birds, he spent
at least 10X as much time working on them as flying them.

The bottom line is that if you want to fly a helicopter, buy or rent one
that is well maintained and was built in a factory somewhere. If you want
to work on one, get a homebuilt.

I built an RV-6, and my ratio of building time vs flying time is probably
15:1 at this point (obviously, I have not flown enough!). In the two years
the airplane has been flying, the ratio has been 5:1 (or better) in favor of
flying vs tinkering. I don't think you'd ever get to a 1:1 flying vs
tinkering ratio with the Rotorway helicopters.

KB



That first hour of flying time ona homebuilt is probably THE most
expensive hour of flying time any of us will ever log.



Richard

PS: I saw two Exec's listed in Trade A Plane, so they are more common
that I expected...