Helicopter

[HOLDREKA]

Are there any MINI 500 owner's here ? I am the original owner of kit #127 , but never built it . Having built a LONESTAR SPORT HELICOPTER as fast as I could , I didn't what to be an engineer again . So between that and my two daughter's going to college , time and MONEY , I never got to building this kit . AGE ISN'T HELPING EITHER .

[brett s]

Doubt there are many flying anywhere now - no factory support for spare parts combined with very poor quality parts to begin is the kiss of death for a helicopter. It'd make a nice lawn ornament, but that's about all...

[Timchick]

There's a guy around here that has a UH-1 as a lawn ornament in front of his house. He can rotate it on it's mount so it can face any direction he wants it to. It would've been cool if he'd rigged up an electric motor to the rotors to turn them.

[Brian Jackson]

I read of a gentleman, perhaps an ex-Revolution employee, who mods them with turbine engines and beefs up the airframe to prevent the cracking that used to plague them. The turbine is absolutely required for safety because the Rotax lines would melt and were pushed beyond redline for normal flight. When it failed the ship had a nasty tendency to tuck and kill its pilot... (if I recall).

Do a Google search for MINI 500 and you'll find a user's group. Can't remember the name of the group though.

[aerodynamicdon]

I was doodling on the net. Maybe- LTI Turbine Power- Liberty Technologies. They sell the turbines. I don't know about frame reinforcement. Luck

[dragonflyerthom]

VORTECHONLINE

He sells them if you are interested.

[brett s]

Nobody is making new parts for one - you can't fix that problem by reinforcing the frame.

Unlike a gyro, helicopters have a lot of rotating parts that need to be regularly replaced and even worse, this one can wear out a transmission in a handful of hours instead of the "2000 hour" overhaul interval advertised by Fetters the con man. You'd better have a good machine shop...

Many of the factory parts were substandard, like rotor masts, transmission gears/castings & such.

Dennis Fetters was a great salesman, but not an engineer.

[DennisFetters]

Unlike a gyro, helicopters have a lot of rotating parts that need to be regularly replaced and even worse, this one can wear out a transmission in a handful of hours instead of the "2000 hour" overhaul interval advertised by Fetters the con man. You'd better have a good machine shop...Dennis Fetters was a great salesman, but not an engineer.[/QUOTE]

You know Brett, if you would read what we wrote, we never advertised that the Mini-500 had a 2000 hour overhaul interval. What we said was all the components were designed with a 2000 hour life, and they were. So was the R-22, and it even had some parts not meet the life expectancy, and it was a certified aircraft. We also said that no Mini-500 was ever tested to that time to prove it.

We were a homebuilt, and no two Mini-500's were built the same since they were always built by deferent people.

Calling me names is childish and unfounded. Do even 1/4 as much as I did in the field of aviation, if you turn out doing it good or bad, and then you may have some credibility to talk about it.

Dennis Fetters

[HOLDREKA]

Unlike a gyro, helicopters have a lot of rotating parts that need to be regularly replaced and even worse, this one can wear out a transmission in a handful of hours instead of the "2000 hour" overhaul interval advertised by Fetters the con man. You'd better have a good machine shop...Dennis Fetters was a great salesman, but not an engineer.

You know Brett, if you would read what we wrote, we never advertised that the Mini-500 had a 2000 hour overhaul interval. What we said was all the components were designed with a 2000 hour life, and they were. So was the R-22, and it even had some parts not meet the life expectancy, and it was a certified aircraft. We also said that no Mini-500 was ever tested to that time to prove it.

We were a homebuilt, and no two Mini-500's were built the same since they were always built by deferent people.

Calling me names is childish and unfounded. Do even 1/4 as much as I did in the field of aviation, if you turn out doing it good or bad, and then you may have some credibility to talk about it.

Dennis Fetters[/QUOTE]

[Brent Drake]

I do not know, or have never met Dennis Fetters. But when you have done as many things as Dennis has for aviation. Then a couple of mistakes will be made. That's part of life. Nobody ever gets everthing in life perfect.
AS for Dennis, I would love to meet him sometime. After all, most people dream of doing things. Dennis actually tries to live out his dreams.
I applaud him for that:yo: