wannabe rotor head

[bostonpugsley]

Hello folks, you could probably guess what I'm up to from the title of this thread. I want to build a <254 lb helio. Probably a mosquito, unless I can come up with a way to make one of the plan kits without having to mill my own parts. Any help would be gladly accepted.

[Friendly]

welcome Chris,
you might want to start reading the threads on the Mosquito.

[animal]

Hi CHris, welcome,good to see another Hover lover here.
your best bet is the Mosquito. I have seen a few of the ben showers skytwisters, built and I have seen Ben him self fly one,but i am not sure it will meet the 254 weight, I do remember Ben would sell yeah the machined components and there are a few others out there selling the components,since they are all basicly the Old Adams Wilson Hobbycopters.
here is a pic of my old a/w witha 750-4 honda engine, it was to heavy, and only hopped around some, but it shows you what the A/W 95 and sky twisters evoloved from.

[bostonpugsley]

Thanks fot the prompt responses. I have been researching the use of carbonfiber trusses with machined aluminum rod ends for the frame. The critical structural areas should be metal. This might be a way of making some of the nice European machines lighter for us guys who dont want to go through the formal training of becoming licensed. Heck, who wants to have to goto the airport. I wanna take off from my small suburban backyard. And if weight is close, so you add some floats. Gee then I could land in my swamp.

[Timchick]

Here's a Mosquito video from Bensen Days 2005

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HloXRbnTZLM

[animal]

Trust me, if you have not flown a helicopter, you are best to take some training, helicopters do some strange things when they transistion to forward flight. also you for sure want to learn the proper way to do an autorotation. Ben showers Tought him self to fly,and did ok until one day the spragg Clutch failed and he didn't know how to auto it in. he hit hard and it put him in a wheel chair for awhile.

Also even though you are ultra light,unless you have a lot of land,I dought you will be allowed to take off from your back yard. I have almost 2 acres here and the county says NO. so be sure to check with local zoneing,trust me you don't want to get on zoneing enforcements bad side...I learned the hard way with my custom bike shop I had...keyword here is had..:(

If your yard is small,you better get alot of helicopter time before you attempt a confined area takeoff or landing. not saying it can't be done, here is a pic of my friend back yard that he use to fly his hughes 300 out of. as you can see his back yard was not really huge,but he had a good approuch over the feild,and he was on the out skirts of town.

[bostonpugsley]

that video had me on the edge of my seat. thanks for the caution. maybe you will be reading about me. Hey, my cousin owns a vw/mitsubiishi dealership in your area of nc, do you know it?

[animal]

whats the name of the dealership? and what area is it in?

[bostonpugsley]

Pechelis vw I think its in the greenville area

[animal]

Ok I am in greensboro n.c., greenville is a bit of a drive from me,but if I am in that part of the state I will have to look him up.

back to the helicopters, the mosquito seems to be the best flying single seat helicopter I have seen yet, with many being built. in fact Madd Dogg ,mike Driggers here on the Forum and some of his Buddys I think are building 3 of them. look at some of the older posts and you can find pics of them.
good luck and keep us posted.

[bostonpugsley]

I will.
Thanks

[Mike G]

Tell us more about " the use of carbonfiber trusses with machined aluminum rod ends for the frame". This sounds interesting what data do you have??

Mike G

[dragonflyerthom]

What kind of tensil strength do you expect from the carbon fiber over aluminum stock????


Thom

[Brian Jackson]

The tailboom of the Mosquito has recently (fairly) been changed from AL to composite.

[bostonpugsley]

I have not inquired about strength of various fibers. There are hybrid composites which also include kevlar, or they could all be kevlar. It would be a way of taking much weight out of the machine. The engine mount and the immediate structure around it would probably have to be a metal alloy, but there is alot that does not have to be so heavy. There are also composite leaf springs which could be used to take some of the impact out of the landing structure. I will find the links and post so you can see what I am talking about.

[bostonpugsley]

here is a link to trusses

http://www.rotaryforum.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=23971&stc=1&d=1154544075