Hello! Newby Here

txtexans

Newbie
Joined
Mar 15, 2011
Messages
28
Location
Dayton, Texas
Aircraft
Scorpion 1 (project)
Total Flight Time
.5 hrs
Hello,:wave:

I’ve liked helicopters for eons now. When I was a kid I lived under the training flight between Fort Leonard Wood and St. Louis (or where ever it was they went to). It was awesome to see and feel 20 or so Hueys fly over the house. I day dreamed about flying for many years before I finally put the idea away as too cost prohibitive. Recently my wife decided that I needed do something that would give me an excuse to socialize. I don’t usually talk much unless I have something I’m really enthusiastic about. She bought me a discovery flight to reawaken my desire to get my pilot license. It was excellent. I flew a Piper Cherokee for about a half hour. That was enough for me. We decided I would get my license. Being fiscally responsible people (she taught me that) we decided to wait until the house is paid off. That’s about five years from now.

That brings me to why I’m writing here. I’ve be reading the forum here for a while now. My wife knows how much I like helicopters. A little more than a week ago she was looking on Craig’s List at recreation vehicles when she found an add for a Scorpion 1 helicopter. Needless to say I now have a new project complete with blue prints and assembly manuals. Most of it is there but I bought it mostly for the frame and control system. I will be using the Helicycle as a loose guide to what needs to be done to make this a flyable machine. . I’ll have to scrounge for my parts, which is half the fun of doing this. I can’t just dump money into this but I have at least five years to work on this. By profession I have the skills to make a lot of what I’ll need. I do reverse engineering, mechanical design and machining for work. I use Autodesk Inventor for my design work and CNC mills and lathes for machining. I wish I could use their CNCs but I do have my own hobby CNC mill for making small parts.

The hour meter shows 64 hours. It still has the Evenrude engine. I hope to get it running and maybe sell it to somebody that needs it for their boat. I haven’t decided what to replace it with but it won’t be a Rotorway engine. I would prefer something with a better supply chain. I like Hilberg’s idea of using a quick change rear end for the main rotor gearbox. I live about 20 miles from Houston Raceway so I should be able to find a re-buildable unit at a decent price. I wish I could get a Helicycle TR gearbox but I figure I’ll have to find something worn out from a Robinson or something about that size to rebuild. I’m in the process of stripping it down to the frame. That’s where I am now. This should keep me out of trouble for a while.

P.S. I have the coolest wife. :hippie:
 
Hey Tx, we are having our April Chapter meeting this Saturday in Anahuac, pretty close to where you are at. Check out our website, www.gyrosaway.com. The newsletters are good to look at to see what we are up to and see some of the members machines. We are currently planning a Fly-in in Anahuac the same weekend of the Gator Fest (September) and we should have at least 15 - 20 machines there. We would love for you to come join us some weekend, we usually have something going on at the hangar most weekends.
 
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