Helicycle Hatchery

Scott- I would use a water level...and have years ago...but I have a very nice self leveling laser that is very accurate. Plus you dont have to allow for the miniscus in the water lever vial.

This is only static balancing. It will be dynamically balanced with an electronic balancer. I just am getting 98% of it right now. There will be very fine adjustments as the balancer indicates it is needed. I want my main and tail rotor smooth as possible.

Stan
 
I have almost everything done on my Helicycle. I am going to Homer Bells fly-in tomorrow to meet with Blake and Doug and go over last minute stuff before the factory checkout. I have one issue that has me stumped. My engine tach is not indicating rpm's. I have doube checked my wiring, even by passed the wiring with a jumper, switched sensors. I am bringing my tach wit me tomorrow. I have jumpers all ready made up so we can test the tach. I have to get this resolved. It has to be the tach in my opinion. My chopper will have air under its skids in August, and I don't mean by a hoist! Stan
 
Cool! Yeah it sounds like the tach isn't working properly. If a direct jump didn't move it it's probably pooped out. Happy to hear the progress :) Take lots of pictures Stan.
 
Next year you will be flying in yourself, how cool will that be!!!
 
Stan,

This is the point where most folks wish you, "Good Luck." Up to now, it has all been skill, work and effort. I wish you great skill. May you have made most of your own good luck.

I will hold out 10% for pure, dumb, incomprehensible luck though and wish you that for all your flying. You should always be at least a little lucky to make up for that 10% where skill is on a break.

There are, after all, no "highly skilled" lotto winners.
 
I had an excellent time at Homer Bells. Lots of Helicycles there and every one of them were having a ball flying them. Those machines are just plain tough ol workhorses. Mark Whistler who has more hours on a Helicycle than anyone showed me a 6 dollar rodend that he had to replace after 600 flight hours. That's the only part that has shown some wear. Everyone else had similar very little maintenance stories. After building one, I believe I will have the same testimony. Time will tell! After seeing every Helicycle flying today and very little Rotorway activity, it was hands down mostly a Helicycle day. They were also by far the quietist chopper flying, just a faint whistle of the turbine which I wish were louder. ............I had my tach diagnosed, and it seems its just programmed wrong. They are taking care of it.........Doug Schwochert won't be able to do my checkout till the end of August, which is ok to me. I have a few more ideas to piddle with, and after seeing all the fun these guys were having, I am just going to savor their flying until I am flying. The end of August isn't far off at all. Stan
 
Rick- As much as I wanted to be at Homers also on Saturday, I also have some stuff to do on my Helicycle. I have a checklist to work on that has to be completed before the 4 day checkout begins. This thorough checkout procedure impresses me with how committed the company is to their product. I had some good chats with Doug Schwochert at Homers yesterday. That guy is the reason there are turbines in the Helicycle. My work on my chopper could not be scrutinized more thoroughly by anyone else, in my opinion. I am looking forward to an intense checkout and learning both what I did correctly as well as incorrectly. After hanging around with the Helicycle guys again yesterday, I know I have a lot to learn, but have no doubt I will learn a lot as I begin my helicopter adventures. Rick, see you at Mentone soon. Stan
 
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After talking with Doug yesterday, I found out I could go ahead and install my 12 ounce tip weights, and locktite the screws. I asked him about bonding them, and he said it wasnt necessary, but if I wanted to...go ahead because we wont be taking them out. Thats all I needed to hear. I bonded them in this morning and locktited the screws...so them babies are in to stay.:yo:

He also wanted me to drill 1.5 inch deep holes...and drill and tap them for a 1/4 x 20 thread. He will place whatever lead is needed in one of these holes..followed by a screw that will be locktited in. The screw can be ground for final balance.


Stan
 

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Why don't you take some time and clean up that shop! Dang Stan.

Just kidding, I love clean shops, just hard to keep clean when you have too much stuff.
Looking good, very good, won't be long now, I almost hate to see the build thread end.
 
Scott- In all seriousness, its a pig pen right now. I want to mop the floors and straighten up the mess on my the tool box. I am embarassed at the chaos in there. My stairshop is another thing. It will always be dusty,and I dont have time to detail it except with a push broom.:D
 
They listen

They listen

I was talking to one of the Helicycle veterans about my charging system. He showed me his KeyWest voltage regulator and told me to change mine to that. It will run the governor and fuel control valve without any batteries at all. I told him I already have that same one installed, and that it came with the kit. I found out later that Frank had told the factory about his regulator, they listened...they tested..and they supplied.

I was pleased to also find out that the factory will modify my main fuel solenoid to fail safe....meaning if I lose power to it...it will fail open, allowing fuel to continue on. They even have a small backup battery that is charged through the sysem, but should I have an electrical failure, the fuel valve will fail open....but this backup battery will feed the governor and take care of an overspeed should it occur. The kit will have diodes that protect this backup system should stuff on the other side of the diodes short out and completely fry. I think its a good modification, and I plan to do it after my checkout.

Here are some last minute stuff I am doing now. I was told I could button up the belly of my cabin, and now I am finishing my spiral wrapping, and running my pitot and static lines.

The top instrument panel just flops out for easy access. I gauged the length of my pitot and static lines so that they would be long enough to pull the panel as in the picture. 10 seconds and the panels back in its place waiting for its screws. Very, very easy to work on.

The last picture is the latest greates potentiometer that controls the turbine speed from 45,000 to 62,000 rpm.

Its wired into my throttle grip on the collective. This throttle has a nice friction control on it as well as the collective lever also.

Stan
 

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My Helicycle is sitting here trembling .....knowing Tom Milton will soon inspect him, and hopefully grant him his FAA airworthiness certificate he needs to become airborn. Its been since mid Febuary of 2008 building this thing....732 hours to date....all compressed it would have been built in 10 months...but 2.5 years gave me 20 extra months to think about it. In hindsight...I wouldnt have had it any other way....except for the last 2 week wait on my turbine!

I am waiting on my engine tach to get recalibrated, my exhaust pipe is being chromed right now....and the front lower windshield is removed for Doug to check my control pedals.

I still havee till the end of August at the earliest to have the factory checkout done....so that gives me some more finesse time. I am going over everything...and occasionally neatening up stuff. I still have the belly of the cabin to button up...but I want to leave that open checking all my internal wiring...controls...fuel system, etc.

There wont be many more posts until the checkout....and once I post Dougs first flight and my first flight, I will move on from this thread and free up some bandwidth!

Thanks everyone for the constant PM's, e-mails, and phone calls that keep encouraging me to keep posting in this thread. I am amazed at the number of lurkers that contact me that never post. Its a very steady stream of comments, questions...and critiques, etc. I love them all.

Stan
 

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Looking Good Stan! What A Beautiful Machine! Since you are waiting on your inspection now would be a good time to build a long Trophy Shelf on the wall of your shop cause your going to need it soon!
 
Man oh man! What a big beautiful bundle of energy sitting there ready to explode!

Just looking at it makes me remember the post with the clip of the starter spooling the engine up.

Wow Stan. Awesome!
 
Rick W. And Rick M. Thanks for the comments. Coming from two craftsman means even more. Both of you do immaculate work and this forum has gained from your examples of very nice work. I have enjoyed this build more than I realized, and I am looking forward to building a Genesis later this year. Stan
 
Wow you are so close Stan. Looking great and I know it's built well. I expect noting less than a problem free check on it and ready to fly in a very short time. Not even Two weeks time :)
Happy for ya big guy. I can feel the excitement :)
 
Gabor- Thank you sir. It is very interesting watching your creation come to life. That is going to be one unique gyro! Laurent- I was tickled that my Helicycle thread played a part in you buying one yourself. I will be doing a hangtest and adjusting my battery location until my mast I tilted 3 degrees forward. I will then see where my ship with me in it balances on the skids so I can have a reference point to go by with future changes in my helicopter. You will be extremely pleased with the quality of their workmanship, you will be pleased with how assessible they are for questions and Blakes excellent knowledge and pleasant personality, you will not be pleased with shipments being on time, you will eventually get all your shipments and you will be pleased with looking back at your project and saying the quality was worth waiting for...........................By the way, I received my maintenance program fully approved and signed by the FAA.
 
Stan this thread has a large number of followers who I am sure, while being extremely happy for you when your creation takes to the air, will be slightly sad that the pleasure you have given them in the build is now over.

Well all good things come to an end, and it has been most interesting watching such high quality workmanship bring such a beautiful machine slowly to life. Looking forward to your flying exploits now.

As you say, it does seem to be just sitting there, quivering to be in the element it was designed to be in. Interesting that your machine is a 'he', I have always thought of every machine I have flown as being a 'she'.
 
Leigh and others- Thanks again for the comments. I have enjoyed this build so much. I never will forget the empty feeling my stairshop had when I moved my SparrowHawk out, and that was only after a 5 month build. This chopper would feel much worse leaving since its been hatching for 2.5 years. But, it fortunately is not leaving but will get to stay since its hatching place will also be its nest. I am not done building, as I am looking forward starting on a Genesis build later this year. I will probably do a thread on it....ha. I breath and eat others build threads, and am just trying to pay back to this forum all the stuff I learn from others. This forum has such a diversified cross section of very talented people. Stan
 
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