My latest Helicopter Design

[1946]

Wow Albert,

I didn't mean to upset you, or cause you to sling out untrue and unfounded lies and insults as a last resort. I was just trying to set the facts straight about the helicopter you posted.

As for what you said;

There has never been anyone killed in a Mini-500 due to failure of a properly installed and maintained part, or from poor flying characteristics. Yes, like any new helicopter it had a few problems, fewer and less catastrophic than the R-22 and many others, of which I fixed and supplied to my customers for free or at my cost. But all problems were fixed and the fix offered to the owners.

As for the development of the UAV helicopter... that was all me, and I had the help of two Chinese engineers to do everything I said, and they did a great job too.

I or RHCI have never gone bankrupt, so please deduct that from your bag of insults.

Again, I was not trying to insult you, just keeping the facts straight.

I am the last one to insult you, but you are insulting the intelligence of many real engineers and the one of the public records about your expertise with helicopters and business dealings. Your ego doesn’t let you see the reality; perhaps you should Google you name to refresh your memories. People like you threaten the business veracity for the foreigners in China.

Thanks
Albert

 

[Lee Scatt]

. People like you threaten the business veracity for the foreigners in China.

Thanks
Albert

My thoughts exactly.....but about you....

 

[hillberg]

Albert is STILL CLUELESS Falts or not ,Dennis has sold 500+ helicopter kits & 700+ gyro kits even in these modern times that still somthing to talk about, What have You done Albert, ???????

 

[Turbo_Boss]

Can somebody explain me how the tail rotor blade holders change pitch. Its look like the blade holder is a one piece

 

[brett s]

Spherical bearings on the blade roots, it's pretty common on tail rotors.

 

[Lee Scatt]

Spherical bearings on the blade roots, it's pretty common on tail rotors.

Thanks for the explanation. I couldn't discern by the pictures how it was accomplished either.

 

[DennisFetters]

Sorry to not post sooner, but as you can imagine its been a busy time. Attached are some new pictures. We finally installed the electrical system. I had to have them rip it out and do it over 3 times now, and I'm still not satisfied with it. But, it's good enough for the first prototype. Everything here in China takes a lot longer if you want the high quality product, but once you teach them the difference and how to make high quality, they can do a good job of it. The people here are highly educated, but simply lack the hands-on experience.

 

[DennisFetters]

Here are a few more pictures.

 

[DennisFetters]

Finally 3 days ago, we started the engine! Here you can see my team checking the electronic system while the engine is running but with the rotorblades off.

Then you can see me running the helicopter up to 50% RPM with the blades on. I intentionally left the throttle cable unhooked from the servo, and had my hand inside pulling on the cable to control the RPM.

The next day we did a power-up and rotors turning demonstration for the company CEO, Mr. He. Needless to say they are quite impressed with the outcome so far.

 

[DennisFetters]

Here is the Company CEO and I sitting in another turbine powered project that I have been involved with for some time now. No more news available on this project until later.

 

[StanFoster]

Dennis- Its always refreshing to see a "doer" instead of a "sayer" like the other guy from China. Good luck with all your projects. Stan

 

[hillberg]

Good to see you in the "pilots" seat. Were you involved with the Fema project? (It looked like one of the models in your corona shop.)

 

[RotoPlane]

Mr. He looks almost exactly like a man I used to work for….super nice guy and very intelligent….never heard of anyone dumb enough trying to fool him.

From what I can see in these photos, the workmanship is excellent both inside and out.

I know I would be proud to say that I helped engineer this flying machine.....

 

[DennisFetters]

Full-Power Run-ups Started

Full-Power Run-ups Started

We have finally started to do full-power run-ups on my latest UAV helicopter being built here in China.

I was delayed for 3 days while trying to troubleshoot engine problems. The engine was smoking terribly, so bad that at time the helicopter would disappear! I did everything from running pre-mixed, changing the jetting to even changing the oil-pump. I could not figure it out. Finally, I took the advice of a Italian friend, and changed the fuel. He said it may be contaminated with diesel. I said naaaaaa! Can't be. My monkeys are smarter than that!!

Well, in desperation, I took some of my gyroplane fuel, that I know is good, drained all the fuel out of the UAV, and dumped some in. Guess what? That was it. My monkeys used a fuel can that had diesel in it one time or another. That was a lot of work for nothing. It shows you are never too smart, I should have known to check that first. Well.. They may be monkeys, but they're my monkeys, and I love them all the same.

During the run-ups, we have done preliminary electronic tracking and balancing of the main and tail rotors, and they really came in easy. It's a good tight system.

As you can see in the pictures, we weighted the helicopter down with 300kg (661lbs), but was able to scoot it around on the ground. It should be able to hover with 200kg (441lbs).

Well, all aside, the UAV systems are working perfectly, and next week we should be able to start hover testing using a training frame and ropes so that the pilot can get used to it. If all goes well after a few hours of tethered flying, we will be ready for full-on hover tests.... barring unforeseen hurricanes, plagues or pregnancies.

It's taken me almost a year and a half to get to this point while working here in China, in the USA I could have done the same job in 6 months. But, I have learned a valuable lesson on how to do business here in China, and how to avoid many delays on my next projects.

 

[HobbyCAD]

Dennis, why is the background so hazy? Is it foggy, or pollution smog? A lot of the pictures we see of China appears so hazy.

 

[DennisFetters]

Dennis, why is the background so hazy? Is it foggy, or pollution smog? A lot of the pictures we see of China appears so hazy.

A little bit of both. It was cold and cloudy when these pictures were taken. But the sky's here are always hazy. It has very high humidity year round, and there is also a lot of pollution everywhere in China. They have a long way to go until they fix it to be the beautiful California sky's I love so well.

 

[GyroDoug]

Dennis,

The rotors sure look like they come awful close to the top of the vertical tail fin. Is that an optical illusion? or do they just not need much seperation?

 

[DennisFetters]

Dennis,

The rotors sure look like they come awful close to the top of the vertical tail fin. Is that an optical illusion? or do they just not need much seperation?

Optical illusion. They are far away.

 

[DennisFetters]

Little update

Little update

Well, for the last 2 weeks my UAV helicopter has been ready to start the flight-testing phase of this project, but we have suffered a delay caused by the data transmission system that will radio me back the information about engine status and flight information. It is a system that the company I'm doing the project for has built themselves.

Meantime it seems like we have done hundreds of full-power run-ups and aircraft system checks. Later today we will take it outside and start tethered hover tests, without the data transmission system. Tired of waiting. I know for a fact that it is running fine from monitoring the on-board instruments.

Attached is a picture I took as we were checking the CG balance with the training skids attached. The balance is the same with our without, it turns out. In fact, I only had to add 4.4lbs into the nose to be in balance, which takes the place of the camera which is not attached yet. Wow, not that is some accurate designing!

Also attached are some renderings that one of the girls did for me to determine the artwork.

 

[Monarchist]

Looks great, can't wait to hear the results of the hover tests...good luck, Dennis!

-John