SOLD - Sno Bird gyro kit

SnoBird

Member
Joined
Mar 21, 2009
Messages
203
Location
Maryland
I have the very last Sno-Bird gyro kit sold in my possession and up for sale. I purchased this kit about ten years ago from David Hill, the last owner of Sno-Bird Inc. I have everything that came with the kit still sealed in its little plastic assembly bags. Frame tubes, wheels, hydraulic brakes, control system, instruments and pod, rotor bar and grips, stab, seat, complete factory assembly manual etc. Bags and bags of brand new, unused kit parts and hardware, virtually everything needed (except engine) to build your own SnoBird single place machine.

The only thing missing in the kit is the factory rotor head which David had run out of at the time. So he gave me two used rotorheads, one was from a 2 place and comes with an electric pre-rotator motor setup. The other I think is a single place rotorhead, but I'm not sure. I also have a new Dick Wunderlich prerotator, a 3 bladed variable pitch composite prop (Ivo prop or similar, don't remember) that is virtually new (less than 10 hours according to David Hill) and a very lightly used set of Rotordyne aluminum blades that have less than 100 hours on them (again according to David Hill - I never flew them).

I only have a few pics of a few parts available right now, which I will try to post here. But I'll post complete and detailed pictures and a video when I get a chance to lay everything out and photograph it properly. Price is $4000 for everything. All you need is an engine and within a few weeks time, away you go in a brand new, zero time airframe that you know with 100% certainty has been assembled correctly and to appropriate aviation standards. Lots and lots of very pricey parts in this kit. Considering what new professional kits sell for today, this is a steal. And it'n NOT an old barn find either, as you will soon see when I have a chance to post detailed pics.

I'm located in Callaway Maryland.
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Similar to older Sport Copter open air frames. The Soma gyro (was a direct copy of both SC & SB) was another gyro resembling both the SnoBird & Sport Copter gyros, all of them originating out of the Pacific NW.

All three looked similar, having bolt-together air frames that had triangulated tubing from the mast connecting to the keel sections both in front of & behind the mast. David Hill showed me his ideas re: enlarging the horizontal stab when he was the owner yrs. ago. It appears to never have been enlarged by subsequent owners of the business b/4 it folded.

What little HS in the design may have been just enough to keep it flying safely. One long-time airplane pilot bought one of the two-place SBs (the Adventurer model), giving rides to people @ gyro events, until one day, for unknown reasons, he removed the stab & immediately went for a solo flight from Crest Airpark in Wa. state, where he resided.

Other pilots in the airpark heard him flying overhead as he departed the airfield, & then suddenly tumbled to the ground. There was a preliminary report. Occurred around 1998.

*This gyroplane fatality is not to be confused w/ another @ this same airpark in 1999, where another two-place Rotordyne gyro w/ a Lycoming or Continental engine augered in after the owner had been adjusting his rotorblades. That accident investigation found all of his bolts attaching the blades to their hub bar to be quite loose.

I could find the accident report for the Rotordyne gyro, but not for the SnoBird Adventurer. I do remember reading it back then, being glad my wife didn't go for a flight in it when they had a gyro event in Chehalis, Wa. back then that we went to.

Originators of each:
1. SB-Henry (Hank) Abbott, Wa. state
2. SC-Jim Vanek, Oregon
3. Soma-Scott Malone, Oregon

-Many SB kits were produced & ownership went through perhaps a dozen owners.
-Many SC kits also produced w/ one owner.
-20 Soma kits produced (by SM's own admission), many of which never being completely sent out to buyers, leaving them to scramble to adapt portions from other gyro kit makers or make their own parts.
 
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Thanks for the history and photos. Looks like a nice gyro. Why would he remove the stabilizer?
 
Thanks for the history and photos. Looks like a nice gyro. Why would he remove the stabilizer?
Why do some airplane pilots who become gyro owners & ignore a few crucial components of their gyroplane instructor's training?

1. Firewalling the throttle in the initial rolling stage of taking off, forgetting the crucial part about making sure the rotorblades are up to flight speed b/4 doing so.

2. Letting the gyro lift off when it is ready, & instead horse it off the ground by rotating like they do in their airplane?
 
Kevin - I think those are lack of training or lack of understanding how the gyro works. I have seen some pilots fall back to habits of flying previous aircraft due to muscle memory, i.e. reverse controls of trikes...
 
How about you send me a text or call? I get plenty of robo calls and spam now, so not afraid to put my number out there more easily to figure out....


704

756

fourty six hundred


I'll cut out the BS, I will buy your gyro, just need to make arrangements to get it.

I do have a few questions about some of the parts first though..... in your post it says the kit is all new other than the rotorhead, blades, and prop, but some parts look used like the wheels and brakes and some other stuff. Just want to confirm what is new and what is used, and confirm you DO have all the parts and pieces and AN hardware to build this. I would also like to know the length of the rotor blades and hubbar ( total rotor length ) to make sure they are the right size for this machine.

I see you have a sale pending, not sure how solid that deal is locked up. If its sold its sold, but if my questions are answered satisfactory, and I tell you I am coming to get it, I am coming to get it. I only have about 2 weeks left in my off season at work and I figure its a 2 day drive to get to you and back home, so If I am getting it, I need to get it soon, before March 1st. Lemme know
 
Hey Ron.... our guy Patrice I believe is buying it..... we’re heading there Wednesday to pick it up. :)
 
I see you have a sale pending, not sure how solid that deal is locked up. If its sold its sold, but if my questions are answered satisfactory, and I tell you I am coming to get it, I am coming to get it. I only have about 2 weeks left in my off season at work and I figure its a 2 day drive to get to you and back home, so If I am getting it, I need to get it soon, before March 1st. Lemme know
I would like to see you get this machine, Ron. I miss reading your posts, and you've been wanting to get another machine for a while now. Hope it works out for you.
 
I would like to see you get this machine, Ron. I miss reading your posts, and you've been wanting to get another machine for a while now. Hope it works out for you.


Looks like I was a day late and a dollar short. If ultracruiser says they are getting it, they are getting it. I have an opportunity to buy a friend's Dominator, but I think he wants too much for it. Oh well.
 
I have the very last Sno-Bird gyro kit sold in my possession and up for sale. I purchased this kit about ten years ago from David Hill, the last owner of Sno-Bird Inc. I have everything that came with the kit still sealed in its little plastic assembly bags. Frame tubes, wheels, hydraulic brakes, control system, instruments and pod, rotor bar and grips, stab, seat, complete factory assembly manual etc. Bags and bags of brand new, unused kit parts and hardware, virtually everything needed (except engine) to build your own SnoBird single place machine.

The only thing missing in the kit is the factory rotor head which David had run out of at the time. So he gave me two used rotorheads, one was from a 2 place and comes with an electric pre-rotator motor setup. The other I think is a single place rotorhead, but I'm not sure. I also have a new Dick Wunderlich prerotator, a 3 bladed variable pitch composite prop (Ivo prop or similar, don't remember) that is virtually new (less than 10 hours according to David Hill) and a very lightly used set of Rotordyne aluminum blades that have less than 100 hours on them (again according to David Hill - I never flew them).

I only have a few pics of a few parts available right now, which I will try to post here. But I'll post complete and detailed pictures and a video when I get a chance to lay everything out and photograph it properly. Price is $4000 for everything. All you need is an engine and within a few weeks time, away you go in a brand new, zero time airframe that you know with 100% certainty has been assembled correctly and to appropriate aviation standards. Lots and lots of very pricey parts in this kit. Considering what new professional kits sell for today, this is a steal. And it'n NOT an old barn find either, as you will soon see when I have a chance to post detailed pics.

I'm located in Callaway Maryland.
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