Turbinator on a stairway mission

[StanFoster]

I have the Turbinator all fueled for a 6 a.m. flight to go measure a stairway in an 18,000 square foot home. I will be commuting via chopper many times in the late summer early fall. Each flight will save me 2.5 hours of commuting time and that will way more than pay for my kerosene sucking turbine.

I have my rotary laser stowed under my seat and a 9 foot spile secured to my tail boom. Steak dinner to the first one that can explain to me how I will measure a parabolic wall with a spile. This method is very simple, but almost unheard of. I have seen it used to do straight measurements....but my curved stairbuilding had me adapt a way to do curved measurements very accurately. With this method...I will be able to build the three stair sections and KNOW with confidence that they will fit the curved walls without the need of any trim.

I will post pictures of the operation tomorrow including videos flying around and over this behemoth of a home.

I did a proctology exam up my turbine exhaust with my cell phone camera. All looks good on the Turbinator for tomorrows stair mission. The contractor is so excited about tomorrow.

Here are some pictures of the home I took last week, and a magazine shot of the stairway they would like me to build. The first tread on the center flared section is over 14 foot wide and narrows down to 6.5 feet at the top. The top sections are elliptical mirror images of each other and will return directly back 180 degrees from the center section. The upper balcony will have curved railing coming out over a widows walk.

This will be the largest stairway I have ever built.....even bigger than the Bruce Artwick stairway. However, those that know the story behind the Loris House stairway know that stairway , though much smaller, much less complicated, and a fraction of this stairways cost means more to me that any stairway I have ever built.

Pictures and videos coming after tomorrows mission.

Stan

 

[hillberg]

You building a boat?

 

[MH1FLYER]

Stan

I know what these things look like happy with Kerosene which is what you are burning. We also know what they look like when they are happy on jet A,, and we know what they look like when they are happy on diesel. Diesel is no good. By looking at your picture it looks your running a little lean. you might consider fatting it up a little.. You know fat dumb and happy!!!!!!!! But not to fat!!!!

 

[JEFF TIPTON]

9 foot spile secured to my tail boom

Not fair. What is a spile?

 

[All_In]

Now how COOL is that!!!
Way to live your dreams!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Roundwing]

Not fair. What is a spile?

A Spile is also a term used in boatbuilding to describe the means/actions which a builder uses to determine the shape of any curved piece needing to be fitted to a curved surface.

I found this in Wikipedia.

Since Stan was not talking a bout tapping a keg or a tree I assume this is what he meant.

Rick

 

[StanFoster]

Mission accomplished. I left right at 6 a.m. this morning....had a 15 mph tailwind......so flew only at 90 mph airspeed with my GPS showing 105 mph. Coming home I had a quartering headwind of 20 mph. I flew at 105 mph indicated and my GPS still showed 90 mph groundspeed. Love the ease that cruising at 105 mph is. Makes a huge difference into a headwind.

I arrived 55 minutes later and this would have taken no less than 2.25 hours to drive.


Met with the contractor and the owner and got all the questions and details worked out. I took the 9 foot long spile off my tail boom and layed out the curved walls onto a sheet of plywood centered in the foyer. The contractor is going to be down my way and is going to haul the plywood to my shop. From the information marked on the 22 different spile positions....I can confidently lay out and build the 3 sections of stairs in my shop.

This helicopter is really going to pay off when I am installing the stairway sections in the fall. Loving this option of flying to work and having my escape machine bringing me home in less than an hour. Much more productivity and less days onsite because of it.

Here is a video of a turn around a point video of the 18,000 ft. home. The wide angle GoPro lense captures more field of view at the expense of minimizing how huge this home really is. It doesn't look like its 49 feet out of the ground .....but it is.

By the way, the flight around the home obviously was in the HV curve and I was very aware of an engine failure would trash the helicopter. But, sometimes on rare occasions, such as max performance take offs over solid trees, one does venture into no mans land because you can.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3Eu7uXre48&list=UUXZAO9NlkN9JZrM_c1hmdoQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OgqVm-8cTQ&list=UUXZAO9NlkN9JZrM_c1hmdoQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpt7FCO9EB4&list=UUXZAO9NlkN9JZrM_c1hmdoQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wdav4VBUEXY&list=UUXZAO9NlkN9JZrM_c1hmdoQ

 

[gyrodeputy]

Very cool Stan,

What did they think of the turbinator?

 

[StanFoster]

Heath- They made some "f.....cool " comments and asked more questions about it.

I had to stop on the way home for a little bit of JetA and it was surrounded again at the fuel truck. These were veteran helicopter pilots....and the hardest to convince this machine is for real. I don't try to convince but just casually say I will soon be flying it 4 years and have been all over the place in it 12 months out of the year, and just don't have any problems with it. I don't know if they believed me or not. I am the only one that needs convincing and told them I will be making several stops for fuel as I commute to work on a curved stairway in the mansion they knew about.

 

[gyrodeputy]

Awesome...that is all that I can say about that!

 

[animal]

too cool Stan. cool to see you are able to use it to save time and get home faster to enjoy the rest of your day.

 

[StanFoster]

The more I fly this thing, the more that streamlining pays off, especially at 100 mph. It simply flies faster easier.

Stan

 

[ylf]

Sounds like a nice trip Stan. Looks like they gave you a little more fuel than you needed there, I've had that once so far and almost two other times.

Mike

 

[StanFoster]

Mike- Good eye! Yes, even though the fuel man was warned to feed the fuel slow, he burped out about a pint. I had a rag waiting and mopped up any fuel trying to drip on my drive belts.

Stan

 

[All_In]

The videos are excellent BRO!
Watching you land at the side makes me want one. If only it were legal to land them on private property here!

 

[ibdhoot]

Hi Stan! Could you expand a little on your stream lining mods? Are they refered to in the Hatchery! I am building a build 6 helicycle and might need to add some attatch tabs for some of the things that I can see on yours.

Thanks Brian H. 6-31

 

[StanFoster]

Brian- Check in the streamliing thread...I posted lots of build pictures. I have had several ask me to build a set of landing gear fairings, but the 40 hours they took times my shop rate makes them cost prohibitive and not economically feasible if I priced them cheap.

But, they do make a measurable difference .

Stan