Two seat helicopter build.

Yep, I sure have :). Got my license for it. Pretty much my calling in life and if the market outlook for helicopter pilot was not so bleak, I would have gone all the way to CFII. Instead, I settled for making it a hobby and going for aerospace engineering. That way I can feel good about myself designing a bolt for the executives that make all the money :rolleyes:.

:D:D:D HELICOPTERS:D:D:D


That's awesome! I wish we lived closer to each other because flying/building a helicopter has been one of my dreams. I flew for Netjets for 17 years before losing my medical and forced retirement (note my avatar, Hawker 800XP). Now I am heavy into large RC Scale helicopters and aircraft. Actually, RC is how I got interested in aviation 40 years ago.
Sorry to sidetrack there....

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RC is how I got interested in aviation 40 years ago

That's how many of us got interested years ago :). If I was sure of anything, it would have been that I was meant to be a helicopter driver. As a mater of fact, RC helicopters gave me an edge when dealing with the real thing.

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Here is the first part of the build:

I need to weld this frame half together and then weld another one together just like it. After that I will need to stand them side by side and weld in the cross tubing. This is the heaviest part of the frame with its .065 tubing. Above this frame will be a 4 link strut that will hold the main rotor mast still. The top of the 4 link system will have the main bearing that will need to hold the load of the whole helicopter. This will allow the transmission to only worry about driving torque.

For reference, the bottom tube of this main frame is 6ft.

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4130 is some beautiful welding stuff. I am going to be using ER-70s-2 filler rod. I was advised that I could weld the frame together with tig, but I would want to go back over the welds with oxy acetylene and get them cherry hot and then let them air cool so they don't crack from engine vibrations.

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I am told that arc welding will magnetize aircraft frames and mess up the compass? True? With GPS do we care?
Robert
 
I am told that arc welding will magnetize aircraft frames and mess up the compass? True? With GPS do we care?
Robert

I would not fly X-country without a GPS. trying to look at a map and use both arms and legs to fly the machine is not exactly fun. Never heard of the arc welding magnetizing frames enough to cause compass issues. The obvious one was not to put literal magnets near a compass.

The one that made me have to ask if It was a joke was when I was told that mineral oil is flooded inside the frame tubing for corrosion prevention.
 
I can't argue with that wisdom. :cool 2:. The one real nice thing about that head is that it uses those elastomers. I planned to buy those from Rotorway. I believe they are around $500 a piece. The only other option I know of would be to use matched angular contact bearings that are stackable. Besides that getting expensive real fast, the other issue is brinelling on the bearing surfaces from constant minimum feathering movement. The elastomers seemed like the best and easiest option to deal with.

As far as the rotor hub, the factory does not publish these drawings. The bearing blocks and aligner blocks are also a critical part of this system.

RotorWay parts have suffered a significant cost increase recently, so the elastomerics may be much more costly now.

You'll likely need to demonstrate that you are a Rotorway owner before the factory will sell you parts. Definately don't mention you're building a ship from scratch. For that matter, don't even mention that when trying to buy parts from automotive/truck/tractor distributors. Many will refuse to sell you parts if they know the application.

You should also join ROG. It is the biggest/oldest repository of info available on the Rotorway helicopter. Link below:

www.rotorwayownersgroup.com

Be advised, this ship has been flying for decades and still needs some tweaks. Building one from scratch is a seriously daunting task.
 
That's good to know. The only Rotorway-ish components for this helicopter are the head, main blades and sprag pulley sheave. The rest of it is custom. But, those elastomers will be critical for me to get.
 
Cool project. Will be following.

I'm a long time RC guy & dabbled on the dark side (helis) for a bit. I loved the mechanics & technology but it got to a point when I started doing aerobatics the heli mode left thumb collective management was not properly re-booting with airplane mode. It was only a matter of time before one or both was going to bite the dust.

Hey, do they sell flybarless controllers for 1:1 scale yet? LOL
 
..I could weld the frame together with tig, but I would want to go back over the welds with oxy acetylene and get them cherry hot and then let them air cool so they don't crack from engine vibrations.

Can you elaborate on this? I don't have a TIG yet but many late nights of YouTube lurking, seems like TIG is the 'metal glue' of choice for all sorts of vehicles in tough or similar vibration environments - carts, race car chassis, motorcycles... Aside from some aluminum alloy bikes I don't see much mention of post heating unless related to alignment tweaking. But I am a complete newb. Is it because of thinner wall thickness 4130 tube more prevalent in aviation or..?
 
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