There is a red mini 500 for sale in north Idaho currently for $25,000 and it has an upgraded Rotax 670. So tempting! I've wanted one of these for years
+Dan Aita Yes he was, and much more. Your father was a good and loyal friend of mine, and a very valued employee of RHCI. He also went to China with me to work, and I saw him there the last time. I have missed him very much over the years and wonder where he is now. I am proud to have known him. Sincerely, Dennis Fetters
Dan, I'm so sorry to hear this. I always hoped to meet up with him again. About 1 years ago I even tried to search for him on google to see if I could get back in contact. He was a good man, good pilot and good friend and always concerned about his kids and expressed his love for them. I'll remember him always, an I'm very sorry for your loss. My email is fettersbuiltco@sbcglobal.net, I sure would like to know more about what happened with him after I left him in China if you're ever up to talking about it. Sincerely, Dennis Fetters
Yes, I saw that. Revolution Helicopter was my company. A Mini-500 is a kit-built aircraft and will only perform as well as it is assembled and maintained by the Buyer. Unfortunately, the one he bought is one of the poorest examples I have ever seen and can never again be flightworthy. His treatment and carelessness presented in his video are typical of the type of people that killed themselves in the Mini-500. I don't foresee a good outcome. The Mini-500 was a wonderful helicopter to fly if built and maintained correctly, as seen in this video over and over again.
@@skimask5049 - I think it showed how well it was built if nothing else. They kept trying but it took the licking, but kept on ticking. It's sad to see such fools doing this to even a helicopter in such bad shape. It was like seeing someone torture your son.
Hi Donald, and thanks for the confidence. I would never come out with a single-place aircraft again, and there are many things I now do different after learning better from the more resent helicopters I've built, but for the money it is still hard to beat a Mini-500 even 25 years later since it was first introduced.
Hi Bryan, The truth is the Mini-500 is now a 1/4 century old design, and without factory support, kits and crafts aging, customer modifications and not able to obtain any mandatory updates, the Mini-500 is worth nothing. I recommend to anyone not to buy one at any cost if you plan to fly it. You would truly be on your own with no one to help you, and a helicopter is simply too complicated of equipment to try it on your own without factory support. You should try a helicopter that is still in production. Best of luck to you!
I keep seeing that the rotax 582 engine in these was was prone to sudden stoppage due to its design. If so why was it ever coupled with this helicopter?
At that time, Revolution was needing to ship high quantities of helicopters, and the only engine available "new-in-the-box" and with a warranty was the Rotax 582, so as any aircraft, the Mini-500 was designed around that engine due to nothing else being available to meet the requirements. It was also a very good engine for the time period, and I had used the Rotax 582 on my previous Gyroplane models with good results. However, like any engine in any aircraft, if it's not installed or maintained correctly, it will fail. The Rotax 582 was a very good and reliable engine if jetted correctly by the user for their weather conditions. Rotax could not "force" the customer to follow the jetting directions, so for liability reasons, they wrote the warning it was prone to sudden stoppage. For the 2500 hours I have flown Rotax 2-stroke engines, I have had only 2 forced landings due to engine stoppage. That was due to our crew failing to mix the oil and fuel. After Rotax came out with an oil injection system, I never had problems since. In the Mini-500, the only engine failures that occurred were the operators failing or refusing to properly jet the engine. Owners that properly jetted and maintained their Rotax-powered Mini-500s had no problems and flew many hundreds of hours, those that did not have troubles, despite all the warnings we sent them on how to do it right. It's funny that when something works well no one rights about it, however when they have even a self-inflicted problem, they publish all over the Internet that it was the helicopter's fault.
@@fettersbuiltco thanks for that detailed info. So out of interest was it all to do with having the right oil/fuel mix, or did you have to adjust other parts of the engine, like air fuel ratio etc. (Sorry new to the term jetting)
@@farleym4486 It was all to do with putting the right size jets in the carburetors to achieve the right fuel-to-air ratio. If it was winter you needed larger jets, and in summer you needed smaller jets. If the jets were too small, you could have too high of an EGT and seize the engine. I can't believe how some owners would pay no attention to their EGT readings and seize their engines. It's such an easy and fast thing to adjust before flight.
@@fettersbuiltco I understand now. You would think owners would be super attentive to that when you could drop from the sky! I had a look on the wikipedia page for that engine. And see what you mean about the warning. It seems to have been a really popular engine saying they built more than 30,000 between 1989 and 2021. So they are in a hell of a lot of different aircraft. From my first comment and reading those "horror stories" of engines stopping as if it was common, I was thinking you must be nuts to run that in a helicopter. Now it seems clear, user error and safety waivers as you said which people have taken the wrong way to seem like you were rolling the dice with the engine. Very interesting stuff.
Back then I believe the cost of the Rotax 582 was about $3000. We never offered a turbine engine for the Mini-500. There were no affordable turbine engines available new "in a box" back then that we could have sold, and we only sold new equipment, nothing used or rebuilt. The only thing that could accidently be called a turbine engine was the Solar APU's, and those were not real turbine engines, used too much fuel and too unreliable, and all used or rebuilt. So, the only engine for the Mini-500 at that time was the Rotax 582. Some people did manage to put an APU on their Mini-500 and fly them for very limited time, but to my knowledge, all have failed to outperform the 582.
We designed what was called the "Power Enhancement Package", or PEP. It was a special tuned exhaust that took the power from the low RPM range of the engine where it was not needed for a helicopter, and moved it to the operational RPM range of the engine, where it was used in helicopter applications. It increased our horsepower from 65 to 78, and moved the torque to just below the green line of operation which gave us better low rotor RPM recovery. It was later made a mandatory upgrade. It did little to change the sound of the engine.
Such a Beautiful project was my dream never came through 😔 Swashplate replacement technology is Awesome still 2022 no one else has it wonder why you don't hear about this anymore, Dennis when there's other ones like the "mosquito" taking off which can't even compare ☝🏾😔Sad ☝🏾
Id take an direct electric drive version of this, over a multirotor evtol. Direct electric drive eliminates the need for gears in ultralight helis, by apllying high torque "pancake" shaped outrunner motors to drive the main and tail rotors directly. I've noticed companies like Tier 1 Engineering which has an "e-R44" (heres the video: th-cam.com/video/G8eXjpWDmUs/w-d-xo.html ), they replaced the conventional drive systems in an R44 with direct electric drives, making it into an evtol. (they and another company in New Hampshire are gradually eliminating gears in conventional helis) The helicopter could still autorotate as long as the tail rotor has an extra layer of redundancy, via an emergency back up tail rotor power system.
It's not for my money, but it is a beautiful and apparently effective "U.S. machine". But what are the engines used for Your "Mini 500" ? To dream, perhaps one day a model equipped "NOTAR" ? Nice work anyway ! Greetings from South of France... (tanks to Google for translation!)
+Egidius HeliViews Thank you for your nice comments. The Mini-500 used the Rotax 582 engine for power. We developed the "PEP" system (Power Enhancement Package) that effectively moved the power were we needed it in a helicopter, busting it's horsepower up to 78. There will be no NOTAR available, I stopped building the Mini-500 pack in the year 2000, and now devote my time to the development of UAV helicopters.
markmnorcal I believe that was the Bell-500 that TC used for the island Hopper tourism Company . The 5 blades allow them to spin faster as they are shorter with more than ample lift , they also reduce the gyroscope feeling and the noise at the blade tips that are sub-sonic and don't have that whip cracking sound from mini sonic booms with a twin blade that has a larger diameter sweep where the tips travel faster from angular momentum where the distance is greater per rotation.
Is this your new remote control helicopter you are building? How many have you built so far and how much do they cost? www.fettersaerospace.com/uav-helicopters.html
I no longer manufacture and sell to the public. I now enjoy being a freelance rotorcraft designer where I travel the world and design new UAV concepts for other companies. The one you are showing on my website is the StarLite-2A, the latest one I designed for myself, derived from all the earlier concepts as my final solution to a medium payload UAV helicopter. It's the best work I have ever done. It is for sale to a qualified company willing to buy the project where I would travel to them and help setup manufacturing, and I have been negotiating with a few people already, but nothing final. The StarLite-2A could sell for as little as $450,000 each with fully autonomous controller, or easily for twice that much if the owned so desired to sell it for that much. That is still a much lower price then what is available today from the competition, and the StarLite-2A is a far better helicopter. But, this site is for Mini-500 discussion. You are welcome to go to the Star:ite-2A videos on my TH-cam channel to discuss it, or email me directly with questions, if you would not mind please.
Dennis, with the new boom of ultra lite Helios you may have to start taking orders again. I know there is a stock pile of parts some where. I read some where there was a two seat in testing or was it a 4 guess it had to be two to stay in the class . Very nice love the head ...stop it all of you just stop it. " the rotor head " I was look at one of the gnats I mean mosquito when I found the mini way better. I'm just kidding about the gnats there pretty solid from what I have seen so far just out classed by the mini. Bring back the mini.
Hello Shawn, and thank you for the nice compliment. The Mini-500 was great for 20 years ago. It was my first helicopter I ever designed, and I have learned much more since then, and if I ever were to build another manned helicopter, I would start over and use what I learned to build a better design. But, that would never be only a single-person helicopter due to the very limited market. It would have to be a two-person so demand would be better, like the later Voyager-500 Two-Place that was basically an extended version of the Mini-500. Also due to the stupid rules in the USA, I can't provide people with a fully assembled and tested helicopter like they can do in Europe, and that was the main problem with the Mini-500, because people building it just made too many assembly mistakes. Mix that with the few design mistakes of it being my first helicopter, and it gets an undeserved bad rap. But, the biggest problem right now is the economics; You see, your basic manned lite-helicopter right now only sells for $115.3 per pound, while your average 100kg UAV helicopter can sell for $4,500 per pound, and the UAV cost less to manufacture! So, due to market demand and the situation of the economics of the UAV at this time, I can't afford to stop making UAV's to build manned helicopters for the foreseeable future. The USA would also have to change the regulations so that I can provide a fully assembled and tested aircraft before I would go down that road again. I hope my answer makes since, and I do appreciate you watching my video. Again, thank you for the compliment! Sincerely, Dennis
Dennis. it is incredible to see a godfather of aviation replying to all these interested people below. I am 26 and my opportunity to fly a Mini has now passed. I guess will settle for a MD500. Your helicopter kit design was always my favorite. I think you did an OUTSTANDING job with your kit, considering you were always at the mercy of the owners ability to follow instruction. Hope to earn my CPL-H within the next two years, you have been an big inspiration on this journey. Great airframe, thank you! @@fettersbuiltco
@@enneffgaming - what an incredibly nice compliment, thank you very much. I had a lot of fun flying my Mini-500 AND Commander gyroplanes. They enabled me to travel all over the world and see many amazing places and people. I'm extremely glad people enjoyed my aircraft. I would still like to build my new gyroplane design, however that UAV helicopter demand keeps me tied up. Thank you again and wishing you the best of luck. Sincerely, Dennis
I definitely think your heart was in the right place, but can definitely see all the user assembly mistakes that are no fault of yours but still could just ruin your brand name. Something as serious as a helicopter needs to be assembled and tested by a professional. Neat concept though to try and provide a helicopter to the average guy. I'd love to have a helicopter but the huge price tags and maintenance costs just don't make sense.
A true killer! "Engine manufacturer Rotax warns owners of the 582 engine in the Owners Manual about its limitations:[6] "This engine, by its design, is subject to sudden stoppage. Engine stoppage can result in crash landings, forced landings or no power landings. Such crash landings can lead to serious bodily injury or death ... This is not a certificated aircraft engine. It has not received any safety or durability testing, and conforms to no aircraft standards. It is for use in experimental, uncertificated aircraft and vehicles only in which an engine failure will not compromise safety. User assumes all risk of use, and acknowledges by his use that he knows this engine is subject to sudden stoppage ... Never fly the aircraft equipped with this engine at locations, airspeeds, altitudes, or other circumstances from which a successful no-power landing cannot be made, after sudden engine stoppage. Aircraft equipped with this engine must only fly in DAYLIGHT VFR conditions."[6]"
This is a very misleading statement. Yes, that is the disclaimer that Rotax wrote to protect itself against liability for the thousands of people that didn't install or maintain their engines correctly, and with more than 175,000 engines sold in 40 years, the engine still has a remarkable safety record. In fact, 99% of all Rotax engine failures were due to improper installation, setup, or lack of maintenance. Out of 500 Mini-500 helicopters produced, not even one crashed due to an engine stoppage from a failure of an engine part supplied by Rotax. What engine failures the Mini-500 owners did experience were all completely avoidable if proper setup and maintenance would have been performed.
The finest looking single seater I've seen. Just learned of this craft today 10/11/21.
I wanted one of these so bad back in the day. I had many brochures I would daydream almost everyday.
Well now you can have one. I see them all the time on marketplace for like 15 to 22 grand
Love the 80s vibe, video quality, and music!
There is a red mini 500 for sale in north Idaho currently for $25,000 and it has an upgraded Rotax 670. So tempting! I've wanted one of these for years
my father use to be a test pilot for this company as i recall this company, also had another 2 seater chopper that was in testing phase
+Dan Aita Yes he was, and much more. Your father was a good and loyal friend of mine, and a very valued employee of RHCI. He also went to China with me to work, and I saw him there the last time. I have missed him very much over the years and wonder where he is now. I am proud to have known him. Sincerely, Dennis Fetters
sadly he passed away almost 10 years ago flying an ultralight in peru.
Dan, I'm so sorry to hear this. I always hoped to meet up with him again. About 1 years ago I even tried to search for him on google to see if I could get back in contact. He was a good man, good pilot and good friend and always concerned about his kids and expressed his love for them. I'll remember him always, an I'm very sorry for your loss. My email is fettersbuiltco@sbcglobal.net, I sure would like to know more about what happened with him after I left him in China if you're ever up to talking about it. Sincerely, Dennis Fetters
Can't wait to see what WD does with his latest purchase.
Yes, I saw that. Revolution Helicopter was my company. A Mini-500 is a kit-built aircraft and will only perform as well as it is assembled and maintained by the Buyer. Unfortunately, the one he bought is one of the poorest examples I have ever seen and can never again be flightworthy. His treatment and carelessness presented in his video are typical of the type of people that killed themselves in the Mini-500. I don't foresee a good outcome. The Mini-500 was a wonderful helicopter to fly if built and maintained correctly, as seen in this video over and over again.
@@fettersbuiltco go watch again it’s dead
@@fettersbuiltco lol he destroyed it what a shame
@@skimask5049 - I think it showed how well it was built if nothing else. They kept trying but it took the licking, but kept on ticking. It's sad to see such fools doing this to even a helicopter in such bad shape. It was like seeing someone torture your son.
as long as all of your documents and materials are already at work.
Dennis I wish you could bring back the mini 500. I still dream of owning one someday.
Hi Donald, and thanks for the confidence. I would never come out with a single-place aircraft again, and there are many things I now do different after learning better from the more resent helicopters I've built, but for the money it is still hard to beat a Mini-500 even 25 years later since it was first introduced.
Dennis Fetters hello what is a good price on a 500 min 1998 500min helicopter
Hi Bryan, The truth is the Mini-500 is now a 1/4 century old design, and without factory support, kits and crafts aging, customer modifications and not able to obtain any mandatory updates, the Mini-500 is worth nothing. I recommend to anyone not to buy one at any cost if you plan to fly it. You would truly be on your own with no one to help you, and a helicopter is simply too complicated of equipment to try it on your own without factory support. You should try a helicopter that is still in production. Best of luck to you!
I keep seeing that the rotax 582 engine in these was was prone to sudden stoppage due to its design.
If so why was it ever coupled with this helicopter?
At that time, Revolution was needing to ship high quantities of helicopters, and the only engine available "new-in-the-box" and with a warranty was the Rotax 582, so as any aircraft, the Mini-500 was designed around that engine due to nothing else being available to meet the requirements. It was also a very good engine for the time period, and I had used the Rotax 582 on my previous Gyroplane models with good results.
However, like any engine in any aircraft, if it's not installed or maintained correctly, it will fail. The Rotax 582 was a very good and reliable engine if jetted correctly by the user for their weather conditions. Rotax could not "force" the customer to follow the jetting directions, so for liability reasons, they wrote the warning it was prone to sudden stoppage. For the 2500 hours I have flown Rotax 2-stroke engines, I have had only 2 forced landings due to engine stoppage. That was due to our crew failing to mix the oil and fuel. After Rotax came out with an oil injection system, I never had problems since. In the Mini-500, the only engine failures that occurred were the operators failing or refusing to properly jet the engine.
Owners that properly jetted and maintained their Rotax-powered Mini-500s had no problems and flew many hundreds of hours, those that did not have troubles, despite all the warnings we sent them on how to do it right.
It's funny that when something works well no one rights about it, however when they have even a self-inflicted problem, they publish all over the Internet that it was the helicopter's fault.
@@fettersbuiltco thanks for that detailed info.
So out of interest was it all to do with having the right oil/fuel mix, or did you have to adjust other parts of the engine, like air fuel ratio etc.
(Sorry new to the term jetting)
@@farleym4486 It was all to do with putting the right size jets in the carburetors to achieve the right fuel-to-air ratio. If it was winter you needed larger jets, and in summer you needed smaller jets. If the jets were too small, you could have too high of an EGT and seize the engine. I can't believe how some owners would pay no attention to their EGT readings and seize their engines. It's such an easy and fast thing to adjust before flight.
@@fettersbuiltco I understand now. You would think owners would be super attentive to that when you could drop from the sky!
I had a look on the wikipedia page for that engine. And see what you mean about the warning.
It seems to have been a really popular engine saying they built more than 30,000 between 1989 and 2021. So they are in a hell of a lot of different aircraft.
From my first comment and reading those "horror stories" of engines stopping as if it was common, I was thinking you must be nuts to run that in a helicopter.
Now it seems clear, user error and safety waivers as you said which people have taken the wrong way to seem like you were rolling the dice with the engine.
Very interesting stuff.
When these were manufactured, what was the cost of the piston engine versus the cost of the turbine engine along with the helicopter?
Back then I believe the cost of the Rotax 582 was about $3000. We never offered a turbine engine for the Mini-500. There were no affordable turbine engines available new "in a box" back then that we could have sold, and we only sold new equipment, nothing used or rebuilt. The only thing that could accidently be called a turbine engine was the Solar APU's, and those were not real turbine engines, used too much fuel and too unreliable, and all used or rebuilt. So, the only engine for the Mini-500 at that time was the Rotax 582. Some people did manage to put an APU on their Mini-500 and fly them for very limited time, but to my knowledge, all have failed to outperform the 582.
Dennis Fetters. Did you ever have Hot Rodders that put expansion chambers on their Rotax engines? Make them sound like a Kawasaki 750 H2?
We designed what was called the "Power Enhancement Package", or PEP. It was a special tuned exhaust that took the power from the low RPM range of the engine where it was not needed for a helicopter, and moved it to the operational RPM range of the engine, where it was used in helicopter applications. It increased our horsepower from 65 to 78, and moved the torque to just below the green line of operation which gave us better low rotor RPM recovery. It was later made a mandatory upgrade. It did little to change the sound of the engine.
Does anyone know what city this was filmed in?
Dave, much was filmed in Excelsior Springs MO, but there are also segments from other location, even Brazil.
So this was the helicopter that advertised on POPULAR MECHANICS in the early 90s...
Ok. I'm gonna build a tree house 90+ feet up and have a helicopter pad just outside of it. 😊
Whoa... what year was this taped? 1982?
+DustyCowdog Well Dusty,....... close. About 1994 or 95.
+Dennis Fetters I was a baby when you built the Mini 500. 😀
I'm sure many people were as well. We didn't stop making babies after 1995. In fact my wife and I just made a new one a year ago.
Dennis Fetters I was born on 7th May 1998.
That's why I said "I was a baby."
You know, this helicopter could be my twin!
Born in 1998!!?? Sun, you weren't even a sparkle in your daddies eye yet. ;-) I starter building the Mini-500 in 1990, and flew it in 1991.
Such a Beautiful project was my dream never came through 😔 Swashplate replacement technology is Awesome still 2022 no one else has it wonder why you don't hear about this anymore, Dennis when there's other ones like the "mosquito" taking off which can't even compare ☝🏾😔Sad ☝🏾
Id take an direct electric drive version of this, over a multirotor evtol. Direct electric drive eliminates the need for gears in ultralight helis, by apllying high torque "pancake" shaped outrunner motors to drive the main and tail rotors directly. I've noticed companies like Tier 1 Engineering which has an "e-R44" (heres the video: th-cam.com/video/G8eXjpWDmUs/w-d-xo.html ), they replaced the conventional drive systems in an R44 with direct electric drives, making it into an evtol. (they and another company in New Hampshire are gradually eliminating gears in conventional helis) The helicopter could still autorotate as long as the tail rotor has an extra layer of redundancy, via an emergency back up tail rotor power system.
It's not for my money, but it is a beautiful and apparently effective "U.S. machine".
But what are the engines used for Your "Mini 500" ?
To dream, perhaps one day a model equipped "NOTAR" ?
Nice work anyway !
Greetings from South of France...
(tanks to Google for translation!)
+Egidius HeliViews
Thank you for your nice comments. The Mini-500 used the Rotax 582 engine for power. We developed the "PEP" system (Power Enhancement Package) that effectively moved the power were we needed it in a helicopter, busting it's horsepower up to 78. There will be no NOTAR available, I stopped building the Mini-500 pack in the year 2000, and now devote my time to the development of UAV helicopters.
This is the Magnum P.I. helicopter that Tom Selleck flew at the start of his TV show!
markmnorcal
I believe that was the Bell-500 that TC used for the island Hopper tourism Company . The 5 blades allow them to spin faster as they are shorter with more than ample lift , they also reduce the gyroscope feeling and the noise at the blade tips that are sub-sonic and don't have that whip cracking sound from mini sonic booms with a twin blade that has a larger diameter sweep where the tips travel faster from angular momentum where the distance is greater per rotation.
Excelente.
Is this your new remote control helicopter you are building? How many have you built so far and how much do they cost? www.fettersaerospace.com/uav-helicopters.html
I no longer manufacture and sell to the public. I now enjoy being a freelance rotorcraft designer where I travel the world and design new UAV concepts for other companies. The one you are showing on my website is the StarLite-2A, the latest one I designed for myself, derived from all the earlier concepts as my final solution to a medium payload UAV helicopter. It's the best work I have ever done. It is for sale to a qualified company willing to buy the project where I would travel to them and help setup manufacturing, and I have been negotiating with a few people already, but nothing final. The StarLite-2A could sell for as little as $450,000 each with fully autonomous controller, or easily for twice that much if the owned so desired to sell it for that much. That is still a much lower price then what is available today from the competition, and the StarLite-2A is a far better helicopter. But, this site is for Mini-500 discussion. You are welcome to go to the Star:ite-2A videos on my TH-cam channel to discuss it, or email me directly with questions, if you would not mind please.
Maybe 20,000. Idaho is kinda far
Dennis,
with the new boom of ultra lite Helios you may have to start taking orders again. I know there is a stock pile of parts some where. I read some where there was a two seat in testing or was it a 4 guess it had to be two to stay in the class . Very nice love the head ...stop it all of you just stop it. " the rotor head " I was look at one of the gnats I mean mosquito when I found the mini way better. I'm just kidding about the gnats there pretty solid from what I have seen so far just out classed by the mini. Bring back the mini.
Hello Shawn, and thank you for the nice compliment. The Mini-500 was great for 20 years ago. It was my first helicopter I ever designed, and I have learned much more since then, and if I ever were to build another manned helicopter, I would start over and use what I learned to build a better design. But, that would never be only a single-person helicopter due to the very limited market. It would have to be a two-person so demand would be better, like the later Voyager-500 Two-Place that was basically an extended version of the Mini-500. Also due to the stupid rules in the USA, I can't provide people with a fully assembled and tested helicopter like they can do in Europe, and that was the main problem with the Mini-500, because people building it just made too many assembly mistakes. Mix that with the few design mistakes of it being my first helicopter, and it gets an undeserved bad rap. But, the biggest problem right now is the economics; You see, your basic manned lite-helicopter right now only sells for $115.3 per pound, while your average 100kg UAV helicopter can sell for $4,500 per pound, and the UAV cost less to manufacture! So, due to market demand and the situation of the economics of the UAV at this time, I can't afford to stop making UAV's to build manned helicopters for the foreseeable future. The USA would also have to change the regulations so that I can provide a fully assembled and tested aircraft before I would go down that road again. I hope my answer makes since, and I do appreciate you watching my video. Again, thank you for the compliment! Sincerely, Dennis
Dennis. it is incredible to see a godfather of aviation replying to all these interested people below. I am 26 and my opportunity to fly a Mini has now passed. I guess will settle for a MD500. Your helicopter kit design was always my favorite. I think you did an OUTSTANDING job with your kit, considering you were always at the mercy of the owners ability to follow instruction. Hope to earn my CPL-H within the next two years, you have been an big inspiration on this journey. Great airframe, thank you! @@fettersbuiltco
@@enneffgaming - what an incredibly nice compliment, thank you very much. I had a lot of fun flying my Mini-500 AND Commander gyroplanes. They enabled me to travel all over the world and see many amazing places and people. I'm extremely glad people enjoyed my aircraft. I would still like to build my new gyroplane design, however that UAV helicopter demand keeps me tied up. Thank you again and wishing you the best of luck. Sincerely, Dennis
I definitely think your heart was in the right place, but can definitely see all the user assembly mistakes that are no fault of yours but still could just ruin your brand name. Something as serious as a helicopter needs to be assembled and tested by a professional. Neat concept though to try and provide a helicopter to the average guy. I'd love to have a helicopter but the huge price tags and maintenance costs just don't make sense.
a cubism freedom to thee
this helicopter have no doors ? I guess without doors could be no fun to fly in winter
OctavianDulf1976 Yes, the Mini-500 had doors and was very comfortable to fly in the winter. The doors were easily removable with two pins.
ah ok than is so like the Rotorway helicopters I understand good to know it have doors
A true killer!
"Engine manufacturer Rotax warns owners of the 582 engine in the Owners Manual about its limitations:[6]
"This engine, by its design, is subject to sudden stoppage. Engine stoppage can result in crash landings, forced landings or no power landings. Such crash landings can lead to serious bodily injury or death ... This is not a certificated aircraft engine. It has not received any safety or durability testing, and conforms to no aircraft standards. It is for use in experimental, uncertificated aircraft and vehicles only in which an engine failure will not compromise safety. User assumes all risk of use, and acknowledges by his use that he knows this engine is subject to sudden stoppage ... Never fly the aircraft equipped with this engine at locations, airspeeds, altitudes, or other circumstances from which a successful no-power landing cannot be made, after sudden engine stoppage. Aircraft equipped with this engine must only fly in DAYLIGHT VFR conditions."[6]"
This is a very misleading statement. Yes, that is the disclaimer that Rotax wrote to protect itself against liability for the thousands of people that didn't install or maintain their engines correctly, and with more than 175,000 engines sold in 40 years, the engine still has a remarkable safety record. In fact, 99% of all Rotax engine failures were due to improper installation, setup, or lack of maintenance. Out of 500 Mini-500 helicopters produced, not even one crashed due to an engine stoppage from a failure of an engine part supplied by Rotax. What engine failures the Mini-500 owners did experience were all completely avoidable if proper setup and maintenance would have been performed.
Poor man's Huges 500 :D