I would imagine that any cold feet will rapidly vanish the first time that you lift to a hover, and then fly circuits around a big field in your incredible three-dimensional flying machine.
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I’m not some life coach Guru. I’m not sure how I’ve managed to get them all involved either. Constant blabbering about trucks and taking them along on camping trips with it i suppose.
It is incredibly annoying in a way. Not one of them cared about aeroplanes when i was flying. So you arent alone there mate
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A little youtube short of the Mossie at play. This guy has a very interesting channel documenting his attempt to make a mini-500 closed fairing around the XE290 engine.
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What an amazing machine. So cool!
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It took several days to fit the windscreen. It was a slow process of place, mark, cut, place, mark cut again. The first challenge was choosing a tool for the job: bandsaw, Dremel Ultrasaw with a wood cutting wheel, hand grinder or standard dremel. After experimenting with each on some spare Lexan, the dremel with a little grinding barrel attachment won the day. It’s amazing how many awkward, precise challenges are resolved with a dremel.
The manual calls for rivets to secure the windscreen. I will use proper button-head fasteners when the time comes. That time isn’t now because I’ll need access through that space to install the antitorque controls. So this is really as far as I can go. Believe it or not, I left Florida with a bunch of parts and no partslist. I had no idea how much of the helicopter was actually in my possession. That list finally came this week in the form of an apologetic text from the owner of the company. I spent a day inventorying everything.
Turns out it’s not a lot. 1400 parts, half of which are rivets, bolts, nuts and washers.
And I am stuck! 40 hours into the build and I cannot find any job in the manual that isn’t reliant on another task which requires some of the missing parts.
Being familiar now with the template of helicopter kit disasters, I know when to get worried. And this isn’t that time. While in Florida I was dealing with ###, a famously prickly gent with less than ideal people skills. His organizational skills are no better. Worse, he does the organizing for the factory. But he’s not the whole operation. I am giving them a bit of breathing room before I start complaining. It will be such a drag to lose the warm months when I was so ready to have it flying by next spring. Reading this, all sorts of warning flags are probably raised. I see them too. But have faith. This WILL be a helicopter some day.
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With the lack of parts that match the early chapters of the build manual, I have been taking it easy.
Roughed in the fuel filler:
The forward rivets in the forward landing gear cradles bothered me. They just seemed too weak for such a high load. So I spent a couple of hours drilling them out and replacing with 1/4” AN bolts and shoulder washers. I think this distributes the load along the fiberglass structure a little better at the cost of a few ounces.
The engine mounts arrived yesterday and I was able to get them on this morning.
Happy Star Wars Day all!
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May the fourth be with you!
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With this one, strong the fourth is! 
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Our local hero, Alina, who flew an Aerolite 103 from Charleston to Oshkosh when she was 14 years old, now has a Mosquito. At least I think that it’s one. Her first couple of pickups were wobbly, but she’s wearing it now 
Pretty cool that you can add floats and stay in the 103 category.
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It’s a Mossie indeed! I hope she got some training before that hop.
Looking at the videos, it appears that she did get some dual instruction in an S300 before attempting to fly the Mosquito. Still, there were some cringe worthy moments in watching her first attempts at lifting the little Mossie. Her dad is a CFI and like he did with the Aerolite, is talking her through every maneuver over the radio. Being the dad of 3 girls, one the same age, it gave me a little pucker watching that thing lightly dance on the skids. She’s got it now though.
Jez, I just realized that she can’t even drive a car yet!
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Quite brave of him. My only real concern for them both is that I know that they exist. By which I mean, once something becomes a performance, it becomes less safe.
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Sometimes I do wonder when kids do this kind of thing, is it for the kid, or the parents?
Of course, I’m not a parent, so I’m really not qualified to say.
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I hear you. I guess that, with far less consequences, it is somewhat analogous to teaching your daughter to ride a OneWheel. In our case an eskate board. You walk a fine line between wanting to push them to learn something you hope they will get a lot of satisfaction from, and keeping them safe.
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The difference is that only you and other friends knew about the Onewheel. But I knew about her long before you posted the video. My daughter is only famous if you consider 12 views to be “fame”.
I am happy for her and her dad. They are probably doing this safely and are building the strongest of bonds. I am a fan…with reservations.
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One of my daughters is a lacrosse goalie for a really successful club team. It gives me the utmost joy to see her play, especially when she does things that are unexpectedly good. But having played the game for many years, I know how much it hurts to get hit with a shot. There is a lot of kinetic energy behind a half lb hard rubber object traveling 70-80 mph. I tell her every season that if she ever stops enjoying it, she can walk away without regret.
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That is very cool. What a bad ass!
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That split video sums up helicopters for me. Looks nice and calm from the outside, but from inside you can see that it is about to shake itself to bits at any moment 
I have been a passenger in a Huey/Iroquois, Blackhawk, Chinook. Sea King and CH-46 and they are all the same. On the ground and with the engine’s not running they are fine. As soon as either of those things change my anal sphincter puckers up tight enough to turn a lump of coal into a diamond.
I do like that livery though.
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OK Jack Ryan, tell us what you really think!
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I bought a Virpil collective and the Apache module for DCS… I’m getting better 
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