Now it really looks like a helicopter!
Glad that you fixed the seat/body issue and are enjoying the build again.
You couldn’t help it to leave us on a cliffhanger, could you?
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Man, that thing looks cool as hell. Way to go Eric!
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Hopefully @Art will post an update of his. He is quite a ways ahead of me. What you see above is mostly panels resting or clamped down. He has finished all the holes and much of the fastening, plus the doors. And I agree. The lines are terrific. The Guimbal might be a bit more modern-looking, especially with the fenestron TR. But it is arguably the only competition for overall nice lines within our small sub-set of light piston helicopters.
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Going to be a bit rough to see in front of you @smokinhole.
Are you going to put rear view mirrors on it or do you need to hang your head outside to see behind you too. 
Wheels
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Do you ever take a step away, look at it and say “damn, I am really building a helicopter!?”
It is kinda mind-boggling to me every time you post a pic, and I love it!
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No. Nothing nearly so confident. I see 1) Great gods! I did such a horrible job with x! How am I going to fix that? Or 2) This is nowhere near a helicopter!
But then I go to YouTube and see them flying and think, “Yeah, those old guys can’t be THAT much smarter than me. They did it.”
I wish I had the confidence to actually see a helicopter. But I see only the next big hurdle. The thing that causes me stress. @Art just today replied to a text with a warning to reach out before getting too much further. The Construction Manual and videos fail to show some important aspects that must be done right to complete the next steps. So there is a community. And, for me, this build would be very unlikely without it. I am no @Troll. In fact, many Mudspikers probably have the DIY skills to better prepare them for this sort of task. I am winging it (so to speak). It is cool though. If you save a bit of money and are willing to put in some time there are kits available that will let you achieve any dream, including flying a jet! I used to think I was born two generations too late. An earlier life would have let me fly Camels or Spitfires or Loaches. But who am I kidding! I wouldn’t have lasted two weeks at any of those jobs. For someone like me who loves flying machines and loves the simulation of those machines almost as much; these are the best of times.
The protective film on the canopy comes off after the fiberglass edging is complete and painted.
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But where will the miniguns and FFAR rocket pods mount?
Beautiful work smokinhole. Thanks for bringing us along for the ride!
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I am slowly moving along. Spent a lot of time on the doors. They are finally done except for some bondo and sanding. (warm weather work) I moved on to the comfort controls. Made the diverter valve and mounted the air scoop. Cut the hole for the air scoop on bottom of tub and put the slots in. Not sure about the routing of the hoses so I’ll just wait to make sure they don’t interfere with anything. Eric’s body fits awesome! Wish mine had fit that good. I think I have enough parts to go to section 10 in the construction manual and start on the controls. (Have a lot of parts back ordered). On to the good stuff…!!
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I drove down to FL for Bob St Denis’ Gathering of Rotorways. Although not all flew, nearly 30 helicopters were in attendance. What I learned has already saved days of build time. Here’s a taste I threw together. Fast forward to 6:58 to see an engine failure (hovering auto fortunately).
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Sometimes I feel I was born on the wrong continent…
And, for future reference, playing Ride of the Valkyries is mandatory when showing helicopter mass takeoffs. 
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I thought of it. Or maybe opening with The Doors. In the end, voices, birds, bugs and rotors seemed music enough.
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Post another view from your porch and say that again. I dare you!
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Great video. I wondered if you were riding your Onewheel, then had that confirmed when you crossed the bridge. Those are some beautiful flying machines, being expertly flown. Not to harp on the one bad incident, but has the pilot with engine failure had time to determine the cause? I’m also curious at what point in his approach did he notice loss of power? To the casual observer, it appeared just before the skids touched down.
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There are more porches with beautiful views in the US, than there are experimental helicopter builders in Norway… Just sayin’.
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@Troll, I can’t argue with that.
@chipwich, the engine failed the instant you see the yaw. He was lucky it happened when it did.
Here’s the funny part (well, too me): I edited out the delay where pilots took a breath to decide how to proceed. One pilot landed and shutdown. When ships started moving he cranked back up but forgot to turn on his water pump. By the time he got to his hangar, he had cracked a cylinder. Normally the pump is automatic but some builders install a manual override so that a cold engine warms faster. Oops. A trusted and experienced pilot suspected that the failure in the video was due to a crank bearing misaligned during the recent overhaul. He has reasons for suspecting this but I probably shouldn’t get into it here.
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looking forward to watch that full video but had a glimpse on that eng failure part. really happy for him. as this part of the helo flight could be the most tricky - stay too low and you can hit the ground with skid, stay too high and you could have problem to save it in such cases as eng / tail rotor failure.
regarding the loss of power moment with little detail.
its right there, as mentioned already by smokin, where the helo yawed to the right side. as the helo has clock-wise turning rotor pilot has to push right antitorque pedal to keep it straight i.e. to counter the torque. without engine, i.e. without torque, the right pedal take the authority and the helo follows to the right up until pilot notice that something is amiss and center the pedals.
just in case someone is wondering. failure to the tail rotor (drive shaft) demonstrates itself with similar consequences just in the other direction, in this case of clock-wise turning rotor, it will be yaw to the left as the tail rotor has no authority anymore and the torque cant be countered.
it can be simulated easily in e.g. XPlane with custom failure triggered by key press.
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One of the helicopters in the video above crashed this week. Pilot is OK. No clue what happened. Both helicopter and pilot can be seen early in the video. In it, the pilot is giving some flying advice as I rolled by. I flew with him later that week. He is very well respected in the community.
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