I don’t mind so much the “inches” and “feet” part of our system. It’s the fractions that kill me. Take for instance the letter “D” reamer. It’s just shy of 1/4 inch. But in an implicit acknowledgment of how stupid our system is, no one says it’s 15/64 or 31/128 (I don’t even know what it is—nor do I care). Instead everyone says that the letter D is .247 inches. When you are getting down to that level of detail, which you do constantly when building a backyard airplane, fractions become unwieldy. With the rudder pedals I had to make five spacers to match the geometry of my frame and floorpan. They were 1.700”, 2.685”, 8”, 2.685” and 1.765”. After cutting I had to remove a slight amount of material from each. Thankfully, my caliper is in decimals. Yes, all those x/16ths and y/64ths can be added, subtracted and multiplied with 3rd grade math. But why? Because some dudes in Babylon counted base 12 and 60. Time to move on I say.
I do remember the “great metric debate” in the 70s (? IIRC). My dad said it was all a conspiracy forced on us by Japanese car makers to make us buy new tools. That’s it. Change never stood a chance.
Anti-torque is done. “Controls” is section 10 of the construction manual. The whole chapter took a week. Compare that to section 8, “body panels”, which took me the entire winter. That section was frustration defined. Section 10 is what you would imagine when you imagine building kit, be it car, plane Or whirlybird. It was the the perfect balance of fabrication and simple assembly.
My brother has wanted to come up and give me a hand since I began the build. It could not have worked better in terms of schedule. The build to this point didn’t really lend itself to collaborative work. The construction manual chapters after “controls” required parts RotorX has not yet supplied. So I skipped ahead a bit to do a big job that doesn’t need previous work to (mostly) complete. We put in 3 solid 10 hour days and got it 95% done. He’s a retired NASA engineer so I had just the right, if not overqualified, help.
That’s pretty awesome that your brother was amble to help with that the build. I was going to ask if they teach NASA engineers how to buck rivets, but upon further thought, that organization is most likely replete with home builders.
The story behind Ingenuity is an amazing one and well worth the hour of this podcast’s consumption, IMHO.
The grumblings of trouble have been apparent to me for months. The end may be nigh.
From a builder on FB:
“I have some rather unfortunate news. Appears our latest owners of such a fantastic machine are falling into financial troubles like the predecessors.
The background to my claim is I had some financial commitments and time constraints so I cancelled my order. I requested a refund of my $15,000 deposit. I was told I had to wait 90 days for a refund. This was my first red flag. Even though they were selling kits and could just pass my spot to the next guy, they were too cash poor to give a prompt refund.
So I wait the 90 days as directed. I contacted Don Shaw, and had a pleasant conversation with him about all of the things they are doing, the defense contracts etc. he asked me to send my wire information and he would send the wire next week. Each week I followed up and was given excuse after excuse for a month. Finally he stops responding to my emails, and only after a threat by me to take this public, he responded. Not wishing harm on Rotorx, I refrained from making any public claims until now.
Then one day he asks for my mailing address for a check. He would not answer my question as to why all of a sudden he wants to send a check and not a wire. (Yet another flag). The poorly hand written check and hand written envelope with check was deposited and it bounced.
I then received another email saying their “book keeper was moving money around” and that he would send the wire today. Well today has come and gone.
It has taken many weeks of patience and understanding to give them the benefit of the doubt and realize that they are probably re-investing money into the business. However, based on these actions, and knowing how easy it would be to just pass a deposit on to me (which was smaller than most deposits collected) would be a simple operation. Add the lies and excuses, and I can no longer keep silent.
I hope that they do prevail, I really do. I actually still wish to build a helicopter. It’s just not in the cards for me at this time. I felt it was necessary to let the public know of how much financial trouble it appears they are in and would caution anyone at giving them any money until their kits are received.“
Oooof! I’m sorry to read that, extremely unfortunate. I hope something quickly changes for the better; are you still waiting for a significant portion of the parts/kit?
Engine, main gear, secondary gear and rotor. I’d guess that I have about 40% of the parts and 50% of the labor. But without support I have zero interest in the thing even if the remaining bits can be had.
Of course no one should shed a tear for rich men with near-6 digit toys. The only real loss if this ship sinks are the dozens of staff at the factory, some of whom were there when Shramm started the place decades ago. That’s if the lights go out completely. I think there is leas than a 50/50 chance that it’s that bleak.
Unless you are some kind or shyster or made your money off the misery of others, then I can do nothing but applaud rich men with their near-6 digit toys. But I get your point about the staff at the factory, they will be the real losers.
I totally appreciate the sympathy for the situation. And I know that you all know that I am not washing and waxing airplanes every day, 12 hours a day to earn a little flight time. I guess I am trying to put this in perspective. I feel a bit of guilt for being an aging boy with an expensive inoperative toy. And I feel guilt at my own self-pity. Unlike Mark and the dozens of other friends over the years who’ve lost the battle with Newton’s laws, I am alive. And unlike RotorX’s workers and suppliers, my paycheck can still be cashed. The absolute worst that can happen from this is that I sell what I have for an unthinkable loss and I build the Mosquito that I had intended at the very beginning of this rotary adventure. No tears will ever be shed over this silliness.
I agree with @WarPig. It would be a crying shame to see the superb effort that you’ve invested come to naught. However, like you said, it will be a mess without the support of a healthy company behind your project. Not a good place to be Eric. I feel for you bud.
That’s what I silently asked the owner in response to his email to me last night. I don’t trust him. But I don’t think he is doing anything nefarious with our money. Rather, my guess is that he’s got too many irons in the fire and lacks the talent to deal with just one, let alone juggle them all. I had told him that I want to exercise the Purchaser’s Protections clause of my contract (get my money back with interest). But of course that is easy to write, but if the money isn’t there it’s all just lawyer-speak. After bankruptcy the big creditors will get serviced first then salaries then us. But he says that he has found investors and a good announcement is forthcoming. Is he feeding us a line of stuff? Probably.
Meanwhile I am all over the map. I can’t even think about the little Mosquito until I get enough money back from the RotorX project to at least say I’ve tried. Then the wait to begin will be over a year according to the owner of Composite FX. And, as fun and zippy as the Mosquito is, it isn’t the helicopter I actually want. This helicopter–the Rotorway/RotorX A600–has no competition in the market. The next closest competitor, the CX-7 is twice the money (but Rotax powered, a much shorter build time and a properly run company). They also have almost no footprint in America (yet). The Safari and Hummingbird both have their issues and are also far more expensive than I can afford. So do I lawyer up, hope for some money and get the Mosquito? Or do I stick it out and pray that the promised parts get made and shipped? Those questions are rhetorical by the way. There is a gathering in NH later this month. Away from FaceBook, where these guys have been way less than helpful, I hope I’ll find guidance on making a flyable ship from what I have now. I might see if I can finish using a Solar turbine instead of a piston engine. That way I won’t need most of the remaining complex machined parts. Or not. I lack actionable information currently. But the dream is not dead.
Also @Art just painted his. I looks fantastic. In fact it is the very paint job some of you hoped I would do. But I won’t take his thunder. He’ll post a pic eventually.
I’m sorry to read that, extremely unfortunate. I hope something quickly changes for the better; are you still waiting for a significant portion of the parts/kit?