Personal helicoptors

I just realized I can buy my own helicopter for $32,000.00. I am off down a deep dark rabbithole. 

Mosquito Ultralight Helicopter | Light Aircraft DB & Sales (pilotmix.com)

Where do you mount the BRS? That is "IF" you can deploy it with the blades spinning.

My dad worked for a guy in the late 80's-90's that had a helicopter so he can "get to job sites quicker".  I think he also commuted into work in it.  Global Fire Protection in Downers Grove, IL.  So it must be doable?

I really am unclear where he was always landing it but it shows up on a map. 

Wait, a 2 stroke engine?    

In reply to Datsun310Guy :

I am mostly disappointed that the fire restoration business is located right next to multiple fire protection businesses on that map.

I flew a helicopter last year and want one so bad. My wife wants one worse.

I both want one and it scares the crap out of me at the same time.  Do they make some sort of parachute that mounts to the center/top of the rotor?  OR have an o E36 M3 button that ejects the rotor and deploys a parachute?

The rotor is the parachute

Colin McCae was one of the best drivers of all time and a helicopter got the best of him, I'll take a hard pass on flying my own helicopter. 

I'm just gonna drop this here and say be safe...

https://time.com/5264417/lottery-winner-crashes-helicopter/

What a bunch of Debbie Downers. Not the enabling I have come to expect from GRM. 

preach (dudeist priest) said:

I flew a helicopter last year and want one so bad. My wife wants one worse.

Has your wife recently taken out a large life insurance policy on you?

In reply to bearmtnmartin (Forum Supporter) :

My enabling relates to questionable decision making with regards to financial decisions pertaining to projects that will potentially remain unfinished or have build times measured in marriages. Not in the exploration of terminal velocity. 

Enablers and assisted suicide are vastly different things. I've rode/drove/operated/flew all kinds of stuff, but I know for a fact a 'chopper is beyond my abilities. 
a plane uses the laws of physics to achieve flight... a helicopter beats the laws into submission!!!

dean1484 said:

I both want one and it scares the crap out of me at the same time.  Do they make some sort of parachute that mounts to the center/top of the rotor?  OR have an o E36 M3 button that ejects the rotor and deploys a parachute?

I like your emergency design. "The rotor is overspeeding! Make it someone else's problem!"

In reply to Captdownshift (Forum Supporter) :

You got there while I was typing!

Join the EAA. We've been building and flying our own rotory wing vehicles for over 50 years.

The thought of hanging on a $25 bearing being held in place by a $.59 clip give me the heebeegeebees. 

Hard pass.

Spend any amount of time on the Average Middle Class Garage Goals group on FB, and you'd think that everyone has a personal helicopter.  Or at least all the cool kids.

Keith Tanner said:

dean1484 said:

I both want one and it scares the crap out of me at the same time.  Do they make some sort of parachute that mounts to the center/top of the rotor?  OR have an o E36 M3 button that ejects the rotor and deploys a parachute?

I like your emergency design. "The rotor is overspeeding! Make it someone else's problem!"

There are actually military helicopters with a similar system, they eject the rotors (one at a time, with explosive bolts where the rotor blade attaches) and then fire ejection seats.

I say it all the time, small aircraft are the rich man's only natural predator...

Found a video of the Sikorsky S-72 ejection system being tested, unfortunately recorded on a potato:

I feel the military is a little more sanguine about throwing stuff around when they feel it's necessary. No FAA on the battlefield. 

Cirrus planes have a built in parachute. 
 

I'll get in a small plane anytime. Helicopters are where I say no. Just don't seem safe. 

An old quote from a guy with a helicopter I knew. “ A helicopter is a thousand moving parts trying to get away from each other.”

He was a chopper mechanic during Vietnam, told many stories of fixing one and never seeing it again. Never knew what happened after. Did it break, get shot down, moved to a different area of operations? It weighed on him.