Ultralight aviation provides an excellent pathway for those who want to fly, but don’t want to get licensed. These quite often cheap and cheerful DIY aircraft often hide some excellent engineering underneath. This is no more true than in [ultralight helicopter’s] four-year-long helicopter build saga!
While most ultralight builds are fixed-wing, a rotocraft can meet all the legal definitions of ultralight aviation. This helicopter is an excellent example of what’s possible with a lot of time and patience. The construction is largely aluminium with some stainless steel on the skids. A 64-horsepower Rotax 582UL engine powers the two-bladed main rotor and tail rotor. The features a multi-belt engine coupler and three gearboxes to ensure correct power output to the two rotors.
It features a control layout familiar to any helicopter pilot with foot pedals that control the tail rotor pitch for anti-torque control. A cyclic in front of the pilot controls the rotor’s cyclical movements, resulting in forward and sideways flight control. A collective with integrated throttle controls the overall main rotor pitch for altitude and climb control. Finally, a simple clutch sits next to the collective for engine start and idles.
The build was meticulous, with nearly everything from the swashplate to the gearboxes custom-machined. The balance and alignment of everything, from the rotor blades to the input trim, had to be checked. The build is a masterpiece of home workshop engineering.
We’ve seen ultralights before, so make sure to check out this electric fixed-wing ultralight next! Or, if you want really light, try foam.
Yes, this is an impressive build, but I would not call it “meticulous” or a “masterpiece” Weight of a helicopter is quite important and this once seems a bit heavy in a lot of ways. For example, why the (nearly) 1:1 multi V combined with the big gears on the top? The big steel gear on the top also looks like it’s some standard gear and could be made a lot lighter. The gearbox for that gear also has a very thick sidewall, while normally such walls are just a few mm thick, with thicker sections for where the bolts are.
Shaving off 20kg may not seem like much, but it directly translates to an increased flight time. Small helicopters need some 30 to 50kg of fuel per hour, so even 20kg is quite significant.
I did not see a website with more info. According to his youtube channel, the guy is from Switzerland (surprising). I’m not sure whether he designed the whole thing himself, or started with some kit. From the “roughness” of the overall design, it looks like it’s a completely DIY design. USA is quite generous in regulations around “experimental” aircraft. Here in Europe it’s a bit more restricted, but I don’t know more details.
Agreed! Even the R22 is mostly flown without doors for the same reason. With two people in there you can’t even fill the gas tank all the way and make gross takeoff weight.
I think it goes without saying this thing is a death trap but that’s not “bad” per se. Especially if self-designed but hey, that’s up to the dude building it. One major issue with small heils is the near complete lack of rotor head mass meaning the dead-man curve for autorotation is basically “engine quits you are now an unrecoverable rock in the sky”. Even the R22 has something like 0.6 seconds from motor trouble to falling meteor and that’s if you are high and/or fast enough already. Remember folks- Helis fly slow and low that’s kinda what they are for.
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I do admire the fortitude of this guy!
They say this is an ultralight. In the US any recreational aircraft with a single seat, 5 gallons (19L) or less fuel capacity, and a weight of 254 pounds (115kg) or less with a maximum stall speed of 24 knots does not require annual inspections, airworthiness certificates, or pilot licenses.
The pedals control tail rotor pitch for yaw control.
I remember seeing adds for personal heli kits/plans in the back of popular mechanics etc. never really heard of anyone actually building one.
As far as I can tell this misleading title card implies he flew it- it seems to be just a build log. Would love to see it fly – if anyone wants to put a timestamp that would be great.
But it didn’t fly!
Adding the word “tail” there makes it easier to understand quickly.
Basically, pedals = yaw, cyclic stick = pitch/roll, collective = Z-axis (up/down) force.
Except, with manual controls, everything affects everything else, to some extent.
I wonder if the computerized controls available for RC copters are easily available for human-sized ones?
The computerized controls can make it so that the copter moves only according to the stick commands and is not affected by the indirect mechanical influence of other control actions. For instance, yaw can change during collective actions.
Minute 2 or so of the video and I cringe at the single nuts being used (they are self-locking, but that rubber may fail because of the vibrations).
Landing gear has no amortisation or crumbling area in case of had landing.
He needs explosive bolts for the main rotor blades and a big parachute.
“explosive bolts and a big parachute” are pretty much useless for ultralight helicopters. When they fail they fall like a rock, and they are rarely flown high enough for parachute deployment to be practical.
No chance for auto rotation?
Just found a name for it: “head roller”.
Minimal chance for it to be effective, and then ONLY when there is the ability to disconnect the rotor from the drive, which few ultralight helis are designed to do.