Finally got my helicopter back!

[Ron Spiker]

After 19 months of troubleshooting, my helicopter is finally flying again. Harold found and fixed the problem. The crankshaft gear was marked on the wrong tooth. I originally thought he said the cam gear, but its the crank gear. There were also some other internal problems, like a valve stem cap missing, push rod needing replaced and valves not adjusted properly, but with those items fixed, the gear marked wrong still had everything out of time and obviously preventing it from producing power.

I flew to Oklahoma on Friday, tested the helicopter for a little over an hour, spent the night in Chickasha, did a little training for another Brantly owner Saturday morning, then started the trip just before noon Saturday. Made it to St Louis by about 6:30pm. After an early start Sunday morning I stopped to see a buddy rebuilding a RotorWay, then finished the trip to Pennsylvania.

I ended up with 14.3 hours flying for the weekend and 12.6 for the actual trip back. That's a long time to be sitting in these things over 2 days. With just me in the ship I was pulling about 22" MP, 13 GPH fuel flow and 80-90 MPH. At St Louis I picked up a passenger for the rest of the trip and the power went to about 23", 14 GPH and still kept it around 80-85 MPH. With the heat I was only able to fill up to no more than 25 gallons of fuel though with the two of us. Still gave us long enough flight legs where we were ready for a break when they came.

Here's a link to the photos I took during the trip. Many are just scenery shots but most are of the flooding in different areas of the flight. Remember that I just point and shoot with the camera in my left hand, and lots of bugs and grease spots on the bubble, so they aren't the best quality.

http://www.datacustoms.com/rspiker/OK2PA2008/index.htm

[Tom]

Great debrief, Flylow, and I enjoyed the slideshow.

Nice catch on the part of your mechanic. It seems like something that could be easy to miss.

We all appreciate your sharing the trip with us.

Thank you!

Tom

[Brad Bowles]

Nice pic's
Thanks Again for the flying
Brad

[edspilot]

Glad you got it back, up and running the way it should be. Great shots too.

Thanks for sharing,

edspilot

ps you should have a PM shortly.

[bryancobb]

Hey Ron:

Great news! Glad you got it fixed. I know the fuel to get it back home set you back $10,000 or so ...haha

You really need to get a Graphic engine monitor though. I got mine on Ebay for 125.00 and after installing and using it,
my cruise fuel consumption got down into the low 10's and high 9's.

It'll save you a good amount of $$.

Bryan Cobb

[Ron Spiker]

Thanks Bryan,

I think you're about right on the fuel costs to fly it home!
I will take a close look at the graphic engine monitor. Thanks for the reminder.

Ron