a thank you ...

[scrapper]

Greetings Brantly Aficionados,
I (a Brantly wanabe) am very grateful for the continued posting here. All are interesting and real life playing of the drama being a Brantly owner is.
I became revved up a few years back after reading Doc Watson’s bio (he the “ flying veterinarian”), he had serviced the dairy farm I grew up on in the 1960s and my dad served on the local school bd etc with Doc. Being in a rural area the fact that someone was successful enough to have a helicopter was inspiring, hey, we were part of the technologizing world too!
Doc’s I think was a ’62 and was converted to B2B. And turns out a poster here now owns that ship. Green and yellow back then now shined alum.
I stood next to his many times but my only ride to date was a 1 hr lesson with Ron S Apr 2011. I loved it, though it seemed more of a box of metal and plastic than I expected!! An illness set me back 2 yrs and the source of capital has been delayed as well- somehow my spouse says school shoes and tuition come first- wet blanket.
My interest and hope to own a ship remain. Having some distance and too much time to think my two concerns are 1) I am not a mechanic like you all are; I did once change a ‘67 VW beetle engine by myself and have worked from one end to the other on 1950s John Deere’s – qualifies me to change oil in Brantly? As luck has it, my family farm is 30 miles from Bill Fixit. 2) You all won’t like this, is a helicopter, going against so many odds of nature - flying straight up, running 1600#s to 4k feet with 180 HP, so unnatural, inefficient, the fight invites too many negatives. Ok, ok, no.
The Brantly remains my objective though its “cult” status and being out of production plus limited parts, concerns me. I think if I got it going I would have to view it as a 3-5 yr life. Alternatively the Hughes look like a possibility, though needing a greater investment, it might retain a decent % of value after 5 yrs use.

Mainly I just wish to thank you all for this community which I am privileged to witness.

[seneca2e]

Again Scrap glad to see you back. You make some valid points but NOTHING will ever be a helicopter. Not a plane, not a balloon, not a gyrocopter, just well nothing! Nothing else is a magic carpet. Helicopters do have a lot of moving parts and sometimes your palms might sweat a little when you notice a little different sound but it'll just focus your attention lol. As far as the Brantly its endured for 55 years or so. While I don't think they're coming back into production(hope I'm wrong on that) I do think they'll be flying far beyond your 3 to 5 year life expectancy. Doc Watson living close to your homeplace is surely an interesting circumstance so no wonder you have an interest in these unique machines. Sounds like you would have the mechanical skills to learn to maintain a Brantly and luckily Bill Mott is close to you. Sounds like you just gotta let the shoes go and get the Brantly