Transition student George Hamilton from Clinton suffered an engine failure in his Rotorway following autorotation training with Orv at his home airport in Clinton Arkansas. George did an excellent job setting his ship down on the center divide between lanes of a downtown street. George had the engine rebuilt and is again flying his Rotorway around the area. George sent me the above photo with the explanation below. A note of caution: do not get any paint stripper in the area of the skin to spar seam because it can weaken the glue that bonds the skin to the spar. This seam area needs to be protected. A coat of clear protective paint or laquer can be applied in this area if the entire blade is left unpainted.

You can contact George at george3ham@artelco.com

With the skid landing gear pointed forward and the paint stripped from all the blades and buffed to a high gloss all that is left for max. lift is "BUG MAGIC"... Otherwise denatured alcohol usually does the trick if they are still fresh hits but, failing that, here in Arkansas Spit works wonders, especially if you forgot your post-flight inspection and the bugs have dried harder than paint.

Then if you are 185 pounds and want to cruse at 85 to 90 knots like us old guys do all you need is 21 inches of Manifold pressure...

Now this will show you what I mean about mirror finish. Not rough sandpaper as some people use, but stripper and hours of 320 wet or dry on the main blade leading edges and then an hour of buffing with metal polish. It makes you proud of your effort when you see 2 inches of Manifold Pressure savings along with increased tail blade authority...It is a whole new helicopter...

I judge this gives a 30% increase in tail blade efficiency... enough to cancel my request for carbon tail blades.

Also note that George has installed the turnbuckle on his slider rails to firmly clamp down on the slider and prevent wear. You still need to get those washers on the TR pitch link bolts though.

Scooter took this photo of me at the last EAA meeting of Ozark Mountains Branch at Mountain View AR
George hired me to provide autorotation training in his Rotorway Exec 162F at his home airport in Clinton AR. Shortly after the flight training George experienced a catastrophic engine failure and autoed to the ground. To read George's story and see the photo of his wounded ship