When Andrew Burr purchased his second hand Rotorway he hired me to travel to his home to begin his flight training in his new aquisition. I spent several hours going over it with him and provided him a long list of items needing attention before I would fly in it. Many of these issues were from a poor job of building the helicopter by the original builder. The final product is only as good as the person building it. The items on that list are all covered in the Hints and Tips section of this web site.

One item on the list was the clutch pivot arm was poorly constructed by the original builder. Andrew's motto is " I don't want to re-invent the wheel, I just want to make the wheel better". His solution was to remove the original tube from the end of the clutch pivot arm and to replace it with a larger diameter tube and then reinforcing the tube to the arm by welding steel gussets between the new tube and the arm. He then installed "oil-lite" bushings into the top and bottom of the tube so that, when installed, the pivot bolt would now be protected and lubricated by the bronze bushings. This clutch arm is an area that needs close inspection during your preflight.

The photo below is of the bolt that Andrew removed from the damaged swing arm. If the swing arm is built to the factory standards and according to their directions and plans, it should provide good service.