Brad built his Rotorway 162F over a period of three years and it was his pride and joy. As soon as he had attained his airworthiness certificate he went to the Rotorway factory school for his Phase I flight training. He came home with his hover endorsement and slid the helicopter all over his back yard but knew that he did not have enough training to safely bring it up into a hover.

Brad hired a flight instructor but the results were not positive. The instructor rolled Brad's helicopter upon lift off. It took Brad another two years to rebuild his little yellow Rotorway. Brad was not one to give up though. During the rebuild process Brad had heard that Orv was an experienced instructor with many hours covering all models of Rotorway helicopters. He contacted Orv and flew him out to CT. The instruction with Orv progressed quickly and soon Brad was flying approaches at the local airport.

Since there were several mechanical issues that needed attention prior to continued flight, Brad was not able to finish enough autorotation training with Orv to where he felt comfortable to take the helicopter to altitude. A fly-in was only a couple of weeks away so Orv agreed to finish Brads auto training while at the fly in.