This is a helicopter video I like. The yellow helicopter is a Ukraine designed Sanka with a converted Subaru auto engine. The unit appears to be highly inspired by the Hughes 269/MD 300/Schweizer-Sikorsky 300 line.

I like how he drops in at the Shell station on the way to fuel up.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2VsmcO1mRE


It is a fairly nifty helicopter design for an experimental, but I would want an aviation engine on it rather than converted auto engine.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5NwxSgmi818


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2w0M_92mjI

The pilot shown really knows how to fly that thing, check out that last video of the trailer loading in 35K winds!

That was awesome . Makes me want to ditch the plane and be a heli guy so bad !

BushTrimmer wrote:It is a fairly nifty helicopter design for an experimental, but I would want an aviation engine on it rather than converted auto engine.

Which experimental helicopter are you flying at the moment Trimmer?

A late friend built a Rotoway which he had for decades, and my colleage has a Mosquito. I have yet to pluck up the courage to ride in a home-made heli... they seem prone to forced landings.

Battson wrote:Which experimental helicopter are you flying at the moment Trimmer?

I'm not really into experimental helicopters, as you suggest, there is a risk profile that is not appealing to me. One is better off sticking to the light pistons like the Schweizer 300 or R-22 for a poor man's helicopter. But the Sanka is pretty nifty, and I were going to do it, I'd use an aviation engine. It is the same for me with aircraft engines; the modified non-aviation stuff is what seems to get people killed. Even the experimental engines from Lycoming, Conti, Titan, Superior, etc. are far superior in my eyes to modified Subaru auto engines (which is what the Sanka owners tend to use).

I really like what I have seen of the Bearhawk aircraft, and if I were going to build an all-new experimental, it would probably be the one to get me to make the move. But I worry about the liquidity of experimental aircraft if one has $150-200K in it and all of a sudden things go bad in the real world and it is necessary to sell the airplane. The certified aircraft have a little higher comfort level, and even that was not that good in the 2008-2011 era when so many people had financial problems and needed to bail on aircraft.

What was the engine used in the original Rotorway Scorpion?
I seem to recall that it was some kind of modified marine outboard engine.
Wiki says a Rotorway RW133: a 133hp horiz opposed liquid cooled 4 banger.