Bumble Bee's Helicopter story made me think of this..

[cowpuc]

Back in the 70's a buddy and I got the hair brained idea to join the Air Force and become pilots.. We tested here in Michigan and got invited down to Fort Eglin Air Base in Pensacola for a short "visitation" stay on base.. We drove my 67 Cougar down (wont go into detail about where we "found" gas at along the way but will say that not all the Highway repair trucks sitting along I-75 are gas, some are diesel - YUCK)..

Yea the F-14's were impressive BUT, man what those guys had to go thru just to fly measly airplane , way to much "smarts" and discipline for a young Pucster..

BUT,, While down there we found a Benson Copter (remember those things in Popular Mechanics??) at a yard sale and had to have it!!! Put $20 down on it, talked my buddys brother into loaning us the money, went back and STRAPPED 14 ft rotor blades AND the body of our new Helicopter to the top of my Cougar and headed home to Michigan!!

Somewhere in Tennessee we stopped to BUY gas, a tall lanky Tennessee feller comes out of the station, spits a chew of teebacky out, looks at us and says,, what in tarrrnation you boys got on your car??? I said - its a helicopter,, he says - what cha gonna do with dat thang,,, Dan says - Fly it... Guy shook his head in a way that my dad had shaken his head at me many times and walked away.. We laughed..

We get home, recover with a couple hours sleep.. A few brewskies for breakfast and we are ready to bolt and fly!! Dans Dad had a huge 120 acre field freshly hayed, hooked the Benson on the car, Dan crawled into the cockpit (I was of superior intelligence),, blades started turning, 1000 feet and up she went - GORGEOUS!!

The ad in Popular Mechanics stated "extremely stable, totally safe because of their gliding capabilities, easier to operate than a parachute"..... At about 1500 feet (not altitude) of towing the "bird" tipped and did a nose first landing into the field,,, bending rotors and body at all kinds of weird angles, scrap - luckely Dan was fine..

Those were the days....

Puc

[bongobobny]

Great story! Yes I remember that PM eggbeater! Some friends and I almost built a VW powered helo! Knowing us it was probably a good thing it never got off of the drawing board...

[Flyinfool]

Hmmmmmm........

Benson died flying one of those things.

 

But then.

It is still my desire to someday build my own plane or heli for puttering around the sky.

 

The plane would be a Kitfox, the heli would be a Safari.:mo money: