Mini 500?

[rfresh]

What ever happened to the Mini 500?

 

[AKAAB]

Long gone. I used to read the newsgroup back when they were making them.

As I recall, they closed up shop after too many problems with quality control and apparent lack of significant research into the design. The idea was neat, but the manufacturer refused the suggestions from some very intelligent people that were trying to help mature they design to make it safer. I think there as a major pitching problem with an engine failure, blades were bending like bananas after a couple of hours and major assemblies like the main rotor shaft were being shipped out even though they were proved to be out of round and lacking consistent milling thicknesses. All in all, many think that no matter how perfectly you built a Mini500, you were risking your life to do more than a hover.

Then, one of the key builders, Gil, was killed in a Mini500.

They closed up shot shortly thereafter.

 

[rfresh]

What a shame. I spoke to Dennis Fetters when he was just starting to put the kits together. You're right though, he had his own ideas on how he was going to market his Mini 500 and don't confuse him with any facts.

I asked him (at that time) if he was going to come out with a 2 seat version and he said no way, ever - due to the possibilities of being sued from that second pax seat. I noted a year or two later he announced a two seater and was going after the Robinson (training) market. A good idea at the time I thought.

I think had he been successful, he could have owned the small helicopter training business and taken all the market away from Robinson. Fetters said you could operate a Mini 500 for 20.00 an hour in gas (back then).

 

[avbug]

Fetters was marketing the helicopter not to schools, and not to pilots, but to those with no rotor experience at all...the worst possible crowd to fly them, but also the only crowd to fly them because nobody else wanted anything to do with them.

Fetters was to the mini-500 what Rayburn is to the Eclipse...you could tell when he wasn't speaking the truth because he was...speaking.

The most surprising thing to come from the mini-500 was that Fetters was never lynched by the irate buyers of his kits.

Now, a very interesting kit helicopter (for those who consider them) is the Helicycle.

 

[rfresh]

>The most surprising thing to come from the mini-500 was that Fetters was never lynched by the irate buyers of his kits.

Lol, not really, Jim Bede never got lynched for his BD-5 kits...

 

[avbug]

Jim Bede was brilliant, and had far more to his credit than the BD-5.

Fetters is not, and does not.