07-09-2026, 09:38 AM
Most accidents involve several preventable events that culminate in that outcome. Jim did not keep his tail rotor belt at the proper tension and he was flying over a wooded area with no good landing spot. What he did right was to not panic, when in doubt-auto out. He continued flying his disabled helicopter by immediately entering an autorotation, flaring into the tops of the trees and lived to fly again, although never again in his once-beautiful Rotorway.
My own Rotorway has a beautiful 25 year old paint job with many of the screws and dzus fasteners showing chipped paint from the many panel removals during maintenance and pre-flight inspections. It has been a great helicopter and is on engine #8 which is Joe Huffs final version of his 172 conversion. I flew the original engine until it was tired at around 300 hours. At that point I had Montana Kasey rebuild the engine which lasted 33.3 hours before blowing up in flight. At that point I installed a spare engine from a roll over that I had purchased and flew it for another 20 hours before installing Joe's first prototype engine. I flew each of the 4 Joe Huff prototype engines in my helicopter for several hours before we would remove them, tear them down and check wear. Joe would make some changes, build another engine and we would install it in my ship then fly with it until time to tear it down again for inspection.
The process was arduous but Joe was determined to get it right before offering his conversion to the community. I do not look forward to another engine removal/installation cycle and I am confident that this latest version of Joe's engine will last the rest of my flying career.
My own Rotorway has a beautiful 25 year old paint job with many of the screws and dzus fasteners showing chipped paint from the many panel removals during maintenance and pre-flight inspections. It has been a great helicopter and is on engine #8 which is Joe Huffs final version of his 172 conversion. I flew the original engine until it was tired at around 300 hours. At that point I had Montana Kasey rebuild the engine which lasted 33.3 hours before blowing up in flight. At that point I installed a spare engine from a roll over that I had purchased and flew it for another 20 hours before installing Joe's first prototype engine. I flew each of the 4 Joe Huff prototype engines in my helicopter for several hours before we would remove them, tear them down and check wear. Joe would make some changes, build another engine and we would install it in my ship then fly with it until time to tear it down again for inspection.
The process was arduous but Joe was determined to get it right before offering his conversion to the community. I do not look forward to another engine removal/installation cycle and I am confident that this latest version of Joe's engine will last the rest of my flying career.