Affordable, Experimental Helos Make A Comeback

ANN's Paul Plack had a ball at last month's popular Rotorcraft Association annual convention and Fly-In in Mentone, In. While there was plenty to see and experience, Paul was particularly impressed with the demo flying of John Snider, the owner of Personal Rotorcraft, LLC and a distributor for the Mosquito kit helicopter line. John's stunning Mosquito XE put on quite a show and few folks who saw him fly will be able to forget his aggressive demos of the machine at Oshkosh and Mentone.

The Mosquito XE/XEL is powered by a 60HP Compact Radial Engines MZ202, a 2 cylinder, 2 stroke powerplant that has been used for a number of years on various iterations of the Mosquito design. The XE is equippd with skids while the XEL configuration is equipped with floats and reportedly requires 250-300 to build. It may also be bought fully assembled and operated as an 'ultralight' rotorcraft.

The 312 pound Mosquito XEL has a gross weight of 610 pounds and a fuel burn of 4.5 gph and a fuel capacity of 5 gallons (due to ultralight regs, though the Experimental version can carry 12 gallons). 'Ultralight' range is 60 miles and HIGE is 8000 feet and HOGE is 6500' with a top speed (Exp) of 80 mph.

Join Paul and John as they take a close look at the intriguing single place, experimental Mosquito helo...

FMI: www.innovator.mosquito.net.nz, www.personalrotorcraft.com/, www.aero-tv.net, www.youtube.com/aerotvnetwork, http://twitter.com/AeroNews