I've heard about Homer Bell from numerous sources. In fact it seems hard to strike up a technical conversation about RotorWay aircraft without Homer's name eventually popping up.

I was interested in attending Homer's fly-in this July. It's an annual event at his farm just outside of Hillsboro Ohio. It's usually well attended by helicopter owners (mostly RotorWay) who like to swap stories and show off their choppers. There's a lot of innovation to be seen there.

I found Homer's phone number in a back issue of RotorHeads news letter and gave him a call. As it turns out he an his wife Sharon were traveling and visiting their daughter in San Antonio.

They planned to leave San Antonio and drive to Hot Spring Arkansas to pick up a RotorWay and trailer it to Illinois. I think Homer said he had brokered the sale of the chopper. Homer provides numerous services for RotorWay owners and buyers including building assistance and consulting. Homer's been involved, in some form, with RotorWay aircraft since the early days of he Scorpion (some 20 years or so).

On the phone with Homer I began to realize the true breadth of his knowledge of RotorWay machines. We discussed his fees for consulting and I was able to convince him to make time in his schedule to come by Parker TX. and check out the progress on my RotorWay project.

Garsh, as Homer would say. I was both excited and apprehensive about what he would find by inspecting my project. Well, as it turns out, it was a great experience. Homer and Sharon are down to earth, folks with a genuine interest in the people around them. Regrettably I didn't get any pictures with Sharon. Homer and I quickly got immersed in RW stuff.

Homer's inspecting my tail rotor assembly. He actually found a bushing I had installed backward. He also showed me sign's of an over torqued nut on one of the rotor blade attachments. I was impressed.

Here the rotor slider assembly gets a good looking over. Drat, he discovered I used some aluminum rivets where I should have used steel rivets on the rear bracket plate. It took me about 15 minutes to change them out.

Homer was able to spend about six hours with me before he headed off to Hot Springs. During that time we went through the RW schematic drawings and he made notations about critical or confusing parts of the plans. We talked a lot about various aspects of construction and flying. He pointed out some tools in the Wicks catalog I will need to do a better construction job.

By the time Homer had to leave, I felt completely satisfied with our time. It was a knowledge feast for me. I was stuffed full! I'm really looking forward to his fly in this summer.