Crash called setback, not defeat

Firefighters foam down the crash Thursday evening. Two occupants escaped serious injury, but the helicopter sustained fire damage. (Connie Jo Discoe/McCook Daily Gazette)

A scorched helicopter and minor injuries that could be treated with bandages and a soak in a hot tub won't stop the development of a kit helicopter that crashed Thursday evening outside a hangar at McCook's airport, according to the two men aboard at the time.

Marvin May of Oberlin, the helicopter's pilot, said this morning that the injuries that he and Pawnee Aviation owner Ron Willocks sustained in the crash are minor -- four stitches to close a cut on his own head and scrapes on Willocks' hands and leg and a cut by his nose. "Nothing real serious, but I'm sure Ron needed a hot tub this morning," May said. The helicopter is "99 percent shot," he said, "but 'quit' isn't in our vocabulary. This will slow us down time-wise, sure, but it won't stop us, not by any means."

"I want everybody to know that we have no intention whatsoever of quitting," Willocks said. He said another production model is well under construction and should be ready for flight testing in three or four weeks.

Pawnee Aviation came to McCook in January 2005 to build a plant and offer kits of the company's prototype helicopter to homebuilders. A major development process has been creating a perfect balance in the rotor and blades, according to progress reports to Red Willow County commissioners, who authorized a $300,000 loan from the county's revolving loan fund in late 2004 to help finance the company's move from Colorado and development of the helicopter in the plant in the former railroad roundhouse at the south end of Norris Avenue.

On Thursday, "Ron had just gotten a new electronic tester," May said, "and we were hovering and taking readings. We'd make an adjustment, and land and hover, and land and hover, two to three feet off the ground."

Fifteen to 20 trips up and down were "a little frustrating," May said, "but that last----