[youtube]https://youtu.be/tyFj3h8LZbE[/youtube]

How do those blades keep from hitting each other?

That is some amazing engineering!

Charles Kaman was a freaky genius.

A friend of mine went up there in the late 90's (I think) seeking to be their rep in South America. The bigwigs kept putting off the meeting and so he was hanging around the lobby when an old guy with a dog came in. They got to talking and the old guy asked my friend if he'd like a tour of the place. My friend had no clue who he was but they proceeded to walk around the factory for hours, with the dog, and no one seemed to care.

The next day he got his meeting, where they explained they couldn't hire him because he wasn't connected enough. Just then the old guy walked in (with his dog), sat down beneath his portrait on the wall, and Charlie Kaman said, "Oh, I see you've all met our new rep for South America." Turns out he was connected enough after all!

My buddy said Kaman was a great guy, and eventually they sold a half dozen K-Max's in South America.

I hitched a ride on one once from Ton Son Nhut to Bihn Hoa.

I survived.

In the very late 1990’s there was one at a fire base near Glacier National Park. I could not get close to it and it was not being used that day …

Not quite accurate. Kaman still has one flying for pilot training in the K-Max. My family operated the Husky from 1984 till 2012 for helicopter logging. It is really a unique aircraft and handled the work very well. I never got to meet Charlie but I remember (barely) meeting one of his sons who was documenting the work the Husky was doing when they were developing the K-Max.

I was lucky enough to start my career logging in the Husky in the early 2000’s and got around 800 hours in it before transitioning to flying the K-Max.

It has some really odd characteristics. One of those is that it uses differential torque for yaw control. When in an autorotation the torque reaction is “reversed.” To avoid having the pilot have to compensate there is a mechanical mixer that reverses the pedal inputs. The strange experience it provides is when the programmer cam (connected to the collective)is at about 20% there is basically no yaw control. In addition it is really short coupled, the entire fuselage and tail are under the rotor system, and all those things combined will cause it to swap ends in a real hurry. Pretty exciting at first but after a while you just get comfortable going whatever direction it decides to point.

Good memories for sure but moving to the K-Max was a welcome upgrade.

Many AF bases had one. Call sign, “Pedro”.
As well as R&R, they used their downwash to push back the flames for the fire fighters.

Kaman also was the inventor of the "Ovation" guitar.

Every cockpit video I see of a K-Max seems show a lot of cyclic feedback into the control stick. I guess this is a vestige of the main rotor-flap control. Nobody seems excited about it and I guess K-Max pilots get used to it. It would be unnerving for me.

Great design, lifts its own weight.

--paul

In 1967 when I was between the T-37 and T-38 phases of pilot training I went over to the Pedro building and asked if I could ride. They were happy to accommodate me and I guess they logged it as training of some sort. Anyway we flew around South Georgia, chased a flock or two of birds, and landed. The pilot let me control the cyclic but not the collective or the pedals for a little bit. That's the only time I ever "flew" a helicopter although I have ridden in one a few times since.