A Chinese villager attempting to test-fly a home-made helicopter made with a boat engine was stopped after concerned police intervened.

Chen Ruihua, 59, from Changshu in Jiangsu province, eastern China, is an amateur aircraft builder with no engineering expertise, according to a press release from local police.

“There were only two people including me who were involved in the test flying, and we did not allow any bystanders,” Chen told the police in response to their safety concerns.

Chen grew up loving handicrafts, and began building helicopters three years ago as a hobby.

According to Chen, the helicopter he was testing is the third generation he has made after the previous two models failed.

“I worked on this helicopter for about a year; so far I’ve spent about 200,000 yuan (US$31,250) on the hobby,” Chen said.

Chen said he learned how to build a helicopter by teaching himself using information he can find on the internet. He said the current helicopter is a replica of a Russian rotorcraft model, and was made with motorboat engines and parts bought online and from hardware stores.

The aircraft, according to Chen, can fly hundreds of metres and has a folding fuselage.

Chen is a member of a WeChat group for home-made aircraft enthusiasts, and he frequently communicates with other members across the country about technology and accessories.

When asked about the helicopter he was trying to test, Chen said he did not build it merely for pleasure, but that he intended to use it in a variety of practical ways.

“For example, it may be converted into a drone and utilised as an agricultural machine to spray pesticides on farmlands, or used to assist in firefighting,” Chen said proudly.

However, Chen’s home-made helicopter test-fly voyage came to an abrupt end when local police caught him standing by the roadside with his aircraft.

“We saw him standing there with his helicopter and asked him what he was doing, and we found out that he had been test-flying the aircraft before we spotted him and had done so several times,” a policeman, surnamed Wang, told the South China Morning Post.

Home-made aircraft are not prohibited in mainland China, however, they cannot be flown by an unlicensed individual.

The police instructed Chen not to fly the aircraft again, citing safety concerns. They subsequently visited his house numerous times, fearing that he might try to test the contraption again.

After much discussion, Chen promised to stop flying the helicopter until he was qualified.

Many people were impressed by Chen’s efforts and expressed regret that he was unable to continue testing the helicopter.

“There are too many constraints, which is why it’s difficult for civilian scientists to make inventions,” one person commented on Douyin.

by Yingjie Wang in SCMP, Mar 29, 2022

https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/trending-china/article/3172171/chinese-villager-no-engineering-expertise?module=lead_hero_story&pgtype=homepage