Man bought a crate from South America with an abandoned helicopter in, but there were some concerns when opening it

In a bid to land themselves a bargain, one man bought an abandoned helicopter in a crate from South America, but not all was it first seemed.

Car restoration projects can sometimes be lucrative, especially old vintage American cars primed for a refurb.

But some mechanics are wheeling themselves out of cars and onto planes and helicopters instead.

How different can they be, really?

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YouTuber buys ‘sketchy’ abandoned helicopter from South America

With abandoned planes already quite the trend for restoration projects, YouTuber Cleetus McFarland has now opted to rebuild a helicopter instead.

The chopper of choice? A crate-shipped MD500 that had been abandoned in South America.

Dubbed ‘the sketchiest deal I’ve ever made,’ McFarland explained that the helicopter was left out in Venezuela for the better part of 10 years, but hoped he could turn around the reported engine malfunctions.

The helicopter was being shipped from the South America country to McFarland’s land in Miami, where he would be going into the sale blind.

After four months of coordinating with customs in both Venezuela and US, with many hiccups on the way, the helicopter had finally landed.

And, it was fair to say that this wasn’t quite what he’d hoped for.

“It really doesn’t look like it’s packaged as well as it’s supposed to be,” McFarland said on first inspection.

While the abandoned helicopter wasn’t in horrible condition, it had been clearly sliding around the container, having budged from its straps, and was touching the wall as they opened the crate up.

The heli was missing its rotor head, which they were aware of beforehand, but loose components had been sliding around during shipping, leaving concerns over its condition.

But was the helicopter worth the purchase?

Concerns continued to grow for McFarland as he called in a helicopter specialist to look over its internals.

The majority of the cost for this helicopter stems from the engine, and he hoped that it would work.

However, these concerns were short-lived, as the mechanic revealed that the engine’s viability appeared to be better than they would have guessed.

Some small repairs to the engine would be needed, the dampeners needed replacing, and the body would need restoring, but all seemed much more positive than they first thought.

The abandoned helicopter soon got itself airborne too, after months of grafting and an impressive paint job.

Although the restoration turned out well, the massive operation to get the aircraft from South America might push McFarland and other mechanics back to cars – or maybe we’ll see more hybrid helicopter go-karts in the future…