was the bensen b9 little zipster fixed pitch rotor

“Start the engine with the propeller set to fine,” he says. He agrees the handling in flight is similar to that of a fixed-wing aircraft, but since I won’t be flying a takeoff, I ask him to talk me through the procedure. I won’t be able to take the controls for takeoff and landing as Kevin, an experienced instructor on microlights, isn’t yet able to instruct on ‘gyrocopters’. They run a microlight school, Fly By Light, and have plans to offer instruction in the Cavalon.Ī week later, photographer Keith Wilson and cameraship pilot Claudio (provided by MAK Aviation) are with me in Fly By Light’s clubroom, briefing for a flight test. With its egg-shaped pod, sharply pointed at front and rear, it has a sci-fi look, the kind of thing Frank Hampson might have pictured us all using instead of cars in the future in his illustrations in Eagle comic in the 1950s.Īndrea Banks and Kevin O’Neill, co-owners at Elstree, had only just had their Cavalon delivered when I first saw it. The Cavalon is a most striking-looking aircraft. You can get away with having the thrust line on the fuselage axis, but only if the rotors are considerably higher still, as they are in the Cavalon.

(which is what keeps the autogyro’s blades turning). Increasing power tends to pitch the aircraft nose-down and any suggestion of negative G is anathema to a lifting surface dependent on airflow from below. There is a built-in pitch/power coupling in most autogyros: the engine has to be mounted high to give clearance to the propeller blades. So the greater the distance between ‘wing’ and centre of gravity, the greater the control and stability. The first is a tail boom with horizontal tail surfaces, which improves stability the second is raising the rotor higher above the fuselage.Įssentially, autogyros achieve their pitch and roll control in the same manner as weightshift microlights, by altering the centre of gravity in relation to the ‘wing’. The Cavalon has some superficial similarity to the old RAF 2000, but with two major additions that make the aircraft far safer. This makes it easier to fly, but inevitably robs the autogyro of some of the helicopter’s versatility. You can’t hover a Cavalon just above the ground and there’s no collective, the lever in helicopters controlling lift. (In theory the Cavalon can land ‘on the spot’, but in practice it usually needs a short runway for landing as well as for takeoff.)

Perhaps the major difference is the Cavalon needs a runway of at least 300 metres for takeoff, whereas the R22 doesn’t. Replacement rotor blades cost around £3,000 each and they are ‘lifed’ at 2,500 hours.īoth Cavalon and R22 require a significant outlay in training ? a minimum of 35 hours to convert a standard PPL for ‘gyroplanes’ (as the CAA now calls them), 39 hours for helicopters. The cruise speed of around seventy knots is considerably slower than the R22’s 95, but then running costs for the Cavalon, particularly maintenance, will be considerably cheaper. Sitting in one in flight is not unlike sitting in a two-seat helicopter, with joystick and pedal controls, rotor blades whirling overhead and a splendid view out, particularly down.

For just over a third of that ? £78,000 for the basic model ? UK agent RotorSport will sell you a Cavalon, an autogyro with side-by-side seating in a comfortable, fully-enclosed cabin. If you fancy the look and feel of a Robinson R22 but at a fraction of the price - and running costs - try the CavalonĪ Robinson R22 helicopter costs around £203,000.

Was the bensen b9 little zipster fixed pitch rotor