I'm planning on picking up my Helicycle this weekend and was told to take some dual in an R22 since it most closely simulated the handling of a Helicycle. My experience consists of roughly 75 hours in a Brantly 10 years ago and 1.5 hours in an Enstrom 28F 1 year ago. I was preparing for the worst hearing about how hard the R22 was to fly.

The instructor (also owns the 22) walked me through the start-up procedure and I rode with him on the controls up to 1500 MSL where he had me take over. I was pleasantly surprised to find I had no problem maintaining heading, altitude, speed, and performing normal 15 degree turns. After some flying around I did a normal approach and put it into a hover, did a pedal turn, and then hover taxi to a set-down. We did some more approaches and 15 minutes more of hovering and then taxied back to the hangar. I had no problem whatsoever with this machine and actually enjoyed flying it very much.

The only thing I "struggled" with was how much forward push it took on the cyclic going through ETL to gain forward speed. Other than that it is is pretty straightforward and a nice flying ship. Doing another lesson tomorrow with some autorotations as well. Looking forward to it. It will be interesting flying the turbine Helicycle home on a long X-Country. Once you fly helicopters you really don't care to fly planes unless you are going somewhere far; although, I must say it was nice to hop into the Bonanza and cruise home at 170 knots and no vibration with the autopilot on.

Hi Todd,

I've got 1,000 hours of R-22 time, including nearly 800 hours of dual given. I did my Rotor-ATP in one, and got a type rating to go along with it.

They are absolutely great ships, and they do what they do like no other aircraft. Like any aircraft, however, you MUST respect their limitations.

Best,
Rich

I agree Rich. While it flew nicely it is definitely underpowered like my Brantly was. With that said, it's tail rotor was far more effective than the Brantly. The Helicycle has a significantly higher power to weight ratio. Should be fun.

Hi Todd,

In all that time, I never encountered a situation where tail rotor effectiveness was ever a question.

However (and there's always one of those):

You have to be careful with the tail rotor on the R-22. It is an under-cambered airfoil that puts out gobs and gobs of thrust, BUT, it's a real power hog. You can run down your rotor RPM surprisingly fast by stomping on it.

Most, if not all, Robbies these days have throttle govenors, but back in the day of the Beta 1's with the old throttle correlator, you had to keep an eye on it, especially if it was windy. That was back in the O-320 days as well, where 131 was the max TO HP.

I met Frank Robinson when he was still teaching the R-22 CFI safety course in 1990. Meeting him was worth the price of admission alone. What a dude.

Best,
Rich

I saw the thread title and said "Me too!"

I'm about done with the Frank FAR. The school is getting an R44 in 2 months then it'll be time for the CFII and ATP.

For performance, I love the 269. For cost, I'm loving the R22. Rich, I think you just dated yourself. Hasn't it been awhile since there were helicopter types (I almost got the BH06) let alone an R22 produced with the big doghouse for the instrument gyros?

Todd, still looking for a place to hide the Helicycle from the tax man? The offer still stands.



EDIT: after posting this, looks like I got a little carried away with the smilies....

Hi Todd,

In all that time, I never encountered a situation where tail rotor effectiveness was ever a question.

However (and there's always one of those):

You have to be careful with the tail rotor on the R-22. It is an under-cambered airfoil that puts out gobs and gobs of thrust, BUT, it's a real power hog. You can run down your rotor RPM surprisingly fast by stomping on it.

Most, if not all, Robbies these days have throttle govenors, but back in the day of the Beta 1's with the old throttle correlator, you had to keep an eye on it, especially if it was windy. That was back in the O-320 days as well, where 131 was the max TO HP.

I met Frank Robinson when he was still teaching the R-22 CFI safety course in 1990. Meeting him was worth the price of admission alone. What a dude.

Best,
Rich

Hi Andy,

Yea, I was just a kid...21 years old. I fell into a gig as a CFII-H. I essentially had a brand new R-22 as my personal ship because I was the only CFII around who was actually teaching.

It had the "big" pod for the required instruments, and included a B/K HSI/Compass system and an ADF with a slaved compass card (that was NEAT back then). It also had the then "new" throttle governor, but it was more like an autothrottle...you could feel it making throttle corrections under your hand.

Fun times...

Best,
Rich

True. We had a saying "if you can see your hand move, you moved it too much"

Best,
Rich

Todd
I'm halfway through my Commercial Licence in an R44. Loving every minute. Different profile to the Baron, a great combination however.
Eric

coming to Burlington? Give me a call! I've got to meet the Great Todd Sanderson!

Nick

Nick,

Will be at Burlington Airport abot 10:00 AM. I need about an hour to learn about the Helicycle and fly it around before having my mind switch gears, but would be very interested in meeting you if I am still alive after the flight

Hope you are not expecting much. I'm just an average guy that gripes too much

True. We had a saying "if you can see your hand move, you moved it too much"

Best,
Rich

Doing the same thing in a Schweizer. Awesome experience.

Todd, hope you have a current heli pilot fly your helicycle, just to prove there are no glitches/descrepancies and it does fly, after that work was done. Be safe Todd! You are a BT treasure.

Yeah, but unlike treasure, we sure wouldn't want to bury him!