Many years ago I did my Gyro training on the J2, was licenced, then conducted certification test flying on the machine.
Strange but true.
This was over 40 years ago but ......
I thought that it wasn't a bad way of converting avgas into noise (good earplugs required), but a few things come to mind.
The static directional stability was a bit weak with low side forces to cue the pilot of sideslip.
The major problem with this was that the airspeed PEC corrections changed dramatically in sideslip. Not much sideslip was required for the IAS to drop to zero at virtually any speed. This was fixed by fitting a shrouded pitot head.
I didn't much like the capability to easily reach a zero rate of climb speed at full power. That is, a speed at which descent was required to accelerate to a speed at which the aircraft would climb. If I recall correctly this was a speed that was fairly high compared to the low speeds which could be safely (except for the required acceleration to a climb speed} flown during a descent
Taxiing in winds required attention to avoid blade sailing of the rotor.
Generally, I thought the handling was Ok including practice forced landings with idle power. Care was required as the high drag at low speed could cause airspeed control difficulties.
Great fun to land and stop on a postage stamp, needed much more room to take-off though.
Another poster here was the flight test engineer for this flying, his recollections may be more accurate than mine.
Have lots of fun!
Last edited by zzuf; 6th Aug 2018 at 12:43.