Okay lads .... Here's another B2 man for in 1975 I purchased G-AWDU which was a B fuel injected version. And by the way I paid the monstrous sum of £2,000 for the beast.
In those days my bos was the inimitable Roy Spooner and I liked the type so much, I suggested we take on some kind of sales agency. Roy's fledgling company was the exclusive European distibutor for Enstrom in those days.
Roy promptly dispatched me to Alva Field in Oklahoma wherew the temp happened to be minus 20 degrees. I met a certain Mr Mike Hynes who had earlier purchased the Brantley name plus several B2s and a load of parts. He renamed the firm 'Brantley-Hynes' and was running the firm with his father. He also had a 305 machine in stock.
Among the spares was a massive oven for forming the cabin glass. I was a little concerned when the efferevescent Hynes showed me a three year sales graph, which ran left to right on a gently rising curve, but which in year three jumped some 100%.
I asked the question.
"That's where I buy out the Enstrom factory" ... he cheerfully told me !
Later with Hynes as my safety pilot, I lifted the 305 to a hover, which at the time was my first ever lift with a wheeled machine. I soon realised some delicate yaw pedal control was in order as the type rotates quite nicely with an incorrect yaw pedal input.
But the 305 was a positive 'bouncer' and our older pruners will know of the Freemans of Bewdley loss in the early 70s. So I returned to the B2.
All I can say was I couldn't fault the B2s handling and the double flapping hinges do ensure a nicely balanced M/R disc and a smooth ride. Top speed wasn't as good as the R22 or the Enstrom, but still a little over 100 mph.
Later when getting a few more hours on my own machine DU, I got to like the handling in autorotation. Plenty of rotor inertia of course due to the very solid blades. I tried hard to induce a 'vortex ring' condition, but it would only offer the usual airframe buffet and random yaw and even a hint of cyclic movement would instantly recover. Likewise I couldn't induce a ground resonance even with some coarse cyclic handling. The standard Lycoming HIO always gave me 10 gph and as usual with the 360 cubic inch engine, oil consumption was virtually nil.
I was however aware of the 1970s CSE blade separation occurence and overall, my boss decided we wouldn't take the marque on.
But to repeat, I do like the type, the general handling was firm and precise and although I never tried, I'm sure the type would put on a good freestyle show, but as has been said here .... absolutely no pax movements with rotors turning. Now the type has been returned to production it could prove to be a good training machine. Beas at Kindlington used them extensively at one time and my old Chief Flying Instructor at Skyline Helicopters, Squadron Leader Tony Clarke, was a real expert on type. The last price I saw posted was $150,000 US dollars. Not much more than £75,000 at today's money rate. That makes it the lowest cost new piston factory built machine on offer anywhere, but I expect the price has gone higher now.
Hope my pennorth will help your enquirers, PM me for more details of my personal ownership, albeit she sold for £10k but inb those days 'margins' were my business.
Happy new year all pruners.
Dennis Kenyon