I tried it, and loved it!
I flew the prototype in 1994 in Saladillo – Argentina. It was a very simple machine, basically a small helicopter with limited power an attached to a system of rails and actuators that stopped it from rolling over or flying higher than 3 ft.
My wife had a go on it. The first ‘lesson’ (10 min. long) was with loads of friction applied, the height limited to 2 ft. She was on her own, while Augusto Cicaré gave her instructions: more collective, open the throttle, etc. As soon as she got airborne, as you could expect, the helicopter started yawing right at a considerable, but still safe, rate. Then Augusto carried on: left pedal, more throttle, etc. She tried a few take offs and landings and, since it was safe and there was not interference from an instructor sitting beside her, she could take all the necessary corrective actions until she got the particular manoeuvre right.
We had some ‘mate’ (Argentinean drink), and after that Augusto invited my wife for a second lesson, this time with the height limited to 3ft and the friction at the middle level. Surprisingly her performance was much better this time. She had learnt the basics of the hover in just 20 min.
My self-esteem was down (I wasn’t the only pilot at home), and she was over the moon.
Then I had a bit of fun with it with no friction and, and it was great to try tail control failures and autos from the hover (It had a remote control that allowed Augusto to induce such failures with no previous warning).
Overall: A great machine for new trainees to safely and quickly learn the basics of the hover, with no interference from a scared instructor that is trying to save his life. Drawback: Once you’ve learnt the hover basics, there’s no much else you can do with it, apart from practicing tail control failures in the hover.
I flew the prototype in 1994 in Saladillo – Argentina. It was a very simple machine, basically a small helicopter with limited power an attached to a system of rails and actuators that stopped it from rolling over or flying higher than 3 ft.
My wife had a go on it. The first ‘lesson’ (10 min. long) was with loads of friction applied, the height limited to 2 ft. She was on her own, while Augusto Cicaré gave her instructions: more collective, open the throttle, etc. As soon as she got airborne, as you could expect, the helicopter started yawing right at a considerable, but still safe, rate. Then Augusto carried on: left pedal, more throttle, etc. She tried a few take offs and landings and, since it was safe and there was not interference from an instructor sitting beside her, she could take all the necessary corrective actions until she got the particular manoeuvre right.
We had some ‘mate’ (Argentinean drink), and after that Augusto invited my wife for a second lesson, this time with the height limited to 3ft and the friction at the middle level. Surprisingly her performance was much better this time. She had learnt the basics of the hover in just 20 min.
My self-esteem was down (I wasn’t the only pilot at home any more), and she was over the moon.
Then I had a bit of fun with it with no friction, and it was great to try tail control failures and autos from the hover (It had a remote control that allowed Augusto to induce such failures with no previous warning).
Overall: A great machine for new trainees to safely and quickly learn the basics of hovering, with no interference from a scared instructor that is trying to save his life. Drawback: Once you’ve learnt the hover basics, there’s no much else you can do with it, apart from practicing tail control failures in the hover.
NB: If you'd like to get some pictures of these epic hover flights, please e-mail me.