Originally Posted by
Positive Gees
Keen to hear others thoughts.
See
my post in this thread, #1149. Same sort of thing, me being someone with Robinson-only time getting a first couple of hours in the G2. My review was not exactly hard-hitting but I think in general agreement with your initial reactions to the G2.
I thought
alphanumeric's follow up post was more frank and to the point, and in a much more direct way it also matched my initial impressions. Alas, his post appears to have been deleted, but a quote from it lives on in this thread in
post #1150, which I'll repeat here:
The Cabri is ok, but
a) it's got no power. The R22 is much more powerful
b) the controls are much too stiff
c) it's very hard to keep it in balance/trim
d) the Fenestrom is a pain (much more so than bigger aircraft that use it). they should just have put a proper tail rotor on it
Not totally sure I agree with (c), but the rest of it certainly. Perhaps (a) is now somewhat mitigated by the recently revised power limits, but I have not flown a G2 since then and will be unlikely to ever fly one again unless they become insanely popular in the US (also unlikely).
I was describing it not too long ago to someone that I fly with here and said to him "Less power and performance than an R22, the fit and finish of a Mercedes, all at the cost of an R44".
I did very much enjoy pushovers and the auto-rotative performance of three blades, though. Nevertheless, from a pure utility standpoint, for the money you'll get a lot more done with an R44. Perhaps someday Robinson will build an R44 with a similar rotorhead.