Augusto Cicare SVH-3 (EasyCopter) trainer

[twistair]

Is there anybody familiar with this device?
I'm curious about it's pros and contras for training.

Thanks,

M.T.

[verticalflight]

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.

[twistair]

Ahha...I guess now what is the main key to successful hover lessons: just a drink of mateeee...:D

To be serious - thanks a lot for the practical comments.

Anybody else with new inputs?

[Helitemp]

If you go to http://www.easycopter.ch you will get some info, they run a two ship training school outside Lucern in Switzerland. I worked for their parent company Helog AG i Switzerland, had a go of it last summer, the easy copter has a rotax engine and it can fly in the frame but it cant hover out of ground effect. The swiss have a course of 10 hrs which teaches you the hover and other flight manuvers at a lot less than R22 hrs. they have agreement from Australian ,FAA and New Zealand Authorities that the 10 hrs will count for hours towards a ppl. Hope this info helps you out



Regards

Helitemp

[twistair]

Thanks for the input.

I know this website as well as some others who offer training in SVH-3.
But I'm looking for information which comes not from people who sells this device and services - you know the game rules.
I'm looking for real info from those whose wallet doesn't depend on this info ;)

[HeliGaz]

i had a go in one of these machines a couple of years ago and didnt think it much use.

as an instructor with about 2500 R22 training hours , yes it can be difficult to hover - but it was designed to be a private machine for high time pilots.

it does make a reasonable trainer for people who want to go further i.e commercial etc but for hobby pilots i prefer the schweizer 300cb - a dedicated trainer that is easier to hover etc.

the tethered heli is not much good as it dumps the student in at the deep end with all 3 controls and with little understanding of how they work. i always do 5-10 hours upper air work before starting hovering so the student gets an understanding of the controls

the machine i tried incidentally at the time was only about £15K less than an R22, needless to say my employer didnt buy one!

also as the uk caa wont acept any time done in the machine it is difficult to sell the idea to students

[The Nr Fairy]

There's a video of said device ( 1Mb download ) available at helis.com (http://www.helis.com/movies) - check the MPEG section, it's the one at the top.