Guimbal Cabri G2
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 151
Likes: 0
From: Indianapolis, IN, USA
rotors88 - Which email address have you been using? Try [email protected]. Bruno does respond, just bear in mind that Guimbal is still a relatively small team.
rick1128 - Parts issues? Give them a chance to get the thing into service!!
rick1128 - Parts issues? Give them a chance to get the thing into service!!
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 458
Likes: 0
From: Kings Caple, Ross-on-Wye.orPiccots End. Hertfordshire
Guimbal G2
Hi lads,
I'm not apologising for the Guimbal factory team, but just to say that when I visited them at Aix en Provence in February, they had moved into a spanking new factory a couple of weeks earlier, the wall paint was barely dry! ... so they won't have been able to settle in yet and I know my air test published in LOOP has generated too many enquiries for them.
Their current PR person is Mrs Guimbal who has two small youngsters to look after.
But .. the plans are in hand. Staff recruiting, component suppliers, production workers etc. While I was with them no assembly line existed and I doubt if that has happened even now. And just to make one point clear. The Guimbal factory IS NOT controlled by Eurocopter in any areas other than a future deal on production ... perhaps five years or more away. It is entirely a Bruno Guimbal personal show.
I guess the LOOP publicity really was a little premature. Bruno Guimbal was indicating to me that first production ship was probably two years away, so he is not looking at any sales programme for now. (still doesn't excuse a non reply situation to phones/e-mails tho. But he speaks particularly good English.
Of course the currency is now working against him. The US dollar is available for tuppence, while the Euro is at its strongest ever. Perhaps we should scrap the pound and take on the Euro!!
Take care all,
Dennis Kenyon.
I'm not apologising for the Guimbal factory team, but just to say that when I visited them at Aix en Provence in February, they had moved into a spanking new factory a couple of weeks earlier, the wall paint was barely dry! ... so they won't have been able to settle in yet and I know my air test published in LOOP has generated too many enquiries for them.
Their current PR person is Mrs Guimbal who has two small youngsters to look after.
But .. the plans are in hand. Staff recruiting, component suppliers, production workers etc. While I was with them no assembly line existed and I doubt if that has happened even now. And just to make one point clear. The Guimbal factory IS NOT controlled by Eurocopter in any areas other than a future deal on production ... perhaps five years or more away. It is entirely a Bruno Guimbal personal show.
I guess the LOOP publicity really was a little premature. Bruno Guimbal was indicating to me that first production ship was probably two years away, so he is not looking at any sales programme for now. (still doesn't excuse a non reply situation to phones/e-mails tho. But he speaks particularly good English.
Of course the currency is now working against him. The US dollar is available for tuppence, while the Euro is at its strongest ever. Perhaps we should scrap the pound and take on the Euro!!
Take care all,
Dennis Kenyon.
Thread Starter
Joined: Jan 2005
Posts: 36
Likes: 0
From: 752hPa
Give him a break!
The guy's got a young, small company in the middle of the herculean task of developing a brand new helicopter and getting it into production. He hasn't even delivered his first one yet and his order book's full without any marketing effort at all.
If I were him, I certainly wouldn't distract myself from the task in hand by spending hours concentrating on the mountain of enquiries (no doubt for the most part frivolous) he must be getting. Given he hasn't sold anything yet, the cost of employing someone to do it for him must make poor business sense. In a couple of years, if it should come to pass that he needs to actively sell the thing, it may be different.
IMHO, in this day and age of easy communication, too many people seem to feel they're owed a slice of other people's time.
If I were him, I certainly wouldn't distract myself from the task in hand by spending hours concentrating on the mountain of enquiries (no doubt for the most part frivolous) he must be getting. Given he hasn't sold anything yet, the cost of employing someone to do it for him must make poor business sense. In a couple of years, if it should come to pass that he needs to actively sell the thing, it may be different.
IMHO, in this day and age of easy communication, too many people seem to feel they're owed a slice of other people's time.
Joined: Apr 2006
Posts: 5
Likes: 0
From: Marignane
A cabri, 2 seat, piston, from Guimbal helicopter (Aix les Milles) ex-eurocopter staff.
This picture during the official delivery for the first one operational in a FTO (Ixair toussus le Noble) the 19 September.
Since yesterday, you can learn a pplh on this type for 400 Euros an hour.
regards,
Philippe
This picture during the official delivery for the first one operational in a FTO (Ixair toussus le Noble) the 19 September.
Since yesterday, you can learn a pplh on this type for 400 Euros an hour.
regards,
Philippe
Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 223
Likes: 0
From: On the Rump of Pendle Hill GB
Me thinks Uncle Frank will be forced to come out with somthing else, otherwise his nearly sole small Heli market will start to be diluted,
My what a good looking little thing it is, being ex Eurocopter it may be that a lot of very good prior background research and knowledge has helped this craft immensely, .. I would like to see how they fly, and react, cannot be as bad or as twitchy as the R22 is now.... can it?
Anyone flown one , or touched it?
Peter R-B
Vfr
My what a good looking little thing it is, being ex Eurocopter it may be that a lot of very good prior background research and knowledge has helped this craft immensely, .. I would like to see how they fly, and react, cannot be as bad or as twitchy as the R22 is now.... can it?
Anyone flown one , or touched it?
Peter R-B
Vfr
RotorHead
Joined: Jun 2007
Posts: 1,085
Likes: 8
From: Canada
Me thinks Uncle Frank will be forced to come out with somthing else, otherwise his nearly sole small Heli market will start to be diluted,
Thou i wouldn't mind a play in it!
Cabri G2:
General characteristics
- Crew: 1 (pilot)
- Capacity: 1 (passenger)
- Length: 6.31 m (20 ft 8 in)
- Main rotor diameter: × 7.2 m (23 ft 7 in)
- Width: 1.24 m (4 ft 1 in)
- Height: 2.37 m (7 ft 9 in)
- Gross weight: 700 kg (1543 lb)
- Service ceiling: 3963 m (13,000 ft)
General characteristics
- Crew: 2
- Length: 28 ft 8 in (8.7 m)
- Rotor diameter: 25 ft 4 in (7.7 m)
- Height: 8 ft 11 in (2.7 m)
- Disc area: 497 ft² (46.2 m²)
- Empty weight: 796 lb (389 kg)
- Loaded weight: 920 lb (417 kg)
- Max takeoff weight: 1,370 lb (635 kg)
- Powerplant: 1× Lycoming O-320-A2B or -A2C flat 4 piston engine, 124 hp (93 kW)
- Main tank total capacity: 19.8 US gallons (75 liters)
- Main tank usable capacity: 19.2 US gallons (73 liters)
- Optional aux tank total capacity: 10.9 US gallons (41 liters)
- Optional aux tank usable capacity: 10.5 US gallons (40 liters)
Joined: Jan 2006
Posts: 123
Likes: 0
From: Playing in the sand
Ok, gross weight is 1543 lbs, but whats the useful load? The only way it will be able to compete with the 22 is if they can match the cost per hour, cause thats the only reason people fly the 22
RotorHead
Joined: Jun 2007
Posts: 1,085
Likes: 8
From: Canada
Yes, but if it was an option, would you rather train in an R44 or a Cabri? I know which I would choose. Vive le futur!
Tho id rather the R44, trying to get my sign off done on it at the minute!
