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!!

Yep, that has been one of my contact points at least three times in the last 4 months & still nothing. Gotta love the French attitude to doing business

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.

Turbo,

I was referring to Eurocopters lack of communication and parts availability. I hope that Guimbal's association with Eurocopter doesn't teach them Eurocopter's bad habits.

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.

the new cabri is arrived ;-)
 

Never seen that one before, what type is it?

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

Ah excellent.. cheers!

Screw that, R22 is bad enough in euros lol!

The proud parents introduce the new born to the world.

CABRI
 

F-GXRI the middle of the three was at my local airstrip last weekend. It looks great close up.

The owner of the strip has a plastics moulding company and makes moulds for Cabri.

I like the TR design, looks fancy on such a small chopper :E

400 Euro per hour? That is a joke, isn't it?

Not if you are paid in EUR as opposed to South Pacific peso's! ;)

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

Id have to agree there, after looking at them videos, def..

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)

Performance

• Service ceiling: 3963 m (13,000 ft)

R22:
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)

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

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!

Ahh two che Bravo..

Tho id rather the R44, trying to get my sign off done on it at the minute!

The one at the top of the picture has an unfortunate registration. :eek:

There is plenty of information about the Cabri in this thread and more in this one, too :ok:

Any company offering or planning to offer (paid) demo flights in the Cabri right now?

The machine seems to be getting interesting with 270 kg total load compared to around 246kg in the R22

that would mean that it just may be legal to use in shooting ops with two 75 kg crew, 40 kg rifle and ammunition, five kg tracking gear and maybe 2.5 hours endurance with 15 litres reserve.

certainly the three blades would have to be a smooth platform.

i note that the engine runs at 50 rpm more than in the R22 but the consumption is stated at 34 lts per hour instead of about 36 per hour in the R22 install. Something does not add up there.

does the engine assy use the lightweight (ally inserts) cylinders or were they patented to Franks' inventions only?

If they were all steel and then the ally insert pots put on then it would make a fairly mean machine.

There is only two problems, we would need about 50,000 hours of relatively surprise free hours to prove it and a price reduction of at least 60,000 Euro. I don't think it whorthwhile to wait for the the US dollar to drop more as the price will mean no new machione purchases if the exchange goes to high.

Difference carburetor vs. fuel injection?
Or maybe that "in-house digital ignition control"?

TET,

Something does add up - Plasma Ignition - explained here. STC it on your 22 and you would possible get similar savings. At least it would be one less mag you have to keep repairing or have they fixed that?

No 2000 hourly inspection, no "finite lifed items" if you read the TCDS.

It does have a luggage space that you can actually use.

More inertia in the MR, so a student might actually learn something in a touchdown auto.

I have read that it flies very much like a 120/350 as you would expect.

As a pilot/engineer for nearly 25 years, and privileged to be flying one like the top one in the leading photograph, comparing the R22 to the Cabri is like comparing a Model T to the current MINI.

Saw an R44 recently with a popout float system installed. The inflation cylinder was under the pilots seat!!! How do they get away with this??:ugh:

As for the R66, my own thinking is that current certification requirements will delay this aircraft for some time.

There is plenty of room in the current market for this aircraft. Granted it might take a while to have any effect on the US market, but so far it will probably sell because of the R22 not instead of!

In certain areas the foibles of the R22 are accepted because labour is relatively cheap to just keep fixing them. This is not the case in the Euro zone.

Of course one thing you may have to consider is the mods you would have to do so them cows will hear you!:ouch:

What is the market for this ship - training, general use or a mix? Frank designed the r22 as a commuter but it quickly established itself as THE trainer. The R44 is the worlds biggest selling rotorcraft and is a general use commuter/utility ship.

The cabri will be a great trainer if it can be comparable to the r22 in DOC. If it lacks lifed components, why is apparently so expensive to fly? Being faster and having luggage space does not make it any better for training. Having two seats makes it useless for pretty much everything the r44, the world's biggest selling helicopter, does.

So I think this is a beautiful, technically excellent ship but it won't succeed unless it can be operated about as economically as the r22.

krypton john,

If you are comparing the Cabri to the R22, I imagine that the Cabri is significantly quieter than the R22. (Has anyone actually seen or heard a Cabri in flight to confirm this?) This will be very appealing to certain markets where noise issues are high on the agenda.

If you are comparing it to the R44, the only thing that it really loses out is the 2 extra seats. However, especially for private owners, how many times are those 4 seats actually filled with people? Lots of R44 owners just need the space for baggage, something that the Cabri caters for elsewhere.

I don't even think that the fact that it is priced nearer an R44 will be an issue either - there's a market for both. Let's take the car market as an analogy - there are plenty of 5 seat saloons (Mondeos, Mercs etc) that are the same price as smaller, higher-tech, 2 seater sports cars (Boxters, S2000s etc). They might sell more Mondeos, but they still sell plenty of Boxters...

No i haven't had a chance to check the maintenance schedules, will do sometime soon. what is the maintenance procedures also, can things be fixed up locally after a company "in school", or is it going to be forever - remove component - return to Frank, err sorry FRannnsss.

Noise is becoming less of an issue for cattle work, in fact a bit less of it is often a good idea. Low stress all that sort of thing.

A photograph that I saw somewhere from underneath, spooks me a bit, when I think of the engine compartment heating probs that some other close cowled types have. We are talking 35 degrees C plus for the duration until next Easter right now, right here.

it does appear to be more of a competitor to the CBi rather than the R22.

The thing about lots of umlimited 'life' in the way of component time (as with the CBi) is that the insurance cost escalates dramatically while all this stuff is swinging around your head in pristine nick rather than deteriorating at $90 per hour. Any less than 600 hours per year and the CBi becomes very expensive to insure.

It can be a simple formulae, 80% of 20% or 100% of 5/5ths, who knows, a bit late tonite for me to calculate.

but I tell you, electronic ignition sure has my attention, as does some decent fuel injection. (been wanting to do that to a G5 for a long time)

I hope the Cabri is a success and spawns further developments. But, of course, this would take many years.

There is, as yet, no perfect 'light' helicopter. All the options have their compromises.

FLY 7,

This is the spawn. Bruno is responsible for a lot of design on the 120 and the 155.

Robinsons are like Topsy, kinda just growed.

Sexy itty bitty little thang ain't it?

Brandtzag,

You're going to be inundated there.

I'd suggest you send it to Paco, who can arrange for it to be viewed via his publisher's website.


Phil,

Hope you don't mind, you've gone and done a good job and more work is all the thanks you get!

Price & cost
 

Note that iXair price for the Cabri is 320 euro with flight instructor, while their R22 is at 400-450 euros per hour. Prices could go down with smaller companies. Cabri's operating cost should be less than R22's since she has no life limited parts, whereas you have to throw the R22 away after 2200 hours...

I'd love a copy, and would be happy to post it to my server for everyone else.

Balancing The Cabri
 

Well I for one thing think it is great to see a new helicopter type.
It is easy to sit there and say it should be this and that, but I cannot imagine the cost, blood, sweat and tears that most go into making even the smallest and most simple of helicopters and then deal with the civil aviation regulators to get it type certifed.
Good on you Bruno for giving us a new choice in that maket.
I hope all goes well with it.
So when will we see one in Australia.
Now where can I get the money for one, any ideas?

Since IXAIR put down an order for the first 10 and Eurocopter for the next 5 after that, its unlikely anyone else will own one until sometime in 2010. That is unless Guimbal manage to ramp up production somehow.

Folks: the specification sheets are available for download at Guimbal Cabri G2

Thanks to brandtzag for sending them over yesterday.

Not sure if this has been posted, but I just came across it.

YouTube - Guimbal Cabri G2 at GIFAS centennial anniversary (2)

Monk

One more.

YouTube - Clip vidéo Cabri G2