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: