WHY Pilots Fly This Instead Of An Helicopter l AutoGyro Cavalon

My name is Bob Snyder and I am from Autogyro USA and we're going to talk about this Cavilon which is one of our most popular models. It is a side-by-side two-place gyroplane powered by Rotax. This one happens to be a Rotax 914. So gyroplanes, even though they look like they're new and space age type thing is not a new technology. In fact it's gone back to about 1923. So we're in a new renaissance for gyroplanes here in the United States. It's been going on in Europe for a few years now. We're just on the iceberg tip so to speak of having gyroplanes populate the world of aviation. So basically a gyroplane it kind of looks like a helicopter but it is not. Actually it's very simple aircraft. It gets its lift from a spinning wing. So for us to form that wing it is obviously the rotor blade has to turn. So once that rotor blade is turning it'll generate lift and it flies much more like a conventional aircraft with the stick with elevator and ailerons instead of like a helicopter. One of the simple things about the aircraft is the rotor is not powered unlike a helicopter which has a powered rotor. So in the event that for some reason the engine were to fail there is no oh we got to get this in auto rotation and and then land. It's a non-event because it's already in auto rotation and it's just a glide to the ground. And a day like today we've got wind blowing at about 20-25 knots. It will roll maybe about 10 feet before it's airborne and landing it will not roll at all. So that's the short takeoff and landing characteristics of the aircraft. Now on a day where the wind is not blowing it's about 300 feet with wheels on the ground to take off and about 25 feet wheels on the ground to land. Wind is your friend with a gyroplane yes. In fact today is actually a perfect day for flying a gyro and you will see not very many light sport fixed wing aircraft are flying today and obviously not any of the power chutes or or wings. This aircraft is equipped with a Rotax 914 that's the turbocharged version. It is available with the 912 100 horsepower and the 915 new IS engine. Well you're getting horsepower gain so you're going to get a greater thrill on takeoff performance and climb. The climb rate will exceed 1200 feet per minute even on a with a heavily loaded aircraft. It it's kind of like getting the big engine in your sports car. So this aircraft to fly it the minimum would be a sport pilot license and sport pilot is available in the gyroplane class. You can get gyroplane private, gyroplane commercial and of course a flight instructor. This particular aircraft is an experimental but we do have certified versions available for sale as of today. Typically our pilots like most light sport are generally 50 years old plus but worldwide the the average pilot is usually generally a much younger pilot. We do appeal to men and women alike. It um it's for somebody who just basically wants to have fun flying because this is about the most fun you can have flying. In fact if it were any more fun I'm sure the government would make it illegal as a class drug. So how did I get into this? Years ago actually I was always interested in gyroplanes as a kid with a Benson gyrocopter, bought plans, did not ever build one and saw a couple accidents and kind of put gyroplanes out of my mind. I was doing some work for a for a company and they were demonstrating all kinds of aircraft and some gyroplanes showed up, modern gyroplanes like this and the guys said hey come on out and do a test flight and I said ain't no way man these things are dangerous. I'm not getting in it. Just because you put a fancy plastic body on it I don't want to fly it. I know they're dangerous. Well finally they did talk me into taking a test ride and man I'm going to tell you about 15 minutes I knew that I had misjudged this aircraft. It was a lot of fun. That was about eight years ago and I've been flying them pretty much ever since. I've almost given up fixed wing flying and trike flying and I've had more fun in those eight years than my entire aviation career of almost 50. It has been a blast and I dare anybody not to smile that hasn't flown one. I tell you it it's the closest thing to being a bird as you're going to get. A realistic price for an aircraft like this is about $125,000 but it has radio transponder, heated leather seats with lumbar support, cabin heat. This aircraft is not fully loaded but it is pretty close so you would have you would be hard pressed to spend over 150 or so with all the bells and whistles options that are available. So if it's an aircraft that we have in stock obviously the wait is as soon as your check clears the bank. If it's one that you want to order for perhaps custom equipment or custom color they come in any color that you can think of. The wait would be approximately 12 to 16 weeks to get it and we do require a 50 percent deposit for the aircraft. They are manufactured in Germany and then assembled here as experimentals. As certified aircraft they're manufactured in Germany and they come over on the boat we put the rotor blade on and go fly it basically. If you want more information is check out our website it's autogyrousa.com we can you can find out more than you probably want to know about the aircraft on that website and then from there you can call us email us we'll give you all the details on how you can get started and where you can do it.