Another Sparrowhawk Flys

[Alteshinken]

N801AG, the third Sparrowhawk to be completed, received FAA airworthiness certification a week ago, and this week completed acceptance test flights from Jim Mayfield in Buckeye, Arizona. It will be flying from the Spanish Fork Airport, south of Salt Lake City, Utah, for Airgyro Aviation: www.lettherebeflight.com.

[KenSandyEggo]

AHA! I finally struck it rich! Over on the FAQ page Don, I see a photo of a very familiar gyro.......hmmmmmm. Let's see...copyright violation, misappropriation of personal property, invasion of privacy, Delco battery, aggravated mopery, 2nd degree dirt-baggery, unlawful representation and probably a whole bunch more. I'll sell you the rights to the photo of my gyro for.....$125,000, certified check or money order. Fair? ;) (Just kidding). That's also mine in the AAI ads in Rotorcraft mag.....HEY! I'll take another $125K from you too, Jim Mayfield!

[Brian Jackson]

...copyright violation, misappropriation of personal property, invasion of privacy, Delco battery, aggravated mopery, 2nd degree dirt-baggery, unlawful representation and probably a whole bunch more.

You could tack on Mopery with the intent to loiter :)

[The Rock]

Don,

What engine are you using on the Sparrow Hawk to fly in SLC? Would appreciate future reports on SH performance at your density altitude.

[Alteshinken]

Ken,
If it weren't for the fact that I am now going to have to spend thousands of dollars on attorneys to keep me out of jail, I would pay you for the photo of your very nice gyroplane. (And with the extra legal advice you are getting from RotoPix it may cost even more.) You know of course that the reason I didn't, is that I didn't know where to send the check. I got the photo from the AAI site, and I only had to pay them a little over $50,000. From that, I am thinking your price is a little high. Nevertheless, if you ever get to Utah, I will give you a $125,000 ride (30 minutes for you) in a vintage Sparrowhawk.

[KenSandyEggo]

ALRIGHT, DON!!

Hey Todd! How come when I want to change, size, color, boldness etc, I get a prompt that confuses the bejeebers out of me instead of it just doing it like before? :confused:

[Whirlydog]

congrats on your ship

[Alteshinken]

Sorry to be delayed in responding to The Rock about performance at our altitude in Utah. We are flying with the Subaru EJ22 engine. Our results, compared with flying at lower altitude in Arizona so far are as follows:

Arizona = Rotor RPM at takeoff = 300
S.Fork = Rotor RPM at takeoff = 312
Arizona = Engine RPM at 65 mph at altitude of 1500 ft = 5600 rpm
S.Fork = Engine RPM at 60 mph at altitude of 5500 ft = 5100 rpm

Sparrowhawk advertised top speed = 115 mph
Our current top speed in level flight at 5500 ft. w/0-5 knot variable headwind
= 70 mph.
Sparrowhawk advertised cruise speed (although in Arizona we never usually
cruised at this speed, we always cruised at about 65-70 mph)= 80 mph
Our current cruise speed = 65 mph.
Climb out rate was about 100ft/min. at 51-56mph (in Arizona climbout was at
60 mph or above.)

Although we reached higher speeds descending, 70 mph was about the top speed we could maintain at level flight today.

[Udi]

Don - what was the outside air temperature when you made these tests? Do you have electronic fuel injection on your EJ22?

Udi-

[GyroRon]

Sounds like a Pig to me. I guess more power would be needed to have a good performer at the higher elevations. Hey I will swap you a Dominator for it even steven!

[Hognose]

Climb out rate was about 100ft/min. at 51-56mph (in Arizona climbout was at
60 mph or above.)



OK, we have a comparison of 5500 MSL to 1500 MSL, but we don't have a couple of key variables:

Temps at altitude (or if you didn't record them, surface temps and we can fake them with a standard lapse rate)

Weight of a/c. Was it full-on gross? solo, full fuel? What loading, what conditions?

And... when you say it climbed at 100FPM, is that only in Utah or at both locations?

cheers

-=K=-

[KenSandyEggo]

Also, are you talking indicated airspeed or GPS-verified speed with 2-way runs? The prop pitch is also a huge variable.

[twistair]

...
Arizona = Engine RPM at 65 mph at altitude of 1500 ft = 5600 rpm
S.Fork = Engine RPM at 60 mph at altitude of 5500 ft = 5100 rpm

Sparrowhawk advertised top speed = 115 mph
Our current top speed in level flight at 5500 ft. w/0-5 knot variable headwind
= 70 mph.
Sparrowhawk advertised cruise speed (although in Arizona we never usually
cruised at this speed, we always cruised at about 65-70 mph)= 80 mph
Our current cruise speed = 65 mph.
Climb out rate was about 100ft/min. at 51-56mph (in Arizona climbout was at
60 mph or above.)
...

Don, can you tell us what static thrust you've got and at what engine rpm? Did you check cylinders' compression? I plan to warm-up my engine next weekend and would like to have some data to compare with.

Thanks in advance and - fly fun!

[Aussie_Paul]

Sparrowhawk = "an overweight Raf made even heavier".

Sorry Jim, I just could not help myself. My grown up kids tell me to "try harder"!!!!!!!!! LOL

I think that it may be the truth though. Jim, at least you are in the market place, I am yet to achieve that!!!! LOL.

Aussie Paul.:)

[MichaelBurton]

Sorry to be delayed in responding to The Rock about performance at our altitude in Utah. We are flying with the Subaru EJ22 engine. Our results, compared with flying at lower altitude in Arizona so far are as follows:

Arizona = Rotor RPM at takeoff = 300
S.Fork = Rotor RPM at takeoff = 312
Arizona = Engine RPM at 65 mph at altitude of 1500 ft = 5600 rpm
S.Fork = Engine RPM at 60 mph at altitude of 5500 ft = 5100 rpm

Sparrowhawk advertised top speed = 115 mph
Our current top speed in level flight at 5500 ft. w/0-5 knot variable headwind
= 70 mph.
Sparrowhawk advertised cruise speed (although in Arizona we never usually
cruised at this speed, we always cruised at about 65-70 mph)= 80 mph
Our current cruise speed = 65 mph.
Climb out rate was about 100ft/min. at 51-56mph (in Arizona climbout was at
60 mph or above.)

Although we reached higher speeds descending, 70 mph was about the top speed we could maintain at level flight today.

Sorry it took me so long to get to this. I was the pilot for this flight and noticed some problems with the numbers as reported.

First I must say that the aircraft has performed well at our altitude 4500ft.

As the sole ocupant of the gyro I climbed to 10,000ft and a DA of 12,000ft.
at 10,000 ft I had a clim rate of 100ft/min and an air speed of 60mph.

In level flight with the DA of 8,000 and full power the speed was 70mph.

[r.coplen]

At sea level (+100ft) at 50 degrees we have been getting 1000 ft per minute climb at 1350 lbs. gross weight. At 1475 lbs gross weight we have been getting about 600 ft per minute. My RPM is 5250 at max. 65 MPH is 4300 to 4400 RPM. I have the AAI 2.2 subaru.

[gyroplanes]

You could tack on Mopery with the intent to loiter :)
If I remember my Steve Allen correctly it was "Mopery with intent to gawk"

[Rotornut]

Paul, You crack me up lol. MJ :)