jakalope;n1123121 said:
I looked at them in Mentone IN. The ONLY thing holding me back from purchasing a Tango2 right now is the lack of people to speak with about their experence with them. They seem to be quite a machine for the money and Paul and Alex answered questions from me for two days. They were friendly and easy to talk to. I also saw a really nice demo flight (thank you Kurt!). From meeting them I get the impression that they would offer good support for the product. I would just feel better speaking with some others that have a little time in the Tango2 and the impression that they have of the aircraft.
Hopefully I'll be driving one soon!
John
I have flown a variety of tandem gyros: Sno Bird, Air Command CLT and low-rider, Dominator, MTO, and Tango. I am very open about my likes and dislikes. Ask me anything you want, email me at
[email protected].
After Flying the Tango I came away with a list of likes and things I would like to change. I'll try to keep the latter hit list to myself, but being an autistic retard makes that incredibly difficult, if not altogether impossible, for me. Bear with me. I have my inherent character flaws, but every once in a while I may catch you off guard and actually have something of value to offer.
The Tango Gyro is most definitely a Eurotub, in every respect, and that is a good thing. Eurotubs have an excellent reputation for stability, good looks, low drag, high cruise speeds, minimal rotor vibration, good rotor airfoil design and blade lift, adequate inertia for landing, plenty of cabin elbow and leg room, good fuel storage, great pre-rotation hardware, wonderful visibility, and adequately short take-off distance. Tango meets the competition head-on in every respect on these points and comes away smelling like serious competition at a ridiculously low price in comparison to all comers in the same eurotub class of gyroplanes.
Although Tango comes available with the Rotax 912-914, it is an option we haven't seen yet. The standard Tango power plant is a choice of Yamaha engines including 120 HP Vector YG3, 135 HP Nytro YG3i, and 140 HP RX1 YG4. More on this list, below....
The use of these Yamaha Genesis engines at 120-140HP (compared to all other Eurotubs at 100 -115 HP) puts the Tango Gyro head-and-shoulders above the rest of the Eurotub class in TOW, take-off distance, far better climb, and even relaxed cruising. The Russian rotor blades are smooth, and fun to land. Not immediately apparent to most casual observers is the inclusion of the beloved gyrocopter tail wheel! I have never been a fan of neglecting this simple, excellent little bit of hardware. It is fun, it is useful, and it can be a big help in crosswind and zero-roll landings on pavement w/o having to drag metal across the tarmac in so doing.
I wasn't able to put the Tango through its paces, unfortunately, but my first impressions were that it flies well, handles a considerable TOW comfortably, has a smooth cyclic and typical Eurotub empennage yaw characteristics. The particular gyro I flew had extremely stiff pedals, and I found it uncomfortably difficult to turn on the ground. It was so stiff that I actually thought something was wrong and asked my passenger if he had his feet on the pedals. In a 45° cross-wind take off there was zero pedal feedback telling me in real time what the wind was doing, and correcting crab during the first few feet AGL upon takeoff with a heavy TOW was scary. Freeing up the pedal action is something that should be easy to correct however, so I wouldn't be too concerned with it as a purchase consideration. The guy I was flying with said he had gotten used to it, and that he liked it. To each his own - I personally don't like flying, driving nor sailing any performance craft of any type that I can't get a good feedback from and feel for.
After flying the Tango I came away satisfied that it is the best airframe option available today as the platform for Yamaha-powered gyros of today and the future.
I decided to start selling a Mohawk version of the Tango gyro for 2018. If Tango is a Mustang, then Mohawk Tango is a Shelby Mustang.
With Tango there are now three vendors selling Yamaha 140 HP RX1 YG4 conversions.
Mohawk Aero is the only shop selling 150HP Apex YG4i conversion kits, and the Mohawk Tango with the 150HP Apex YG4i is now available for sale. 2018 marks the last year for the YG4i, so this is your last chance to get a Tango with a brand new YG4i engine on it. After that it will all be used YG4/YG4i engines, and YG3i new/used, both boosted and normally aspirated.
I had to ask myself the other day: Is it coincidence that Tango Gyro (all the way from Russia) wound up in the same gyrocopter club and metropolitan area as where Mohawk Aero started from? I mean, what are the odds of finding two Yamaha gyrocopter specialty shops located in the same metro area? There are only two such business in the entire world, and at the time Tango opened its doors in the USA we were both in Atlanta. I have moved to Columbia since, but we are still in the same gyrocopter club. The club got together last Saturday for our annual year-end meeting. I was late to the meeting, but when I arrived I discovered that I had been re-elected as the Peachstate Rotorcraft Club (PRC) treasurer in abstentia. Go figure. As retarded and insufferable as I am, I am still worth something to somebody.
Peachstate Rotorcraft Club has become an amazing group of aviators and builders. We have more Yamaha-powered aircraft and expertise in our club now than any other known group in the world. It is diverse, it is multi-dimensional, we share ideas and friendly jabs, and I have never been so very proud to say that since I started flying the Wicked (Air Command YG4) in 2012 around Atlanta that I have never been so amazed at what a great group of guys we have in our club today!
I invited a newbie to our come to our meeting. He came to Mohawk Aero asking about Yamaha-powered gyrocopters. Turns out he has 2700 hours as an ag pilot, spraying fields. He wants to get a gyro, Yee-haw! Ya gotta love it.
That guy drove all the way from Texas to attend our meeting on Saturday, after flying a demo ride in an MTO before he left his home state. At the end of the day he said he wanted to join our club. Heck, I'll pay his dues.