Arrowcopter just arrived

Nasser, mabrouk, that is a nice selection of machines. The ArrowCopter is one of my bucket list items.

What engine does she have on her?
 
Nasser, mabrouk, that is a nice selection of machines. The ArrowCopter is one of my bucket list items.

What engine does she have on her?


Resasi , it's not mine , I wish it was :yo:
I'm still MTO student with 10 hours yet :wave: , who knows I may consider the ArrowCopter :plane:
not sure about the engine honestly
 
Nasser we all started off with low time, and you are learning on a good stable machine that performs well.

The ArrowCopter does well with the 914, not a great power to weight ratio but I believe that Chris has indicated that they are in collaboration with the Rotax factory for the latest engine being developed, which may be the 914 IS

I was very privileged to have had a demo ride at the factory and was most impressed with the factory facilities, quality of the build, together with the extensive research and testing that was done during the development of this top of the line gyro. There also when Claudius and his sons were building, documenting and videoing their build of their US beautiful red ArrowCopter

The choice of engine was dictated by many factors, built in the same country, close nearby, excellent collaboration, along with the well known safety, reliability and history of these engines. It seems to have been a good match and if there is some improvement in HP forthcoming it will be an even better performing machine than it already is.
 
Does anyone know why it's so heavy at 350kg? For a monocoque gyro built in carbon and designed using all the latest computerized wizardry I don't understand why it's heavier than the agriculturally designed steel-framed Magnis,ELAs and MT03's at around 275 kg.
Like most of you I'd love one but all those euros would be difficult to justify.
Mike G
 
Hi Nasser,


I understand that Arrowcopter c/n 025 the former OE-XAE was seen at the Bahrain airshow recently, unmarked - I wonder if your machine in Qatar might be the same gyro - confirmation would be welcome - thank you.


There were two other Arrowcopters at the Bahrain show ( German registered ), these took part in the flying display,

D-MFDC
D-MGLS

This could be a lucrative market area for the deluxe Arrowcopter.


Regards


Steve
 
Hi Steve

I was fortunate enough to see those two German Arrowcopters flying at the Bahrain airshow. I was surprised at how quiet they were, they were also very impressive to watch.

I don't remember seeing a third arrowcopter, although there was an MTO, Calidus and Cavalon on static display.

Mark
 
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This one from the fly day event in Qatar
 

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The arrowcopter is a nice machine had a fly in the only one in Auz almost bought it @190hrs, realized it had been in an accident and withdrew also had a concern about its endurance. The factory offered me an AC20 in September 2013 for 120k Euro FOB. This was after i complained that the Auz agent was not credible and i refuse to deal with him. Checking out other gyro`s I had a fly of the autogyro cavalon and liked it so much that i placed an order, 3 days prior to arrowcopters getting back to me with their offer. I have no regrets the cavalon has amazing endurance with its 100ltr tank @ 80knots can go places. I know an electrician wieghing @297lbs with his brother (weighs the same) cruize @90knots with the ivo variable pitch prop and they do crosscountry trips for work related jobs. I recall him heading for the east coast cruizing at 90knots 8000ft and his GPS ground speed showing 151knots a likely tail wind, that is amazing progress for a gyro.
 
This summer I got to fly the flight test program for the open canopy version of the ArrowCopter. Let me tell you: it was a blast!! In about 30 seconds you can switch from closed canopy to open canopy and enjoy a totally different feeling. With the open canopy it feels totally awesome. You're shielded by the windshield but can put your head out in the wind easily if you want. The open canopy loses about 10-12 mph on the top speed, though.

BTW, the wheel base is 2.45 m. Given the location of the CG it is virtually impossible to flip the ArrowCopter over on the ground. Add to that the freely castering nosewheel and you also eliminate nose dart accidents. The wings provide some substantial ground effect which makes soft touch downs almost a no brainer.

The rudder is actually on the large side, Jürgen, judging by the control authority it provides. We wanted the ArrowCopter to be easily controllable even with still engine and landing in a stiff cross wind. The rudder becomes effective right from the start (with take-off power and no wind condition), so there is virtually no time during take-off that you would have to use toe brakes to maintain direction.

The only thing that needs some beefing up is the rotor brake. It takes about 2 minutes to slow the rotor to a stand still. Luckily, this is also the required cool-down time for the Rotax, so you can use the rotor as a timer ;) However, a new rotor brake is already developed.

Greetings, -- Chris.
 
The arrowcopter is a nice machine had a fly in the only one in Auz almost bought it @190hrs, realized it had been in an accident and withdrew also had a concern about its endurance.

Endurance is easily calculated: you have 74 liters of usable fuel while the Rotax burns about 20 liters per hour in cruise. That equates to about 3:30 hours of endurance. Multiply that by about 160 km/h for a relaxed cruise speed (180 km/h if you're pressed for time) and you get a range of about 560 km. That's with no reserve, mind you.

-- Chris.
 
The rudder is actually on the large side
Thank you for pointing that out, Chris. My remark was just from the appearance which is a bit misleading since the Arrowcopter is a much larger (about 20%) aircraft than the Calidus. I made a few quick calculations, to find the rudder area and distance to CG to calculate the value which the oldtimers called "tail volume", the values are:
Arrowcopter : 0.493 m^2, 3.01 m , 1.475 m^3
Calidus : 0.225 m^2, 2.61 m , 0.588 m^3

If the Calidus would be scaled up to the size of the Arrowcopter it would weigh 80% more but it's only 30% heavier so (assuming both aircraft were calculated to withstand the same loads) the engineers made a pretty good job in the design of the Arrowcopter.
Since the mass is 30% more, the moment of inertia is probably 60% larger (that's a bit by guess and by golly) but the ratio of tail volumes is about 2.5 so the Arrowcopter should indeed respond very well to the rudder.


Cheers,
Juergen

PS: I had noticed the wide wheel base before and I think this is a real advantage of the aircraft.
 
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Steve, I don't know at the moment. I would have to get in touch with head of production at the factory and ask him to dig up the information. They are working flat out at the moment and I'd rather not bother him. I'll look it up myself next time I'm there.

Greetings, -- Chris.
 
Hello Folks
Attached is some microlights in our hangar :peace:
 

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