Phenix tractor update

[Phenix5]

Greetings from Spain. I´d like to share the latest Phenix gyroplane update with you.

I know tractors don´t create so much attention but more people than we think would be greatly surprised if they had a chance to fly one, discovering the true advantages of this setup (the original Cierva´s setup BTW!) particularily related to stability, performance and safety.

During the development of our project, we have found so many interesting features that it makes it very difficult for us to ever think of designing a pusher gyro again!

I hope you enjoy the viewing.

Best regards to all.

http://youtu.be/2A3paveX40I

 

[WHY]

Hello Carlos

Thank you ever so much for the video and the report on the Phenix. I am one of those tractor enthusiast that you speak of (am building a single place for myself). It appears that you are very well along in your test program and also appears to be trouble free. How soon do you estimate you might be applying for some form of certification, as it appears this gyro will certainly meet any requirements that might exist to recieve approval by the authorities.

You have a beautiful, well designed machine, hope to see it in production in the near future, I believe you have a design that will set a BENCHMARK for tractor design, congratulations.

Tony

 

[Gyro_Kai]

Thank you very much, that was nice. I was actually today thinking, "I wonder how the Phenix is doing". Good to see, that you are makeing progress.

 

[GyroDoug]

Carlos,

It is a very impressive Gyro. You should plan on bringing it over to the US and showing it off at the 50th Anniversary PRA Convention this summer. There will be a lot of people there that will really appreciate a Gyro like yours and you might even be able to make some sales on the spot as there are people with money that have just been waiting for there to be a tractor Gyro available and yours is absolutely top notch. Best of luck with your venture.

 

[mercert]

I have been following your progress from the begining and i say WELL DONE! you have brought the tractor gyro into this century and have done it with style and i see by the way she flies that she looks to be a stable craft and she is stylish and sexy!. The benefits of a tractor are numerous and the stability cannot be argued, no matter who is doing the arguing. It would be great if you guys could arrange to bring one to Mentone this summer as Doug stated.

Congratulations!
Tim Mercer
Littewing autogyro builder

 

[buckwill]

that is a fine looking gyro,, is that a ballistic chute in the tail cone???buck

 

[rotormaster]

good looking

good looking

Fantastic looking Gyro, Carlos!!

what is the empty weight on this?

Thank you
Steven

 

[Phenix5]

Tony; I´m impressed with your comments! Yes we are very advanced and most testing has been done already. This is the second prototype and we are very happy with the results and ready for production. We plan to begin Section T certification in the next months and follow up with further approvals according to the different countries regulations, including the US. Good luck with your own project!

Kai; Thank you for your interest. Now you know we are keeping up with the hard work and looking forward to get more Phenix in the air!

Doug; Beautiful comment. We do have a US partner already (Phenix USA) and are working on the process of bringing a unit over there. I´m not sure we could make it for the summer but we´ll try.

Tim; Thanks Tim, your words are truly encouraging. As I said we will try as hard as possible to be there. Let´s hope that US authorities finally open the door to factory built gyroplanes and we are able to introduce the Phenix in short.

Buck; Many thanks. Yes it´s a ballistic chute. This is one of our unique features, as it is standard to the aircraft (not an option). It sits in the tail cone to allow for full clearance to the rotorblades, if deployed. I know some people think that rotorblades are our parachute but when I recall our latest losses (Andy and Sam plus their passengers) where their rotorblades did not act like one, it makes me think that they may have had a chance to survive with our design.

Steven; Thank you very much. Our actual empty weight is around 684 lbs. (310 kgs.) fully equipped and including the parachute or course. Production units will be 34 lbs. lighter. We have been able to achieve this weight thanks to the full carbon fibre composite construction and a very careful design program. In this way, we do not require heavy powerful engines and long rotorblades, making the performance very acceptable.

Again, many, many thanks to you all for your extremely kind words of support. After all our big effort, it is truly gratifying to read all your positive comments.

 

[okikuma]

Magnifico Carlos! Gracias!

I really hope you all decide on selling the Phenix in the USA as a 51% compliant kit so we can build it as an Experimental Amateur Built aircraft.

The new rotor looks similar to the Sportrotor setup.

BTW, for those who are not familiar with metric measurements:

8.4 m (27.6 ft) rotor diameter
21.6 cm (8.5 inch) blade cord
180 m (591 ft) runway length
10 m (32.8 ft) runway width

Wayne

 

[Phenix5]

Hi Wayne,

Thank you very much for your spanish encouragement!

And also thank you for your measure translation, that helps a lot!

Regarding kits, we have to study the steps we need to take to enter the US market accordingly. We will try to keep you all informed thru our US partner.

 

[Redbaron]

That is one awesome gyro for sure! Great video. Your design is probably more appealing to the fixed wing crowd and the younger generation vs people who were more familiar with bensens and the like.

 

[Redbaron]

Phenix gyro highlights - YouTube

Here's the link again so u can watch it on the forum

 

[mercert]

Carlos,

Can you tell us who the Phenix USA people are at this time. I searched and did not see any links to a Phenix USA on your site or the web. I would love to open dialog with them.

Tim

 

[Phenix5]

Hi, Tim.

Although we have been working together with our US partner for a long time now, you are right that it´s not yet officially stated on our web.

We like to do things properly and have all the necessary required info before taking further steps.

One of the reasons of posting this update was to eventually advance the news of our intention to bring the Phenix into the US.

Our partner will present himself to the forum and will be very happy to personally attend you.

Many thanks for your interest and best regards
Carlos

 

[okikuma]

Hola Carlos,

After rewatching the video several times and comparing to previous ones the lastest Averso rotor blades do seem to increase the performance over the previous rotor blades. Interesting to see that the rotor blade airfoil looks very close to a modified Clark Y than the more commonly used 8-H-12. I'm also guessing that the Averso rotor blades cord is wider than the previous rotor blades too, thus increasing the solidity ratio.

Wayne

 

[Phenix USA]

Hi guys

Hi guys

Bienvenidos amigos ! Good day fellow gyronauts, I am happy to follow Carlos’ lead and be able to introduce myself as the Americas rep for Phenix Aviation.

My name is Cobus Burger and I live in the Denver, CO area. A little background: Am ATPL and CPL rated, AMEL, ASEL, ASES, Gyroplane. Have flown every category and class except hot air balloons. Flown all over the world and lived and worked in about 10 countries on 3 continents, and now flying in Afghanistan doing secret squirrel stuff. Also a founding member of the CO PRA 38, and hope to some zero roll landings down at Mark Shook’s airfield with the Phenix soon!

We are definitely trying to bring the awesome Phenix to American skies, and working hard at it. That said, it is a long road ahead and we need to be cautious in our planning and progress to be sure we do things correctly. I have spoken with a number of folks from the FAA MIDO in LA and various FSDOs and we are following their lead to ensure we can get the certification we are aiming for. First will be certification elsewhere, like the Section T, amongst others, and in due course will come the FAA certification.

As we all know there is no easy highway to gyroplane production certification right now. Unfortunate, but there are other options available to us, and we are pursuing those. Hopefully, like Carlos said, the GA market will be accessible to us in due course, and you can share in the joy and safety of flying the Phenix.

Mercert: hmmm….could not find us, eh? Man, trying to navigate the intricacies of Google and internet adwords is akin to understanding the FARs sometimes.

www.phenixgyrousa.com

There. Try that. Please note however, this site is only a placeholder at this time. It is pretty basic and does not hold much content. The main site is the place to go for now. Be assured though, a better one is in the making.

Okikuma: We would love to get a 51% kit on the market and we are looking into it. Thanks for the metric conversion there, being from South Africa originally, I think both ways and am now used to the US (imperial) measurements too. But it does give me warm fuzzies to see the old meter in there!


Gyrodoug: We hope to attend many shows when we have a ship on US soil. Obviously events like Oshkosh, Sun-n-fun, Sebring etc come to mind, we are also wanting to attend local EAA or PRA chapter fly-ins, and law enforcement expos.

In fact, I foresee a great many cross-country trips in our future, with wheel spats for speed, tundra tires for off field ops, floats or skis we can pretty much go anywhere. And with the state of the art, all glass instrumentation, comfortable seats and large cargo space available, those trips to anywhere will be a breeze.

Please feel free to contact me with any questions you guys might have. I am happy to answer them for you.

Carlos, please drop in if I forget to mention anything.

Keep those rotors turning guys.

Cobus