Rotorvox C2A gyroplane flight report

[Kevin_Richey]

https://www.aerokurier.de/luftsport/...vox-c2a/746574

Published this month. Has a short video to see, but only a very short portion of it has an actual flying sequence. More emphasis instead on the video's music and interior cockpit shots.

Like Dennis Fetter's Air Command videos of the late 1980's, it doesn't show how long the takeoff run is, nor a lift off and climbout. However, those A/C videos repeatedly showed many landings on a very windy day, highlighting the extremely short landing rollouts. This Rotorvox video shows no landings. Priced @ EUR$160,000.

Looks like the Polish Tercel/Xenon's twin tails, having the horizontal stab on top, with the tail booms resembling the McCulloch J-2 gyroplane. Cockpit resembles the Autogyro Cavalon, only longer and having a wider blunt nose than the Cavalon. Rotax 914 powerplant.

The english translation provided by the automatic Google translate comes out with the phrase for the subtitle: "aerokurier author Toni Ganzmann had the opportunity to blow up the extraordinary gyrocopter."

 

[Abid]

This gyroplane design and manufacturing rights were purchased by the same people who purchased FlightDesign CT from the receiver in Germany.
My friend Tom Peghiny in Mass, USA is their chief for flight testing of all their aircraft designs and asked me to help him with the 51% kit approval but of course I had to refuse that assignment due to conflict of interest. However, they plan to get it done and bring it to the US market. Its likely to be quite a high priced item.

 

[All_In]

Thanks for sharing Bro. Looks interesting wonder how it flies.

 

[Steve_UK]

Lots more on Rotorvox on their Facebook page

https://www.facebook.com/rotorvox/

Part of the "high price" will stem from them spending a lot of investment in time, money and effort to obtain German type approval.

 

[Brent Drake]

i've tried to call them ,email, and Facebook. Never a return of any kind. Not good business!

 

[GyrOZprey]

Rotorvox Showed up on facebook yesterday with pictures showing one in a container ... bound for Colorado ... note about attending Sun'n Fun! ....... non-event website with no information ... just an invitation to send them your details for email updates! .... another "inelly" ??????

 

[Steve_UK]

No. These fly.

 

[Brent Drake]

They are not looking for dealers. They sell for $150-170K

 

[ckurz7000]

Well, it is heavy, draggy and slow as far as I can tell from the report, if you read between the lines ("...the design is currently being tuned to increase performance...")

-- Chris.

 

[eddie]

It will need more power than a rotax can provide.

 

[Abid]

Tom Peghiny is helping them try to improve it. He probably can help them out although his main focus is on Flight Design CT, this German owner's other project that they bought from the receiver

 

[All_In]

Thanks for the performance data. It takes time to develop new aircraft. Let's hope Tom Peghiny can help.

 

[Brent Drake]

Rotorvox just got back this morning. They are not looking for dealers or sales in the USA at this time.

 

[WHUBBS]

This month Sport Flying magazine has it listed at near $ 247,000.????

 

[CGameProgrammer]

Yeah the latest issue had an honest although somewhat concise flight review of it. Priced at 200k EUR (currently almost $250k USD), it had nice fit and finish, and excellent outward visibility, but flew very poorly. He said the controls were always very heavy, and merely switching from a left bank to a right bank took some effort, lots of rudder work was needed, when he reduced power it sunk like a brick, etc. Also the Vne is only 87 knots. Maneuvering speed is 70 knots. This is with a Rotax 914.

It would seem acceptable if not great for $100k but actually costs well over twice that. It just looks good on a showroom floor but is obviously not worth buying, based on the report in the magazine.

Hopefully Silverlight can do a much better job whenever they finally develop theirs.

 

[Joe Pires]

Brent's price correction is correct. 150 to 170. They corrected it online somewhere.

 

[Vance]

Yeah the latest issue had an honest although somewhat concise flight review of it. Priced at 200k EUR (currently almost $250k USD), it had nice fit and finish, and excellent outward visibility, but flew very poorly. He said the controls were always very heavy, and merely switching from a left bank to a right bank took some effort, lots of rudder work was needed, when he reduced power it sunk like a brick, etc. Also the Vne is only 87 knots. Maneuvering speed is 70 knots. This is with a Rotax 914.

It would seem acceptable if not great for $100k but actually costs well over twice that. It just looks good on a showroom floor but is obviously not worth buying, based on the report in the magazine.

Hopefully Silverlight can do a much better job whenever they finally develop theirs.

The Cavalon has a VN of 86kts and a maneuvering speed of 75kts so the Rotorvox C2A is not that far off.

For me gyroplanes are not about top speed and I prefer to wander around the skies at 65kts to 75kts.

Some people like heavy controls and say it feels like stability to them.

I suspect the extra weight will lengthen the takeoff roll and slow the climb out; two things that are important to me in a gyroplane.

perhaps the extra power of the new Rotax will help to mitigate that.

I feel Silverlight is on the right track with a more powerful engine for a side by side.

 

[Zzorse]

Brief video published by AVweb yesterday,

 

[All_In]

Brief video published by AVweb yesterday,

Thanks for sharing!!

 

[Abid]

Had a chance to talk to the Rotorvox guys including an engineer who helped in design and did all its flight testing Very roomy, all pre-preg carbon fiber mostly, good visibility, hydraulic pre-rotator, and Averso Stella 8.6 m rotor blades. Very wide horizontal stab