Gentlemen and gyroplane pilots,
A fellow gyronaut posted on our Facebook page earlier, expressing his frustration at the long seemingly never-ending wait for a PHENIX to arrive in the USA.
In responding to his post, I realized there might be many other interested pilots or prospective PHENIX owners who might share his frustration. These folks might not know why it is taking so long to get the PHENIX over here, even thought I thought I had explained the behind-the-scenes situation before.
So, here is the post I responded with, I hope this might clear up the misconception that the PHENIX is under perpetual development like some other aircraft.
I understand your sentiment and you are right. It has been a very, very long time. Serial #001 was a proof-of-concept aircraft. We flew it for a while and changed a few things to create Serial #002, the pre-production aircraft. That PHENIX flew for many years, without mishap, doing demonstrations while we searched for an investor/ funding during some very bleak economic times in Spain and Europe. The guys went through many hardships including having to downsize houses to keep our dream alive. After a few false starts, we eventually found that investment in 2013 and started in earnest with the next steps required BEFORE we can bring the Phenix to market ANYWHERE, which is getting it certified, SOMEWHERE. That somewhere turned out to be Germany, for various reasons, including a very strict certification process which we wanted, in order to prove the PHENIX' quality. Only once the certification is done, can we bring it to market with confidence. While we are undertaking the certification process, it makes sense in terms of finances, time and logistics to make improvements to the aircraft NOW, instead of having to go through another certification process later with an improved model. This all so we present, YOU, the flying community, with the best autogiro we can. The delays haven't been because of never-ending-development of something that wont ever make it to market like some other aircraft, it was simply because we didn't have any money. Nobody had the capital required for this process to continue, which is why we had to wait until we found an investor, which we did. Now the guys are busting their behinds to get the PHENIX certified and into the marketplace. Through some very hard times financially and personally, the PHENIX TEAM did not loose hope in ourselves or the PHENIX and you should not either.