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Tuesday, October 11, 2011

VIS™: What on Earth is this about?

In 1997, Ed Alderfer, Gyroplane CFI, gave me my Gyroplane instruction and my first ride at the same time in an EA-81 Subaru Air Command Tandem.  I had forgone "the fly before you buy idea" and went right to owning. You see the first HoneyBee Gyro (G1) prototype was back at home just waiting for me to fly it; first I had to learn to fly one. This approach has a way of really making a person committed to learning to fly a Gyroplane; it did me. 


Piling into the back seat of Ed's tandem gave me a number of impressions. Once the blades started spooling up, one major  impression was that the stick shook; like crazy compared to my fixed wing experience. Once we were up to rotation and flying speed, my hand was numb by the end of each hour of instruction.  Three hours of training later and my Gyroplane training was done and I was leaving the Columbus, OH area.   Ed was a great guy and is a friend to this day but I just did not really enjoy my "first dance" with the Gyroplane. There had to be more, there was so much more!


Fast forward 14 - 15 years and enter the HoneyBee G2 Platform. There are many solutions that are inherent in the G2 Project that rarely even get mentioned. Most things that are done come from a need to improve "the type" and its reputation inside of General Aviation left over from the Bensen era. These new "systems" have taken hundreds of hours to perfect and many have become standard on the G2's.  With our "blank page" approach (rather than copied from the industry) the G2 provides a solid platform that is fresh and engineered for safety, value and simplicity. I believe it shows. 


One area that is TOTALLY unique to the HoneyBee G2 Project is the VIS™ (Vibration Isolation System) in the upper portion of the Moving Mast; see red box area in picture.  This simple and highly effective system absorbs the "two bumps per rev" problem of a full teetering blade system. Certainly the 30' Sport Rotor Blades are a great part of a great system; Jim Vanek builds quality blades for sure.  On top of this, it is the VIS™ that gets the balance of the job done.  Why is this necessary? They say that "Perception is Reality"....Like it or not, first impressions are hard to break. When you climb into a G2 Tandem you will notice that there is virtually no stick shake; giving you the best possible impression of the line. It is so smooth that you don't feel anything but a harmonized control stick. For the single place G2 fans, it is possible that this standard feature on the Two Place Tandem will be available as an option on the Microlight and SP-HP G2's later on.  If you are interested I need to hear from you. Do you want this as a single place option? 


....Committed to building the safest Gyroplanes in the World


Are you beginning to catch my vibes?




Jim 

1 comment:

GT450 said...

This sounds REALY good to me,I flew a MTO for 1.5 hr and my right hand was prety num.