Developed, Offered by Groen Brothers

James P. Mayfield , the chief test pilot at Groen Brothers Gyros, is an inveterate gyro junkie. If it has a rotary wing, he's there. He's also a truly good stick; and he's a scientist. Put all that together, and you'll find a man who simply won't take anything for granted. (That, in turn, can explain why he's a test pilot.)

He wrote,

As most of you know, GBA has developed and is marketing a turbine powered gyroplane (seen right) for use as an observation and patrol platform. In order to develop this aircraft, GBA recruited and currently employs an impressive array of engineering talent. We have structural engineers, designers, stress analyst, aerodynamic and rotordynamic engineers, manufacturing engineers, tooling engineers, and even a metallurgist. In addition, we employ aircraft technicians, machinists, tool setters, pilots, flight instructors, an examiner, and of course, the people necessary to maintain our corporate infrastructure.

Through it all, we have kept a close eye on the smaller gyroplane community. David Groen, Terry Brandt, myself, and indeed, the entire company, are intensely interested in autorotative flight in all its forms.

We have become increasingly distressed about the carnage that occurs with sickening regularity in certain segments of our community. It is also our community because we are part of the greater gyroplane community.

The board of directors of GBA began discussing this abysmal safety record. Like many others, we continue to be astounded and dismayed at the apparent disregard of the "laws of nature" evidenced by the many fatal accidents.

The event which precipitated the end of our silence, in this matter, was the fatal crash which occurred in Ogden, Utah. The CFI involved was the fixed wing CFI for our corporate counsel. Our counsel asked us, "Why did this happen? Gyroplanes are supposed to be the safest form of flight!"

We could only offer our condolences. The truth is that we at GBA believe that sustained autorotative flight is the "safest form of flight." But, only if the physical laws of the universe are observed.

It was time to get involved.

The board of directors, David Groen, Jay Groen, Robin Wilson, and I unanimously voted that GBA must do something about this problem. The first value in our corporate value statement is:

"As a corporation and as individuals, we will always do what is right. Doing the right thing isn't always easy. It is easy, however, to know whether a course of action is right. If we have to ask ourselves, 'Is this right?' we already know the answer."

We asked ourselves if it was right to stand back and watch events occurring which we had the power to help preclude. We already knew the answer. --JM

Upgrade for the popular RAF 2000:

Effective immediately, GBA will begin offering a professionally-designed and -manufactured Stability Augmentation Retrofit Kit for the RAF 2000. Kits ordered now will be delivered or installed during late January, 2003.

The kit will consist of:

• A composite tall tail assembly with an integral nonsymmetrical horizontal stabilizer.
• A drop keel cluster plate assembly with hardware.
• A welded steel tube landing gear with suspension.
• A PSRU mounting plate to allow inverting the PSRU.

The cost of the kit will be $4935.00. Groen Brothers will install the kit at their Buckeye (AZ) facility for an additional $2000.00.

More upgrades available:

A composite airfoil, similar to the airfoil on the Hughes 300, to be mounted at the top of the cabin to help eliminate cabin pitching moment with speed increase. This device with hardware is priced at $450.00

Double bearing rotorhead retrofit service. The customer will send his rotorhead to GBA, and they will disassemble, clean and inspect the rotorhead, install a double bearing block, new bearings, and new teeter towers and ship the unit back. This service will be $400.00. This service will be offered for all brands of offset gimbal rotorheads.

Other products and services, including the development of stability augmentation kits for other aircraft, offset gimbal rotorheads, a collective pitch rotor head, and possibly, a kit and/or a Sport category aircraft, are being considered.

Gyro flight training, too:

Also offered, in Arizona:

• Flight training in customer aircraft at $45.00 per hour. (Groen will not conduct training in non-centerline thrust, yaw unstable, non-horizontally stabilised machines.)
• Flight training in their modified RAF at $120.00. This service will begin during mid-January, 2003.
• Gyroplane rating practical tests at $250.00 (plus aircraft rental if applicable).

Mayfield continued, "The decision to offer these products and services was difficult. Allocating the engineering resources necessary to professionally design and manufacture this kit was painful. The risk of diverting us from our primary task was carefully considered before choosing this course of action. We simply felt we had no choice."

We talked with Don LaFleur at RAF.

"One takes it all with a grain of salt. James Mayfield has flown our machine, with and without the equipment like what he's putting on... In fact, we have our top five or six pilots -- over 10,000 hours in the RAF 2000 -- and not one of them is using these contraptions."

We talked for a moment about Light Sport Aircraft -- Sport Pilot.

"Sport Pilot shouldn't be about specifications -- it should be about performance standards. If the gyro community cannot come up with a standard, we'll all be in trouble. The dangerous thing that happens in the industry -- people always want to downplay the need for training. People too often treat this as a toy."

"We in the industry need to work together. The major problem in the industry is, and remains, training. Guys come into this, and think it's a little toy -- that they could just jump in, take a couple hours' training, and fly."

Training, training, training!

Training is an improvement, regardless the machinery. Machinery is a means to an end; training, regardless the machine, makes you a better flier. "We have thousands of hours of flight time here. We've flown over 130 mph, and in winds, without the horizontal stabilizer." The ultimate performance, and safety, is in the pilot's seat.

As for Groen Brothers' effort, "I don't argue the point with them -- it's more-technical than most in the industry will admit... Groen Bros are basically working on the fears and suspicions of the people in the industry. If they want to produce it, more power to them.

"The reason we don't redesign somebody else's product (we'll sell them parts; but we caution them to talk with the designers of their own aircraft): we don't want to redesign somebody else's product. Every aircraft has its own merits. The one thing that applies to everybody -- inexperienced pilots (I mean rotorcraft pilot) have the makings of a crash on their hands. How the pilot fares is how severe the crash is. I have a lot of respect for Groen Brothers. What they plan to do, I don't know -- if it's going to make it better or not, I don't know. I'd like to see the flight-test data."

Reserving judgment...

"I haven't seen what they're doing; I haven't flown the [modified] aircraft. We have a 1/4 scale model flight test system, that gives you frame-by-frame recordings. I have video of plenty of other gyroplanes doing a power pushover. There are multiple videos. It has a lot to do with what the pilot is doing. I think any of these aircraft can do a power pushover. Our testing says that every last one of these machines can do it; it comes down to the pilot's ability. If you fly near the max capability of the aircraft, with a minimum-control pilot, they'll be in trouble. The training needs to be more and more intense -- like Frank Robinson did with his R-22."

Compare and contrast:

Don continued, "I see student pilots --  they respect their C-152. They don't mess around with it; they do it by the numbers. Take that same person, put him in the gyroplane that he built himself, and he'll start fooling around in the trees. God gives us free choice: ultimately, the pilot makes the decision to do the things that he does. I don't care how much fixed-wing time a guy has -- if you get into turbulence, hit microbursts -- you can get into trouble, fast."

Advice to prospective fliers:

Don is adamant about opening the eyes of pilots, to the merits of doing the homework: "Get two or three hours before you even decide if you want to start: you'll learn if you even want to do it, in the first place. Second, in you own mind, your own heart -- you'll know if you think you can handle the flight characteristics of a rotorcraft; and then you get a chance to see the quality of the product you're going to fly in."

ANN Note: My personal estimation of Mr. LaFleur's credibility on this issue is not very positive. However, rather than belaboring that, we urge all those with questions about the safety of this aircraft to spend some time reading the discussion boards at the wonderful www.rotorcraft.com rotorcraft site (a must for sport rotorheads... one of the most constructive efforts we've seen in this part of the industry). There, the RAF question is discussed in detail and a LOT of evidence may be seen and judged appropriately. As far as we're concerned, Mr. Mayfield's efforts are a positive reflection on the professionalism and dedication of he and his staff... and we congratulate them for taking this step to enhance aviation safety... Jim Campbell, ANN Editor-In-Chief

FMI: (Terry Brandt) Brandt@gbagyros.com, www.raf2000.com