Anyone fly a Brantly B2 helicopter?

[Steve]

Are they a good training ship? How are operating costs vs. a R-22?

 

[Crimson03]

I have no personal experience w/brantlys but there was someone over at either pprune-helo or vertical reference that has brantly experience so you can ask or search over there. As to cost R-22s have been creeping up over the last ten years and they are no longer significantly cheaper than other options (H-300, enstrom, ...) and being more difficult to fly and having additional training restrictions(SFAR 73, most insurance requires 20hrs to solo regardless of pilot preparedness) there probably isn't any savings in learning on the R-22. The only reason to choose an R-22 other than availibility or personal preference would be if you intended to teach in or own a R-22.

 

[88_MALIBU]

Or transition to a R44.

 

[jknight8907]

There is an article about it in an older Plane and Pilot. They were doing a helicopter special, and had a 4 or 5 page article about the B2. The reviewer seemed to like it, and my opinion of it (which isn't much of an opinion, since I don't fly choppers) was that it was a solid machine with some good characteristics.

I'm away from home this weekend, but if noone finds the issue before I get back I'll try and find it to see what the date was on that magazine.

That would raise some eyebrows when you checked in with ATC! "Memphis Center, N1234 is type B-2........"

 

[FlyChicaga]

I flew a Brantley B-2. The ice cream cone. Only flew 0.5 in one though, so long-term I can't tell you much about it as a trainer. Sadly the person who owned the helicopter passed on before I could go back to learn more.

It was a pretty straight-forward and nice machine to fly though. In 0.5 we did a takeoff, some approaches to land, S-turns on a road, some turns and climbs/descents, and hovered. If you can handle the hand-eye coordination and work both hands, wrists, and feet at the same time, you can fly it. Hovering took the most effort.

Hope this helps!

 

[88_MALIBU]

I was recently talking with a B-2 owner at the HAI expo during a safety seminar, he was selling his because his wifes friend approached the helicopter during shutdown and one of the blades took the cap off his head during the last revolution. It really shook him up,as it should. After hearing that, I wasnt sure how often I would want to fly one around a busy area.

 

[jknight8907]

I wonder if that was due to the hinge in the middle of the blade allowing it to droop more than normal?

 

[Crimson03]

The flapping hinges on the Brantlys are mounted a couple of feet from the rotor hub, sort of a stub of blade then flapping hinge and then the proper blade. Anyway this allows the blades to be deceptively lower during startup/shutdown when there is less centrifrugal force. Of course people moving around helos is always dangerous and problematic. Tailrotors, passengers departing uphill with the blades spinning, etc... it is just not safe to be around helicopters

 

[jknight8907]

You've probably seen this already, but here's the Brantly page:

http://www.brantly.com/

 

[jknight8907]

Judging by this picture: http://www.brantly.com/B2B_pic073.jpg it looks like it would be extremely dangerous to be outside of the chopper with the rotor turning. According to the specs, the rotor is 6'11" off the ground when it's sticking straight out. (i.e. no drooping) So it wouldn't take much droop for it to to some serious damage to someone my height. Looking at that picture it looks like the blade would hit me a chest level on it's last turns. Bad deal.

As a comparison the Bell 206B3 rotor is 6 feet off the ground when fully depressed (as close as it can get to the ground), and is something like 9 or 10 feet off the ground when level.

The R44 Raven II rotor is 10 feet up when level.
The R22 Beta II rotor is about 8.8 feet up when level
The MD500 rotor is 7.7 feet up when level.

So judging from these specs, the Brantley is pretty low compared to others close to it's class.