AOPA Pilot Magazine - May 2018 - 72

Helicopter pilots and operators either appreciate the Robinson line of helicopters for their light
weight, low acquisition cost, and great support, or they
bemoan what they consider an unsafe rotor system,
massive overhaul bills, and required specialized training. For decades, if you didn't want an R22 for training,
the options were an Enstrom F28, an older Sikorsky
S300, an even older Hiller, or a really old Bell 47. The
Enstroms, Hillers, and Bells aren't as readily available
on the used market, and while the Sikorskys are plentiful, the support is horrendous. The market was begging
for a new trainer, and the Cabri answered the call in a
big way.
Certified in the United States since 2015, the Cabri
has been in production for nearly a decade and has tallied sales in the hundreds. The 2017 General Aviation
Manufacturers Association sales report makes it clear:
The Cabri is the best-selling two-seat helicopter in the
world.
The ship looks like a mini Eurocopter (now Airbus
Helicopters), which is no accident. It was designed by
Bruno Guimbal, a former Eurocopter engineer who
worked on the Dauphin and other models. Guimbal
saw the need for a trainer and began work on the project while still at Eurocopter. The company helped with
startup investment, then Guimbal went on his own
when it came time for certification and production.
The French company Hélicoptères Guimbal earned
European type certification for the Cabri G2 in 2007.
The Cabri's most apparent borrowed ideas from those
earlier Eurocopter designs are the Fenestron tail rotor
and three-blade, fully articulating, left-turning main rotor.
Fenestron is the shrouded tail rotor common on Airbus
helicopters. It helps protect ground personnel, reduces
noise, and theoretically reduces the potential for damage
to the tail rotor blades-which in the Cabri are made of
plastic, a fact that makes you hope the certification flights
were rigorous. The Fenestron also requires a large vertical stabilizer, which increases stability in cruise.
72 | AOPA PILOT May 2018

WITH A FULLY articulating main rotor that turns "the
wrong way," some transitioning pilots will have to
unlearn previous habits. Guimbal used the traditional
Eurocopter method of having the swash plate sliding
up and down the mast on tape.

The fully articulating main rotor system turns "the
wrong way," meaning it spins to the left from the pilot's
perspective. If a pilot is taught to enter an autorotation by pulling aft on the cyclic and pushing right on
the pedal, and takes only those actions by rote, this will
present a problem. But the vast majority of pilots react
to an outside yaw input: They straighten the nose as necessary after seeing the aircraft is uncoordinated.
This type of rotor system takes away the possibility
of mast bumping, one of the primary reasons Robinson
pilots have to undergo special training. The Cabri's
rotor inspires confidence that, regardless of what the
pilot does, he won't take the mast off with aggressive
unloaded roll maneuvering. It also has a higher inertia than the R22's rotor system, so autorotations are a
much tamer affair.

AOPA Pilot Magazine - May 2018

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of AOPA Pilot Magazine - May 2018