#153 Guimbal Cabri G2 training with Chris Houser HOGS Guest Instructor

Get where I should be sitting. That's good. All right, here we go. For day 153, we're gonna make this nonchalant. I'm Kenny Keller, creator Helicopter Line Ground School. We have a guest today, Christopher Hauser. And I'm gonna hand the mic over here to Chris in just a second. We've had some members recently that said, hey, I haven't seen Chris in any of the videos lately. What's Chris been up to? So I invited him down so he could come in and tell us what he's been doing and talk about the Cadbury a little bit and struggles he's been through to get where he's at today. Because now he can, you know, be saying, well, he'll tell you. So I'm gonna hand him over the microphone and just give the viewers people a lot of these. Some people don't know you if they're coming to one of our videos for the first time, but many people will know you because in the testimonials they'll say, thanks, Taz, Chris, Kenny.

It's been a while since I've been one of those videos.

Yeah, I'll finish. We don't do those Tuesdays anymore here.

All right, pass the mic. Mic drop. Got an audience today. Yeah. So let's see here. After an 18 year career in law enforcement, I decided to, and unhappy the last few years of it, I decided to walk away from it. And I am now a full time flight instructor with Sweet Aviation over at Smithfield in Fort Wayne. As part of that, I'm also helping out our sister company, which is Sweet Helicopters, doing charter service, flying EC130s. Been with Sweet Aviation kind of now for probably four or five years off and on. Every time they lose their full time flight instructor, they would call me up and say, hey, can you fill in until we find somebody? And this last go around, I was filling in and I've been there since probably, I think this past summer. And they decided to kind of hold off filling the spot. And then when I decided it was time for me to go from the pd, I asked about it and they said, sure, let's see if we can make that work. So I've been with Sweet Aviation now full time since April, and part of my contract or salary or whatever is to help out our, our sister company, Sweet Helicopters, running charter service, running 130s. And we got a 109. And we got an A star to it also.

So awesome. So when I interrupted him rudely a minute ago, I was trying to spit out. You saw Chris a lot during live training Tuesday, and we kind of had to slim things down because that was getting so big and took all of our time just producing that every week that couldn't hardly keep things going. So that's what Chris is doing now. That's when you did see him. Not saying you won't see him again in the videos, but we've had a lot of changes here. We've moved locations and we're just slimming things down and keeping it rolling. So next, Chris, people are going to want to know about the Cadbury. Chris and I both did all of our ratings in the instrument helicopter. So I know that we did that video with the guys from Precision from Heli Expo, which Chris went out and flew with those guys. So I haven't flown the Cabrera yet. So I just want Chris to tell you, the viewer, what it's like with experience of Enstrom. And then he's flown other aircraft to Robinson's R22 and R44 and among other helicopters. So just the general question of what is the Cabri like? What do you like about it? What don't you like about it? Tell us anything you can think of that you you'd like to say about it and what people might be asking about the Cabri.

So you're right. Let's see here. About 2008, I started flying, was flying, got my airplane private airplane rating. Then about a year later I started flying helicopters, transitioned over and soon into my helicopter training, I found Kenny and he's right, we did. Actually, Kenny did my private commercial and cfi. And then since then I've picked up instrument and picked up double I this past summer. But all my primary private commercial and CFI was in the F28F. And great aircraft always have a place in my heart for it. But you are right, Sweet Aviation has or had two instrom 280s. We have sold one and we picked up a gimbal G2. Actually, this is if you see behind me, that's actually our aircraft. We picked this up this past December and we also are in the process of selling our other 280 and we have another G2 coming probably within the next month, month and a half. So that what's Sweet Aviation, that will be our primary training aircraft will be the gimbal G2. Now do I like it? Yes, I really like it. I kind of, as Kenny mentioned, I've got time in several different makes and models of aircraft, including the Robinsons. And if you fly a Robinson. I would say that this thing is kind of like an R22 on steroids. It really is. You go from a semi rigid to fully articulated. This one. It does have the automatic clutch engagement just like the Robinsons has the governor. Just like the Robinsons, but totally opposite of the instruments. You know, you pull up the lever for the rotor engagement, only a correlator on the instrument as opposed to this. This is the. Actually, as far as I know, this is the only aircraft, piston model helicopter that has been crash test rated. So it's actually been crash test rated up to 2,000ft a minute. And if you put that in perspective, we only do about 50, 15, 1600 and an auto. So kind of you think about it. In theory you could do an auto in the G2, not flare at the bottom, not do anything. Hit hard and supposedly you'll walk away. I don't really want to test that, but, you know, that's what they say. But anyway, great, great aircraft. Like I said, fully articulated. They've taken the Robinson and I think, you know, I don't have anything against Robinsons. I like flying the Robinsons, but as you know, you got to respect the R22 because it'll get you. But I think they've just taken the R22 and kind of made it better. I guess I would say, like I said, with the. As opposed to the instrument governor, automatic blade engagement. They actually added a rotor brake to this one so you don't have to sit there and wait for the fully articulated three blades to spool down. It is carbureted, but they have auto carb heat in it. So we don't even. We just put it in auto and it does its own thing when it needs to do it. Now the one thing to it, I guess I wouldn't even say it a drawback, but it's just something different for experienced guys that we all know that the instrument turns counterclockwise while this aircraft turns clockwise.

How hard was that to get used to?

I'm. I guess I got. I was lucky because I did have some EC 120 time. And so that turns clockwise. So I kind of knew, you know, about right pedal input or lots of right pedal input when you're picking it up, when you're getting ready to hover or when you are hovering. So I kind of knew about it. But for a guy who doesn't know any better, they're all right now going back and forth because we still have our instrument at Sweet Aviation. So, you know, one Day I might fly the instrument, or actually in one day I might fly the instrument for an hour with somebody, and then I jump in the G2 and fly with another guy for an hour or so. And then I might go back to the instrument or vice versa. So for me, kind of that. Actually, I find that a little bit more difficult because sometimes I find myself. Okay, counterclockwise, left pedal. Gotta do this, okay, clockwise, you know, So I kind of think it in my head as I'm, as I'm doing it. But really when you, you know, when you're picking up to hover, it's just do, do opposite of what the aircraft wants to do. Remember? I mean, if the nose starts to go to the left a little bit, then you're just adding right input, right pedal input. So the first couple times I flew it, I was kind of unsure about it, but now I really like it. I really do like it. And the arc on it for your autos is huge. You basically got from the 12 o' clock to the 6 o' clock position to keep that rotor RPM in there. And I'm, I'm trying to teach my guys that we're going to keep it in the green. So we're checking the collective here and there, but I think it's a great aircraft. And they're, they're, you know, when they're coming out with these things, they're putting, I mean, I got a Garmin 650 in it. They put an Aspen, you know, in there. It's IFR certified to train in. So it's a, it's a neat little aircraft. It really is. And you're right, I did go out to Precision about a couple months ago, spent a week out there flying with the, those guys. They actually brought an instructor from the factory over and flew with him. And he gave us some, you know, some insights on some things and, you know, checked us off. So I'm actually a certified gimbal instructor. So if somebody would call them and say, hey, I'm looking for a certified flight instructor for the gimbal. My name is on that list. And now they can say, hey, I'm in Indiana. Oh, Chris Hauser up at Sweet Aviation. He's a certified gimbal instructor. So we actually have our own number, own instructor number. And it was a good time.

Cool. I think that Sweetwater's gonna have to give you a raise after today. Throw that in there before I lose.