Flying the Mighty Midget with Elstree Helicopters – Flt Lt Richard Luck shares his ‘trial lesson’ experience in the Cabri G2
It genuinely gives me great pleasure to write this short piece. Captain Paul White invited me to come and fly with him after I had done a couple of presentations on the Elstree Helicopter’s Tuesday evening learning forums. To be honest#, the great group participation and feedback from those evenings was reward enough but – as we say in the Support Helicopter community – never pass food or porcelain (it’s a long story!) so I jumped at the opportunity. Full disclosure: although a qualified service pilot, I hadn’t flown since my last flight in Kabul on 12th January 2021 – another long story – so I was concerned that I would not best showcase the training investment made in me by the RAF. Before you ask, it’s somewhere around £4 million pounds, all told, plus or minus a few thousands. No pressure then!
So it was with much excitement and a touch of trepidation that I made my way on the 8th of February to Elstree Aerodrome to meet the Elstree Helicopters team. Some of you may know that Katharine White is my niece but I’ve not seen her in many years and I’d never met Captain Paul, so it was a bonus family get together, too. It was also good to meet the rest of the team, including Kat, Rebecca and Jamie, who very graciously indulged my wish and escorted me to go and photograph the old amphibian aircraft going mouldy out on the airfield.
With a coffee in my hand and a copy of the Elstree Aerodrome procedures, I patiently waited for my turn to get airborne. The weather was kind, with good visibility and a high cloud base, and a manageable wind straight down the strip. We briefed and walked for G-FPEH and Captain Paul talked me through the pre-flight walk-round as I marvelled at the compact dimensions of the Cabri – the smallest helicopter I’d flown in to-date was the Gazelle SA-341, and I’d thought that was small. I reckon I could have fitted five Cabris in the back of a Chinook (minus the blades, obviously). I did smile at the big belt that took the engine drive to the rotors: I’d never given much thought to drive-trains on piston-engine helicopters but if I had I don’t think I’d have thought of a belt drive!
I strapped in and posed for a couple of photos – needs must. I was immediately impressed by the clean panel layout and excellent visibility as well as the quality of build, including stroking crashworthy seats. Captain Paul briefed me on the flight safety aspects, the cockpit configuration and instrumentation, as well as the start process. His evident expertise was reassuring as I focused on memorising as much as I could. As a Puma pilot I’m spoiled by having an autopilot that can fly the aircraft far more accurately than I can and two hydraulic systems, so hearing that the Cabri had none of these was not particularly welcome but I kept my brave face on and prepared myself for showtime as the pre-take off checks were done.
I was on the Cabri’s controls from first lift and under Captain Paul’s relaxed, but attentive, monitoring I took her up to a rather wobbly hover. I had to force myself back to basics and look out for my markers and not to over-control – it felt like 1989 and basic helicopter training all over again. Although I didn’t find the Cabri hard to fly I did find the controls heavy and yet sensitive, and I would have needed a few more flights to feel truly confident. To start, we covered off some basic manoeuvres before transitioning up and away to altitude and setting track for Hunsdon Aerodrome, a former WW2 base that was home to Mosquito squadrons, located near Stansted Airport; today it’s a light aircraft strip.
At altitude the visibility through the canopy afforded me a stunning view of the countryside and of London’s skyline. It was great fun spotting features from my childhood – I was raised near Hunsdon and schooled in Hertford. But I digress: I soon got the rough measure of where the speed stable attitude was and for balance using the string as the reference. The position of the attitude indicator sends a very clear message – this is a look-out-and-fly-visually helicopter. I managed to explore most of the speed range and my altitude keeping was nothing to boast about, but I was definitely having fun. The school’s inclusion of iPad-based flight tracking and situational awareness equipment was reassuring, and with clearance into Stansted’s CTZ we flew over Hunsdon Aerodrome before heading 1 mile north to Widford village and my mother’s home. We managed to take some photographs from a thousand feet which subsequently delighted my mother, who was impressed with Captain Paul’s camera skills- clearly a man of many talents.
Setting course back to Elstree, we took the opportunity to fly some autorotations so I could explore Nr handling. I’d read so much about the tendency for lightweight rotor systems to bite pilots I was expecting the worst, but in fact I was pleasantly surprised at the benign rotor response on entry and subsequently in the turns. We did another autorotation on recovery to Elstree down to a full flare recovery and, again, I was impressed by how easy it was to control the Nr and to fly the profile, helped by the excellent visibility from the cockpit. Once back in the hover, I elected to fly some spot turns and sidesteps to further explore the helicopter’s handling qualities, and I found the Cabri’s response to be positive and stable, despite my attempts at overcontrolling.
After my cautious approach to flying (it had been a year, folks!), Captain Paul took control to show me some more assertive handling to make sure I didn’t get the wrong impression of the aircraft. He started with recovery from high yaw rates – something we’d been discussing about the Gazelle with its fenestron – and I was impressed with the near instantaneous response and recovery to a steady heading, and to finish, Captain Paul flew a vigorous wingover. Throughout, the helicopter responded crisply to his control inputs and, as if by magic, the wobbliness I had been accepting simply vanished.
Returning to dispersal, with me in control once again, I was faced with what I considered an impossibly small gap between two parked helicopters. Involuntarily my mind started running through Joint Helicopter Command guidelines on safe separation distances and I decided that the gap was too small, what with my wobbly hover and taxying. Having parked my ego in a hangar many years ago, I promptly handed back control to Captain Paul and sat back to watch how he would resolve this particular challenge. Yes, you guessed it: he deftly weaved his way between the two and set down alongside a third equally close aircraft. Chapeau!
Over lunch (I had the Air Burger & chips) at the excellent airfield café with Captain Paul and the charming Mr Christopher Langdon, we discussed the sortie and the aircraft. It was clear to me that the Cabri G2 is a near perfect basic trainer. Solid and stylish, with handling qualities perfectly suited to student learning, and affordable economics for a helicopter (it’s all relative of course), it’s hardly surprising the Cabri is proving so popular with pilots and schools alike. I heartily recommend it to anyone thinking about starting their own helicopter adventure.
My thanks to Capt Paul, his wife Katherine, and the team at Elstree Helicopters for their invitation and generosity. It was a memorable day out and I’m delighted to add Elstree Helicopter’s impressive Cabri G2 to my logbook.
Flt Lt Richard Luck
If you are interested in learning to fly the Cabri G2 or perhaps like Richard fancy a flight in a ‘hands on’ helicopter then get in touch
