Jeff Magnus, US Business Manager for Curti Zefhir, talked to ANN at Oshkosh about the new helicopter kit, and how it flies.
“It is absolutely a delight to fly,” he says. “First of all, it is a two-place helicopter with a turbine engine, 251 hp, derated to 141 hp. When you start the engine, unlike a traditional helicopter that has a throttle on the collective, we have a knob on the panel and it starts out at idle, goes to 55%, then goes to run which is 90%, and the engine stays at 90%. The neat part about that whole deal is because we get 100 hp extra in D-rating, you get all the torque immediately. We can cruise at 15,500 feet, and we have a Hover Above Ground at 14,100 feet. It is just as nice as can be,” he says enthusiastically."
“You sit very upright in the comfortable seats, very ergonomic, the yoke is placed in the collective right where you need it, and so are the foot pedals,” he continues.
Magnus says the kit will come in nine parts when it arrives to the customer. Complete with a manual that is close to 900 pages, it tells you exactly where to put everything down to the nuts and bolts, with pictures, in incredible detail. The fuselage comes in two carbon fiber pieces, which then needs to be painted and have glass installed.
The Zefhir is built by Curti, an Italian company that is neighbors with Ferrari and Lamborghini. Magnus raves about the quality of their workmanship. “You look at how it’s set up for different situations, and they have really anticipated about everything that I can think of,” he says.
“This is the first helicopter that comes with a parachute. The really neat thing about it is when the parachute is deployed, the helicopter drifts down at the same rate you would as if you jumped out of an airplane with a parachute,” Magnus says. “When you land, the helicopter is intact, it doesn’t destroy it, it doesn’t hurt it, it really is a nice deal. If you can land and fix what the problem was, you can take the parachute off the top and fly it away.”
After filling the tanks and putting two 200lb pilots in the Zefhir, you still have 700lbs of useful load left.
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