Anyone doing any flying in their Brantlys?

[seneca2e]

Any flying going on all? Sure be nice to get the forum going a bit. I saw where Steve had a Brantly and now a Enstrom. I used to own a Enstrom F280C and now might buy a Brantly. Guess I'm his mirror image if I wind up buying one lol. The turbocharged Enstrom is a fine bird even though the maintenance was quite high on mine. Just never could get it to stay smooth for long with the lama flex bearings and what not. The room, heavy blades, and turbocharger were nice though!

[edspilot]

I'm looking for a B-2B as we speak.

The problem for me is that I have never flown one and want to before I commit to buy.

Now the real problem is that the ships (B-2Bs)for sale are all in the north and it is horrible weather now. So I'm having trouble getting to go out to see/fly them. This weekend is not looking any better (had to cancel last weekend) with Ice, high winds, snow and 0 degree temps all across the upper mid-west and east.

Sunhelo's (in Flordia) ship was/is down for scheduled maint. so that's out.

So, here I am on the fourms chatting with you.

Hope to have some fun down the road.

Here's trying to stay warm,

edspilot

[seneca2e]

So what else have you flow edspilot? You've got your license already I presume? A couple years ago I flew with Ggoldsberry an hour or so in one of his near Greencastle, IN. Like you I'd never actually flown one before but had flight manuals that were 30 years old. I'd followed the Brantly thru the Hynes years and it seems now they're owned by the chinese. Wonder if anyone could shed any light on what comes next in the Brantly chapter?

[Steve Chenoweth]

I have not flown my Enstrom F28C for about a month, but put about 60 hours on it during this last year (including the 14+ hours it took to fly it from Rochester NY to Dallas TX with the able assistance of fellow Forum member Ron Spiker). I will probably jinx myself by saying this, but it has been relatively maintenance free so far. From what I hear, Enstrom has improved the lamiflex bearings over the past several years and that has resulted in a much smoother flying ship. So let me take a minute to contrast the Brantly B2B I had and the Enstrom F28C.

Comfort - Enstrom big plus. It is a larger ship that can seat 3 in a pinch, but very comfortable and roomy for 2. Ron and I were both very comfortable after hours of flying every day.
Maintenance - So far edge goes to the Enstrom - a lot fewer things going wrong than with my Brantly
Performance - Plus for the Enstrom with its turbocharged engine - but it is not a turbine and you still have to manage power in high density altitude conditions
Ease of flying - big plus to the Brantly. The Enstrom is not corrrelated and requires constant throttle adjustment. Correlation was very good in the Brantly. For cyclic trim, in my Brantly, I set the cyclic trim once and never really had to set it again - with the Enstrom it requires adjustment for take-off, landing, cruise flight, wind conditions
Smoothness - tie - Brantly hovers smoother, but both are equally smooth in flight
Pure fun - Brantly was probably more fun if I was flying by myself

[edspilot]

Yes, I have a commercial & CFI that I did the add-on about 20 years ago. I have an ATP-ME, Commercial - ASE & Instrument, CFI & CFII with 3900 flight hours, fixed-wing. However, I only have about 80 hours in the Bell 47G.

I have retired from a government position and now do contract work mostly overseas. Now I get to "pick & choose" what I do and where I do it overseas.

I have been trying to get out to look at and fly with Gary but like I said the weather has not been good (on weekends) since the beginning of the year. My objective is to buy a B-2B and fly on my own to build time.

I'll be glad when Spring comes..

Thanks for the info you listed between the Enstrom & Brantly.

edspilot

[seneca2e]

Steve thanks for the comparison. I certainly concur on the Enstrom as far as trim. Very heavy on the controls and the trim was a must use but those characteristics also made it very stable. Almost perfect for an instrument trainer if you ask me. But conversely the lightness of the Brantly or Hughes controls is just so nice and responsive it's like comparing a Cherokee 6 to a Bonanza in the fixed wing universe lol! I even had some of the factory guys come down and help me work on the Enstrom but seemed to always have expensive maintenance to do on it but I truly believe it's one of the best and safest piston helicopters available(the blades have no retirement time limit!). Just have always been intriqued with the odd design of the Brantly and it does seem to fly nice for the little I flew it.

edspilot thanks for the update. Wishing you good luck with your search. Man I thought fixed wing was a small market but the piston chopper market is really thin

[SunHelo Paul]

Our B2B will be out of the shop by Wednesday with a fresh annual and lots of niggling little things fixed. We're looking forward to getting it back in the air.

The cause for the extensive downtime for this annual can be laid squarely at the feet of the maintenance 'guru' nearly everyone in the Brantly community reveres as well as one of his proteges and admirers. They completely refurbished and overhauled this bird before we bought it and a shoddier, more criminally negligent job I've never seen in thirty years as an aviation professional. It's a testament to the ruggedness, superb engineering and forgiving nature of the Brantly that it flew at all.

Fortunately, all the fixes and adjustments are mostly labor and no expensive parts.

Suffice it to say that when, in the future, we buy any aircraft this 'guru' has touched, we'll regard it as a basket case and adjust our offer accordingly.

[jetstarr]

I know we are a close community and we really don't want to point fingers, but I know that I would like to know who this "guru" is so that I don't make the same mistakes..............you can email me privately if you would like.............thanks............Mike Jetstarr@mail.com

2297U