SIX RECENT MILESTONES

NEWSLETTER CONTENTS

1. Simulator version 1.5 went on sale on 08-14
2. Verticopter® presented at Vertical Challenge on 06-20 and at Oshkosh on 07-31
3. Proto3 flew its maiden on 09-07
4. Proto4 flew its maiden on 10-24
5. Proto3 landed VTOL on 11-21 (P3F8)
6. Garrow Aircraft incorporated as LLC on 10-23 in the state of California

• Simulator Update
• Prototype Update
• Flight Test Update
• Website Update
• Business Development
• Seasonal Wishes

   1. Simulator Update

On August 14, the 6^th  version of the simulator package VC1.5 went on sale, now as a single bundle including 7 scales.  The 2 new implementations were the 1-seater (75%) and the large UAV (33%). Like always, legacy customers (VC1.0 to VC1.4) should receive a free upgrade. More details about VC 1.5 in this excellent video compiled by Dan Klaue.

 There are now close to 900 simulator seats sold to date. We are delighted that so many people had a chance to experience first-hand the unique flying characteristics of our convertiplane.

 We encourage you to post your sim videos on youtube or post your feedback on our guestbook page or on the xplane dedicated forum.

Sim megapack available on xplane.org

More pictures here

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   2. Prototype Update

This last quarter saw the completion and maiden flights of both proto3 and proto4.

Here is a quick table comparing the 4 flying protos to date :

Proto3 maiden happened on Sep. 07 after 4 months of assembly, all parts were wood this time and were cut in a 24”x18” laser bed (Epilog Helix), covering is transparent Monokote.

 Proto4 is an all-foam model, cut by hand from templates and covered with Ultrakote. Builder and pilot was Dan who later discovered that some CG adjustments were required.

 Proto3 used the “inverted Blue Angels” livery while Proto4 used the regular Blue Angels livery. Congrats to Dan for this sleek “foamie”. The R/C design is still open to 33% scale model builders. Let me know if you are interested in building at that scale.

 We are still considering making commercial R/C kits for these 2 scales (10% and 20%) however we have yet to find a manufacturing partner (i.e. laser shop) that would be cost-effective. We would appreciate any recommendations for good potential sources.

 Some more engineering work will be needed to refine the airframe, tweak the aero-dynamism of certain components, embed autonomous flight controller etc... so we are opening several summer internship positions. Please contact me if interested.

Proto3 above – Proto4 below

(click to enlarge)

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   3. Flight Test Update

If you noticed in the above table, only proto2 and proto3 did not crash, which is clearly thanks to Mark and his superb pilot reflex. It is always prudent to leave the controls of any experimental aircraft to the care of a professional pilot, in order to maximize your chance of success. Over the course of many test flights, the pilot needs to react swiftly to any circumstance, like wind shear close to the ground, controls off trim, aircraft stall, power loss (dead-stick) etc… Congrats again to Mark who “saved the bacon” on many occasions. Here are examples of emergency we experienced recently during P3F8 and P3F9 : 

-         In the middle of P3F8, we experienced a servo stall and the vector remained stuck in the 90-deg position, we had no other choice than to perform a VTOL landing, which happened fairly smoothly.

-         At the end of P3F9, a bearing in the pusher motor gave out, triggering a 30% extra power loss, hence using up the battery power too fast, this ended up in a dead-stick landing, again well executed by Mark.

All the construction steps and the significant video footages (onboard and from the ground) are posted on our User website at www.verticopter.net.  We encourage you to browse this site regularly to read about our latest developments.  Click here to sign up for a User account.

Another interesting aspect of flight testing is the debrief with the pilot and data post-analysis. We relied on Eagletree Systems units and GPS to log our flight data and on a new hi-definition onboard video recorder (1080p30) by Sony.

Here are a typical footage, data log & chart that are very informative for the debrief exercise:(click to enlarge)

Finally, here is a short video clip of the take-off of proto3 during P3F4 (rotation speed was 15mph): video link  Next test flight (P3F10) is scheduled for early January and will feature an advanced pitch control solution.

  2010 should see many new and exciting developments, like the addition of powerful telemetry capabilities to proto3, that will be equipped with a 2.4GHz telemetry package, OSD-overlaid video, FPV support etc…

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   4. Website Update

Our main website www.verticopter.com has received about 45,000 visitors to date, or 2,500 each month.  Ela, our webmaster, rebuilt the site based on a flexible engine called Joomla CMS which facilitates the posting of dynamic information and allows faster site updates. The opposite picture shows a sneak peak of the upcoming site. So expect more frequent postings once the new site is up.

 In the meantime, you can also catch our most recent updates on Twitter by following @Verticopter (or use this link).

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   5. Business Development

Like last year, we attended the helicopter air show in San Carlos called Vertical Challenge, a day dedicated to rotary wings. Booth traffic was less than last year, likely due to not-ideal weather conditions. Here is a quick summary in pictures: slideshow. Thanks to all our customers who stopped by at the booth and also to intern Henry for helping to run the demos and set up the booth displays.

 Then it was time to meet the professionals at Airventure, where we did not splurge for a booth (this time) but did present a VC paper at the open forum reserved for flying cars (Friday at 7pm). The audience was very intrigued and captivated by our project. Earlier that week, I was also thrilled to meet and chat with GA industry heros like B.Rutan, B.Binnie, Sir R.Branson and C. Lelaie, respectively about SS1/SS2 and the Airbus A380.

 This quarter, we changed legal and tax status by incorporating as a Limited Liability Company (LLC) in the state of California and became Garrow Aircraft LLC. This should facilitate some of the legal and tax paperwork when entering new business relationships.

 For example, we are expanding our network by adding one technology representative in Europe, Convitec Marketing GmbH, from Germany, who is helping with our investor search in Europe. We are currently reviewing a couple of funding opportunities.

Our objective to build a pool of investors as any manned aircraft production starts in the 8-digit investment. Any interested party should contact me directly.

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