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Turning world
   KOMPRESS
&
ITALY
Saturday November 14th, 1998
My first flight in the Kompress
(but most likely not my last)
I finally had my chance to fly the Kompress today. Only for 2o minuets, but what a 2o minuets to say the least...................

First off let me start out by saying, to me and all the others that I have talked with that have also flown the Kompress, It is difficult to believe by just changing the power plant in the CH-7 Angel has created a whole new helicopter, but it did. With the Rotax 914 turbo mounted, the CH-7 Angel has totally disappeared, even thou perhaps 50-60-70% remains, the Angel is gone....

However, there are many many more changes Igi n Josi Barbero made along with adding the 914..... I will try and remember as many new changes n inovations in the Kompress as I can. HeliSport is a vary small company and all the Barbero boys are vary bussy, so I did not have unlimited time to descuss the Kompress. Also, I have known since 1992 that Americans are not Igi's favorite nationality and perhaps because of my somewhat unique personality, I  most likely may be high on his low list of Americans. I only mention this bacause this has in the past n will most likely always prevent us from becoming good hangar buddies and talking helicoptering/the Komoress as two mutial admiring rotor heads almost always do, so, we gotta rely on my limited memory. Oh before I forget, even thou Igi is not a America/American lover, he has ALWAYS treated me like a gentelman durring my 3 visits to there corner of the world.

Cabin Space
Happily, even for a guy that has been around/eaten too many hamburgers n ice cream cones for the past 15 years because of my profession (I'm now 2o5 pound/kilo), the Kompress is considerably roomier than I expected. I was just slightly uncomfortable due to my needing to lean forward to give my IP (Instructor Pilot, Ige Barbero) some room to turn his head. The exhilaration of the flight removed 99% of my discomfort let me assure you........ If you are a big American guy like I am slowly becoming, the only draw back I can C is that your/my passenger may need to go on a diet, simple as that...... or they don't come along.

For me, in my now some what less loved CH-7 Angel, the only thing I did not like about the Angel's cabin was that the peddles were just a tad too close causing my knees to bend more that perfect, again, happily this is not the case in the Kompress, the peddles have been moved forward a bit and the toe hight may be lowered.

The Sound
I am what I have been told, a typical guy, the initial sight n sound of anything is important to me. The Kompress sounds GREAT, both in and out (I was not using active noise canceling head phone during the flight and there is a 100% of the time hot mike system for the Kompress intercom). As as that old Chinese guy Confucius would have said  if  Intel was a part of his life, a .WAV file will tell what a 1,ooo words can describing as far as the sound of the Kompress goes.

Look for the word ".WAV" to be in read and as soon as I can find the patch cord, I will digitize 10 seconds or so of the Kompress for your listning enjoyment (sorry, I can't bring everything I need to create web pages when I am on the road).....

Sight
Luckily, this WWWW (wonderful world wide web) allows fotos. And equally as luckily, a few of you guys sent in a buck or two and I was not only able to pay the next 12 month cyberspace rent with your contributions, I pitched in a couple hundred bucks and purchased a Nikon CoolPix 9oo digital camera so, I will let the Kompress speak for it self and just show you some of  the fotos I took to day.

Just above is Angelo n Luciana's CH-7 Angel, In the background is one of the 3  Rotax powered helicopters HeliSport produces.
The CH-7 Kompress seen in these 3 fotos below are owned by a gentelman I met him in 1995 when I attended the then EliSport building n maintenance seminar. Today he is the lucky guy taking delivery of  the First Factory assembled Kompress. I am sure you will note the exposed wires in the cockpit due to the front portion of the instrument pod being off and the engine nacelle is still off. This is due to Josi Barbero the head mechanic still tweeking the bird.

I was happy to C the care and devotion Josi spent during the entire day watching his latest creation fly than talking with  the new owner and making minor adjusting of the fledgling helicopter. This is at least the 2nd helicopter this gentelman has purchased from the Barberos, it may be the third? Like I, guess this shows he is a satisfied customer.
Here you C the new owner reaching down to losten the friction on the cyclic, just prior to take off. By watching his flying today, is new owner is a vary accomplished helicopter pilot and must be the same in his profession. I have lots more fotos of the Kompress to give you an even better look.

Well, it is late n I try to limit a page to 5 fotos so the page loads a tad faster, so that's it for now. I better close now, but I got lots more, so pop back tomorrow or so.
 .
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