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Aviation History
1962
1962 - 1185.PDF
; LIGHT International, 19 July 1962 93 CARDAN GY-80 HORIZON I One Lycoming O-320 giving 150 h.p.) Span. 3Ut 9jin; length, 21ft 5in; empty weight, 1,1901b; gross weight, 2,2041b; power to weight ratio. I4.7lb/h.p.; fuel capacity, 35i Performance Max speed, 172 m.p.h.; best cruising speed. 150 m.p.h.; stalling speed. S3 m.p.h.; initial rate of climb, 880ft/min; extreme range. 760 miles; ceiling, 16,404ft. Gardan Horizon DURING the recent light aircraft show at Cannes I was finally able to fly the first prototype Gardan Horizon, F-WJDU. M Ives Gardan has been developing the aircraft for some lime, but has been slow to get it into production. Now he says he has begun a batch of 15, to be followed by another batch of 30 at his works at Courbevoie. The prototype was built in production jigs. French export price is to be about £3,500. The Horizon is a fascinating aircraft, very simply built round a single-spar metal wing and tube-steel cabin with metal skin. Despite wash-out, the wrap-round wing-skin panels, from the leading-edge back to the main spar at something like 50 per cent cord, are made in single-curvature pieces. The flap sections and ailerons, and the fin and halves of the slab tailplane, are interchangeable. The nose- wheel undercarriage legs retract into unfaired recesses, the main legs going straight back, and leaving half of each wheel protruding. Flaps and undercarriage are linked so that about 19 very easy turns of a single handle extend or retract both together. There is a simple and unmistakable mechanical lock which prevents inadvertent oper ation. The nosewheel is directly steered from the rudder pedals, not spring-linked, and the mainwheel brakes are operated together by a single car-type handle with parking catch. Powerplant is a 150 h.p. Lycoming with constant-speed propeller. Although it looks rather like a Comanche, the Horizon is much smaller; but it can still accommodate four 1701b people and 35£ Imp gal of fuel as well as 551b of baggage in a compartment behind the rear seats. Access is by a large car-type door on either side. Fuel tanks are in the wing-roots and behind the cabin, with three- position cock and electric booster pump. The seats in F-WJDU were neat and bright, but the instrument panel was still to flight- test standards and there was apparently no soundproofing. The plastic windscreen was also rather thin. All this would, of course, have been tidied-up and greatly improved in a production aeroplane. Panel space was rather restricted and did not seem to offer, in the prototype at least, sufficient space for more than full blind-flying panel and basic communications and navigation radio. The three fuel tanks have to be individually selected and, because one of them is in the fuselage, smoking in the cabin would probably not be permitted by the ARB. On the ground, the Horizon perches like a fat bird on its narrow undercarriage, but the ride is stable and firm, without any trace of wallowing in a moderate cross-wind. Neither did a cross-wind landing later prove awkward. Visibility both on the ground and in the air was excellent. An immediately apparent Horizon character istic was the very small travel of the aileron wheel, which avoided any annoying knee-bumping. M Gardan is considered a master of light aircraft control and stability and I was most keen to see how his latest aeroplane flew. He handed me over to M Lepanse, a ministry test pilot. As 1 taxied out across the fairly rough ground at Cannes I noticed that the considerable nosewheel-steering effort reduced itself to reasonable proportions once the aircraft was rolling fairly fast. Take-off checks consisted virtually of setting trim to neutral, switching on the boost pump and "checking noise and wind." I opened up to full power and we bowled off down the p.s.p. -iiiway, lifting off easily at 44 m.p.h. into a good climb. To raise t'car and flap I simply had to flip the lock to "up" and turn the bundle till everything locked up. At the normal climbing speed of I 'Okm/hr (81 m.p.h.) we made 4m/sec (775ft/min) upwards. The wcraft handled very crisply with particularly smart aileron response—almost too smart, at first glance, for an A-to-B aeroplane. I levelled off at 2,600ft, set 2,450 r.p.m. and 24in for 75 per cent power, and waited for the speed to stabilize. As we accelerated, the nose went further and further down until we settled at 200km/hr i.a.s. (124 m.p.h.), which Lepanse said gave an e.a.s. of near 220km/hr (137 m.p.h.) and a TAS, at the rather warm temperature, of around 144 m.p.h. The top of the cowling sloped away quite steeply and the nose now seemed to be pointing almost at the ground. Elevator trim was adjusted with a very smooth-running trim-wheel on the small console between the seats and we just bored along. I soon discovered that the Horizon combines crisp, friction-free control with excellent stability so that, even in fairly bumpy weather, I could fly with rudder alone while writing notes. I could make quite good turns with either rudder or aileron, or leave the Horizon to go along by itself. It wallowed a little in the bumps, but did not deviate significantly from heading or pitch attitude. The high cruising speed, sprightly handling and excellent hands-off characteristics make the Horizon, in my view, one of the best small cruising aeroplanes I know. It must be admitted, however, that the noise-level in this unfurnished prototype would have been quite unacceptable for normal travelling. A good deal of air noise came into the cabin through the almost spongy soft windscreen, but decreased considerably when Lepanse put his hand against it near the door pillar. A series of wing-overs and steep turns were very pleasant, but a moderate amount of rudder was needed to co-ordinate fast rates of roll. The roof gave reasonable shade, but the swept-back wind screen allowed good visibility towards the inside of a turn. Incident ally, Gardan told me that the French flight test centre had officially timed the Horizon at 75 per cent power at 137 m.p.h. at sea level, and 150 m.p.h. at 6,600ft. At this power it should have an extreme endurance of almost five hours. Stalling characteristics proved to be quite good, with a pro nounced overall judder starting just above 62 m.p.h. and leading to an undecided stall which could be held straight with the nose up, though the Horizon tended to dip one or other wing. Rudder remained effective, but aileron began to reverse at the last moment. Flap and undercarriage could be lowered at 150km/hr without any apparent trim change. With everything down, the stall came at a rather lower speed and was more controllable, but the overall characteristics were the same. No one could possibly mistake the onset of a stall. When recovering from the stall without power the nose had to be left down for a little time to allow speed to build up again properly. Elevator trim was sufficient to hold a power-off descent, all down, at 120km/hr (75 m.p.h.) with our rather forward e.g. The rate of descent was an indicated 4m/sec (775ft/min)—not bad in view of the small flap angle. With hands off the controls I applied full throttle and was then able to check a fairly rapid nose-up rotation with one hand. Having trimmed, I found that the Horizon was climbing comfortably with everything down. Again hands-off, I wound flaps and gear up without any trim change and the speed increased to 140km/hr (87 m.p.h.). Finally I made a normal circuit and lowered gear and flaps on the downwind leg. Under these conditions the stability of the Horizon was most pleasant and the whole approach was virtually a hands-off process, with just the smallest corrections to make on the light controls. Landing was completely straightforward and, despite the cross-wind, there was no sign of lateral rolling on the
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