The Best Gyrocopter to Buy: Cavalon vs M24 vs ARGON GTL

Three enclosed two-seaters, compared on what their makers actually publish

If you are buying an enclosed side-by-side gyroplane in Europe you are choosing between three aircraft: the AutoGyro Cavalon, the Magni M24 Orion and the ARGON GTL. We are Argo Aero UK and we sell the third one; who sells the other two in Britain is in where to buy a gyrocopter in the UK. You should factor that in, and then read on. What we can promise is the method: every figure for the other two comes from that manufacturer's own website, quoted as they state it, and where they publish nothing the cell stays blank rather than being filled with a number from somewhere else.

The three, side by side

Every figure in the first two columns comes from AutoGyro and Magni themselves - their websites where they publish it, and their flight manuals where they do not. The track widths are from theCavalon Flight Manual (1.55 m) and the M24-PLUS Flight Manual (1.58 m). Not publishedmeans we could not find it stated by the manufacturer, and we have left the cell blank rather than fill it from somewhere they did not say it - including our own: we do not publish the ARGON GTL's empty weight either, so that cell reads the same as theirs.

Cavalon versus M24

This is the comparison people actually make, so it is worth doing before we put ourselves in the middle of it. The two aircraft are aimed differently and both makers are quite open about it.

The Cavalon is the equipped one. A hundred litres of fuel, up to five and a half hours quoted, a heated cabin with heated seats and lumbar support, three rotor lengths, and what AutoGyro itself calls a "huge options list of Garmin equipment, including ADS-B in and out". It is the aircraft you specify.

The M24 Orion is the plain one, and that is a compliment. Magni lists a turbo ROTAX 914 at 115 hp - the M24 Plus takes the 915 iS, though the website does not say so - an 82-litre tank, up to four hours, a 28-foot composite rotor and an instrument panel it describes as a rotor rev counter, altimeter, airspeed indicator, compass, engine monitoring and a fuel gauge. Fewer things fitted is fewer things to go wrong, and Magni has been building gyroplanes since long before most of the field.

Where the ARGON sits

On the published numbers, three things stand out and one of them is not in our favour.

• The most powerful engine as standard. The ROTAX 916 iS at 160 hp is the GTL's standard fit. It is an option on the Cavalon and it is not on the M24 as listed.
• The most fuel and the longest published range. 116 usable litres against 100 and 82, and 757 km against "up to 600" and a figure Magni does not publish.
• A wide undercarriage, deliberately. The main wheels are set 2.18 metres apart and the aircraft was type-certified that way. The Cavalon flight manual gives 1.55 m and the M24-PLUS manual 1.58 m, so the GTL stands roughly60 cm wider - about 40 per cent. A wider track resists tipping in a crosswind on rough ground, which matters more on a gyroplane than on most aircraft because it lands slowly and often somewhere that is not a runway.
• A cubic metre of luggage. Thirty cubic feet in a single compartment, limited by the flight manual to 20 kg with a further 8 kg a side under the seats - so it is generous with volume rather than with weight. Golf clubs, skis and soft bags travel easily; two heavy suitcases do not. Neither of the other two publishes a luggage volume, so there is nothing to compare it against; we are stating ours because a touring buyer asks the question first.
• But not the longest endurance. AutoGyro quotes up to 5.5 hours for the Cavalon; ours is 5 hours 2 minutes, worked from 116 litres at 23 an hour. Theirs is an "up to" and ours is an arithmetic, which is not the same kind of number - but we are not going to claim a win that the published figures do not give us.

The one thing this comparison cannot give you

Look at the last row of the table. Neither AutoGyro nor Magni publishes a price on its own website.

There is a good reason for it: these aircraft are specified before they are built, so the price genuinely does follow the configuration, and a single headline number can mislead as easily as it helps. It is a defensible choice and plenty of makers in this category make it. The practical effect on a buyer, though, is that comparing three aircraft means contacting three dealers and waiting.

We publish £165,000 from, and about £202,000 for a fully specified ARGON GTL, and £125,000 for the 915 iS. That is not generosity. It is the thing we would want if we were the ones spending it, and it means you can put a number against our column before you speak to anybody.

So which should you buy?

The Cavalon if you want the longest options list and the longest quoted endurance, and if a large dealer network matters to you - AutoGyro has been in the UK the longest and there are more of them flying here than anything else.

The M24 Orion if you want the simplest aircraft from the oldest name in the business, and you would rather have less to maintain than more to choose from.

The ARGON GTL if you want the biggest cabin, the most powerful standard engine, the furthest range and a glass panel with an autopilot without ticking a box for it - and if you want to know the price before you ring anybody.

We would rather lose a sale to somebody who read this and chose a Magni than win one from somebody who never knew a Magni existed. The category is small enough that everybody meets everybody at the same fly-ins, and reputations here are made over decades.

What ours looks like

A finished ARGON GTL, nose to tail: the enclosed carbon cabin, the engine bay, the Garmin panel and the leather inside.

Frequently asked questions