mnowell129

Finally got around to finishing my electric autogyro design.
Spend a morning messing with trim, finally added a third
cell to the battery and flew all around my street.
Around 12 ounces. No horizontal surfaces at all.
More details if anyone is interested.
Picture attached.
m. nowell
longwood fl

rcflyerfl

My Feedback: (1)

Another Florida Autogyro flys..
I used to have a Longwood address..
Keep building more and look forward to seeing you at Spring Hill Auto gyro Fly-in..

I would like to see more pictures and some flying.

Jim

mnowell129

Hopefully I will post a flying video by the end of the week.
The fly in @ Spring Hill, Is it at the field
on the Boy Scout Reservation? There are two of us
here in Longwood that plan on attending. The dates
look like a Thursday and Friday, is this correct?

What kind of pictures? Other views or details?
I have repaired my blades, since I created a few dings
learning to fly this thing. I did manage to get it trimmed
and learn to fly it on one set of blades.

I did learn several things in the process:

1) Don't horse it off the ground too early.

2) Enough power is important. The inital flights
with the two cell lithium (1000mah) would barely climb out.
This made for some intersting moments trying to
clear the 75 foot oak tree at the end of the street.
When I swapped in the 3 cell 1200, it suddenly was
a whole new aircraft. Flew around the neighborhood
and landed in the street.

3) My 30 foot PVC extension pole will reach to the top
of my neighbors palm tree (see #1 and #2)

I have left myself the ability to add a pre-spin mechanism
with this model. (Running down the street with the gyro
makes my neighbors look at me oddly.)
I have not seen anyone doing this on this
forum. Anyone have any experience?

BTW this model is $35 worth of GWS Dragonfly helicopter parts
and the rest is out of the junk bin. I think anyone can repoduce it.
Blades are 12 inch, balsa with 1/32 ply root reinforcements, TLAR
airfoil and weigh 8 grams each. I'm not entirely pleased with the
rotor speed changing so rapidly in flight so the next set will probably be
weighted some.
The blade attachments are thin steel, so the blade angle and blade
tracking are easily adjustable.

rcflyerfl

My Feedback: (1)

The Gyro meet will be at Potters field according to Pappy DeBolt in another Message. I believe its a Friday /Saturday with the Old Timers on Sunday.
Jim

mnowell129

Flew 3 more times this morning after repairing and lengthening
the rotor blades. Went from 12 to 14" and covered them with
chrome monokote trim sheet. Made a longer tail skid to improve
the previously awful ground handling.
Longer slick blades added some performance, now can cruise
around about 80% throttle.
Launches are improving due to operator skill level increasing.
Landings still have some work to do as shooting the hole
between the pine and sycamore tree is a little exciting.
The good news is that I have good control at all speeds,
from takeoff to touchdown.
My flying pal has agreed to take video Wed PM if we have
daylight to work with. Will post that when we get it.

Gyroguru

Are you using rudder control?

Wahid

mnowell129

Rudder, yes. Also steerable tail wheel.
Also roll and pitch through the head.
Full three axis control plus motor.

Two successful takeoffs yesterday, plus
several hand launches.

Two long flights today until something broke
in flight, should be back in the air by tonight.

mnowell129

I have videos of my gyro.
home.earthlink.net/~mickeynowell

as soon as I get it uploaded and figure out how to put a link to it.
Not a web guy so be patient.
Only have limited web space, the takeoff clip is 3 meg.
Will have to upload them one at a time.
If I get some responses I'll swap the takeoff one out for the
landing one.

mnowell129

Got the video of takeoff uploaded.
The built in earthlink viewer tool is lousy. I suggest
you right click and save as... and play it yourself.
I can put up some flyby's or a landing.....
home.earthlink.net/~mickeynowell
then "click here to play video"

gyronuts

Sorry to appear stupid but what is the address of the site the video is on? Thanks. Bill

mnowell129

[link]http://home.earthlink.net/~mickeynowell[/link]

rcflyerfl

My Feedback: (1)

It was a little augward getting the vidio to work but I veiwed the take off several times..
Tell us how many times you rotor chopped the TREES
Nice straight take offs. I am impressed.

mnowell129

Between the airplanes, my helicopters and this gyro I've hit, landed in
or clipped every tree in sight, including the light pole.
Even had to spend $50 one time to get one out the very tree in
the video.
I've been lucky with the gyro so far, only the light pole and the
neighbors palm tree. No climbing yet.
Flying in the hood keeps you on your toes.

mnowell129

Put the two other video clips on the web site.
One is a short overhead flyby, the other is the landing.
enjoy.
[link]http://home.earthlink.net/~mickeynowell[/link]

Lizard

This gyroplane inspires me greatly. I would want to build also something as simple as this but I'd like to build the head by myself. Is your gyro following the "CG just ahead of the main shaft axis" rule?
Thanks for sharing the vids. I would have hoped them to be a little longer ones... Just interested to see more of your gyroplane flying
It seems to have much power. How much watts does the motor take? What is the flying weight?

rcflyerfl

My Feedback: (1)

I just veiwed your landing video and I am still wondering if all your neighbors are afraid of you or just asleep. Being an electric helps.
I was wondering , are you using the heli setup to change the pitch of the blades? How are you pre-spinning the blades?

rcflyerfl

mnowell129

I considered building the head myself. I had built one years ago. However
the GWS dragonfly parts are so inexpensive it seemed silly. The entire head,
swashplate, linkages, head bearings, etc. came to less than $40. I assembled
it in about 15 minutes. I took longer to make the shaft mount and anti-rotation
loop than it did to build the head. I included a closeup photo if you want to
reproduce it yourself. There are however simpler head designs that accomplish
the same thing and can be found in the various model helicopter design books.

As to the CG. When I hold the gyro by the rotor(flybar actually) it hangs
such that the rotor mast is vertical, i.e. nose down. I have flown it
with various CG configurations by moving the battery and it doesn't seem
to matter a whole lot where the CG is within a range. It gets a little "pitchy"
with aft CG but not impossible to fly.

The flying weight is about 12.1 ounces (342 g). Total rotor span is 26-1/4".

The power plant is a GWS EPS350, "D" ratio, with an APC 10x4.7 slow flyer prop.
The Motor is slightly retimed as has been widely published but if need be I can send
a photo of exactly how much retiming I did. It is a simple matter to twist the end bell
with snap ring pliers.

Speed control is the Castle Creations pixie 20 P.

Battery - Apogee 1050 3S1P ( 3 cell ).

I think the motor draws in the 7-8 amp range in this configuration so
I believe this about 75 watts, likely 40 delivered to the propellor.
I considered putting one of my brushless setups in so I could use a smaller
battery but decided to hold off until I build a new gyro that I spend more than
two hours building. The chassis is pine stock cut on the table saw with no
attempt at lightening, the next one will be lighter.

Thanks for your interest.

mnowell129

The neighbors are certain I am crazy, whether they are
afraid of me or not remains to be seen. The guy across
the street flies RC so he's ok with it.

Yes indirectly, I am using the heli setup to change the pitch of the flybar, which in turn
changes the pitch of the blades. This is what alleviates the control forces
and slows down the response. The short flybar with small paddles has
a slow contolled response to input and the main rotor follows suit, like
a slave servo mechanism. I posted a closeup pic of the setup in another
reply. The swashplate applies cyclic pitch to the flybar, the flybar then precesses
like a rotor would. The flybar is linked to the main rotor and applies cyclic through
the little short links. THe main rotor then follows the flybar. If the main goes too far
or gets gusted around the linkage applies the corrective cyclic to bring the main rotor
back in line with the flybar. Because the flybar is very stable the whole rig is stable. The
main head is therefore very simple semi-rigid rig, with no flapping hinges, delta-three etc.
It only has the teetering bearings to allow the flybar to manage the main rotor cyclic.
Because the head is semi-rigid you get good control authority. Seems to work like a charm.

Pre-spin is by hand flip when taking doing ROG, or no pre-spin
when hand launching (just funny running).

thanks for the questions.

mnowell129

I will be unable to fly for a few days, but if I am able to fly on Sunday
I will take some more video, this time from the flying field
where I can make lower passes. Will post that when possible.

mnowell129

Managed to sneak in a flight this afternoon.
Had to make some new blades finally due to a little
"mishap".
New blades are 1-3/4" chord, 14" long, constant chord.
1/4 x 1/4 spruce leading edges, TLAR airfoil.
Now able to make low passes down the street and
make touch and goes.
Ground handling still atrocious, must find a way
to make a trike gear version.
Because the rudder is right behind the mast
and the tail wheel is under the rotor, this thing
is very short. Seems like the advantage to the
models with a long tail and an elevator/rudder
behind the rotor is good ground handling.
I am however committed to this arrangement
with no horiz surfaces. Flights today confirm this
layout as I am now doing nice easy half throttle
flybys and nice slow landings.
I can now go very slow at a high angle,
landings now are tailwheel first with a gentle
settle in. Really cool. Become more
adept at negotiating the trees and can now make turns inside
the treeline on the south end of my "field".
will post more video when I get it.
If everyone who has seen the videos will
let me know I'll replace them soon.
Not getting any feedback so don't know if you
guys are bored with my little notes and video....

mnowell129

Three flights at the field this morning.
I now have video of slow flight including
a slow landing.
Need to build another craft that is slightly
lighter and with a little more
craftmanship.
will post video tomorrow.
I have still pics of my rotor airfoils cross
section if anyone wants to see them.

cowgod

I for one am finding this very intersting and would definitely encourage you to post any other photos or movies you have. I didn't know what an autogyro was before opening this forum and picking your post at random, and I've found it very educational. I think the idea is really cool. Thanks for sharing the details of your work.

mnowell129

New video posted.
[link]http://home.earthlink.net/~mickeynowell[/link]

Follow the link to videos.
Three new ones, a handlaunch takeoff,
a slow flyby with a turn at the end
and a slow nose high landing.
enjoy

mnowell129

Picture of the rotor cross section on the electric
gyro.
Leading edge is 1/4 x 1/4 spruce, white glued
to 1/4 balsa. Total chord is 1-3/4 inches.
Carved with a razor plane, sandpaper, etc.
Airfoil is TLAR, my gyro doesn't seem to sensitive
to airfoil.
Latest video is with these blades without
any covering.
One fast coat of spray laqcuer for sealing and sanded
out with 320 sandpaper. Will cover them with
trim monokote when I get the chance.
I am ecouraged by the latest flights, ready to build
#2 aircraft now and make it presentable.

mnowell129

High resolution side view of the electric gyro.