Lance Campbell

Lynn,
That's the reason I setup the gyros in my SR-71... to be that extra insurance incase of engine issues. Much to my surprise, was an increased stability, especially in gusty wind conditions. I set mine up to help the most when my sticks were near center, but then fade away as you get off center. I spend little time at extreme stick positions with this plane, but when I do, I didn't want a gryo dampening my inputs. Likewise, I rationalized, if I had an engine issue, it would probably not be during the few seconds I was rolling, out of a minute of normal flight, going around the airfield. If you were setting up a 3-D aircraft, my thinking would not apply, but for a complex twin, flown mostly scale, it works great.

I found this out first hand a couple years ago. While at a large jet meet, I did a high speed fly-by, and mid field pulled up to a 45 degree upline for a climb out. Just as I passed mid field, a high pitched whine started coming from the plane. Not many others heard it, but I knew it did not sound right. I did a short lap, and confirmed the sound, and started to realize the plane was feeling a little bit off. I decided to land, did a short 2nd lap (gear pass, but instead of a full lap, as soon as I confirmed gear, turn out, midfield). By the time I was landing, I could feel the plane skidding in yaw a fair amount, and was cross controlling about 1/3 of the stick travel. I was able to land safely, without a scratch, albeit a bit extra rubber off the tires, as I was not tracking straight on touch down.

In reality, what had happened was the when the whine started, the compressor face had failed, and partially disintegrated. This resulted in one engine loosing about half it's thrust. Later that night, I looked at the moment this happened in the Weatronic logs (the Weatronic receiver logs all data for review later), and was stunned to see that at the moment of near engine failure, the rudders cranked in 30% all on their own, to assist keep the plane stable. After that initial moment, they continued to help, while the pilot (me) got their head out of the sand, and got the plane down.

I came away from this with a couple conclusions....
1. The gyro's built into the Weatronics receiver did exactly what I had hoped they would do when I set them up.... jump in with both feet should I ever have an engine issue and help get the plane back on the ground.
2. If you have an engine issue, land IMMEDIATELY. I took about 90 seconds to get on the ground. In that time, the speed continued to decay, making my problem harder to manage. My problem, was that gyro's helped so much, that I did not appreciate how bad the problem was. Next time, The moment I suspect anything, it will be setting up for landing right away.

But to answer your question, yes, for me, they bought me those critical seconds at the start of an issue, so that I could mentally get in front of it and get it back on the ground. 15 years ago, I had a Yellow aircraft SR-71 (ducted fan) go into a spin because of engine failure, and after reviewing the video tape, saw that from the moment the smoke came out that side (engine failure), the uncontrolled spin happened 5-6 seconds later.

So, to go from that outcome, to only feeling something was amiss by a little bit, on the gyro assisted, turbine SR-71, 30 seconded to a minute or so in, is a huge leap forward in stability and safety, I think.

Hope it helps.
Thanks,
Lance

P.S. I'm sure all the current brand of gyro's are all good for providing this kind of 'insurance', I just don't have experience with them yet.