kram-RCU

TwinMan has written extensively on this, and I think he uses gyros on ailerons, too. Find it at rcwarbirds.com.

I use gyros on my aerobatic planes, not my P-38's, but I can tell you the basics: a gyro works on any control surface to counter-act sudden movements of the aircraft by giving opposite control surface input A LOT faster than any pilot's reflexes can. For example, if a plane with an elevator gyro dives suddenly, the gyro gives up elevator so quickly that the pilot may not even know anything happened. Same thing with roll (ailerons) or yaw (rudder). Most modern gyros have adjustable "gain" which can be controlled from your transmitter, so that you can find a sweet spot between too much gyro control, where the surfaces will "hunt" or "seek" and cause the plane to porpoise, and too little control, where you won't get enough effect. A gyro is not an autopilot...it won't fly the plane...but it can make you and/or the plane seem a lot smoother than y'all really are...for example a tail dragger with a stong ground loop tendency will track right straight down the runway with just the right amount of rudder gyro....learning to hover a 3-D plane can be easier with gyros because they give you a split second more time to make manual adjustments necessary to stay upright. The philosophy behind using them on P-38's has to do with the plane's famous tendency to do a "death snap" roll when an engine goes out due to wide engine spacing, small rudders and heavy wing loading. The time from engine-out to uncontrolled spin for most P-38 crashes is incredibly brief...1 or 2 seconds. Go ahead, ask me how I know. Having gyros would theoretically lengthen that time enough for the pilot to get his bearings and gain manual control.

The reason I don't fly my 38's with gyros is that my experience with gyros on aerobatic planes tells me that finding the right gain setting can be a little tricky, especially since I don't normally twist and flop my 38's around much to test them. If you don't have enough gain, it won't do any good and if you have have too much, you could wind up porpoising, or needing drastically heavier manual inputs to make the plane do what you want...neither of which being a desirable situation on a P-38.

So, you can see that my reservations about gyros on 38's are from the perspective of being CHICKEN, rather than experienced. You should read TwinMan's treatises. He has done what could almost be termed "elegant clinical research" on the subject.

Good Luck, and post some pictures of your plane.


mt