RE: How does a Gyro work on Rudder Application?
OK, so I need a life.
These are again several years old, but hopefully entertaining and of some small help.
Twinman
Twin Engine Saga: So You Want To Do Twins ? {Part 6} By Twinman
It has been five months of me trying to talk you out of trying twins. Still
you won't listen, so I will write the final chapter. (Cheering is in bad
taste) The old twin ugly has served it's purpose to be the test bed of these
articles and now retired and in the hanger. No, it is undamaged!!!! The
final test was to try the most difficult and dangerous maneuver for a twin
engine airplane...The Single Engine Takeoff! The twin ugly has served well
in these tests and so the decision to try the single engine takeoff was an
easy one....Yeah, let's do something new!!!!! (Told you flying twins was a
nutty idea!) Total time for the decision....2.5 seconds. One early (so as to
have not too many witnesses) Saturday morning the old plane was fired up on
twin engines and twin gyros (See Last Month Story on Gyros) for a
refamiliarization flight. This went well by trying eight point rolls
inverted low passes etc.. The plane was landed and one engine refueled and
the other tank drained. Gyro for the ailerons set to maximum rate. My son
and copilot Kyle ( always one for a good crash ) assisted to carry the
doomed plane to the far end of the runway with the single engine at quarter
throttle to maintain heat. The single engine run up and was held at the
straight up position for the 10 second requirement, for safe take off. The
plane was set on the runway (The peanut gallery was unusually quiet.. Or was
taking side bets) Rudder and aileron set at 50 percent into the running
engine, (This rapidly increased to 75% during the roll out) and with a deep
breath, the plane was off at a very slow pace. Remember that one engine out
is not half power, but a loss of up to 90% of the required power for flight
and climbing. The plane was held to the ground the full length of the runway
to gain maximum air speed and so control at lift off. I pulled up around 20
feet from the end of the field and began the slow climb for altitude. ( Your
Friend) Controls were sluggish to say the least, but controllable. I made a
turn into the engine( Not recommended and difficult as the plane wants to
turn away). First concern was to put as much space between the plane and the
ground as possible. After three circuits around the field, I decided that it
was time to land. (OK, my hands were shaking so bad that I was having
trouble holding the transmitter.) The peanut gallery seemed unconvinced that
one flight was actually a test of skill, so a second flight was attempted.(
My son is concerned that insanity is hereditary, I assured him that only
hair loss is!) The second flight was as uneventful as the first( OK so it
was just as terrifying as the first) It was going OK until the peanut
gallery (My "Buddies"...to name but a
few of my "friends") started screaming to LOOP IT,ROLL IT. Well, not having
good sense to ignore the challenge, I climbed as high as possible. This is a
difficult process on one engine. Yes, the plane did both loop and roll on
command. One low life commented that a real pilot would have done as low
level inverted pass! Call me woosy,,, No way!!!!! Seriously, the tests
conducted with the twin gyro scopes are, in my opinion, a complete success,
and will be added to two P-38's I and my son are finishing as we speak. No,
the gyros are not necessary for all twins and I don't use them on my other
two twins, but if you are going to start
with twin engine airplanes, and even think about the P-38 ( Understand an
ARF is coming) or any other heavily loaded high powered twin and expensive
war bird, I would really like to recommend them as cheap insurance. Good
Luck and see you at the field...I'm the one with the twin electric fans on
my Aggie hat!!!!!