RE: 1/2A Throttle Controlled C/L Autogyro
My Otto was the .35 size one published in MAN (CA 1978??). Anyway, the motor was an Enya .35, if I recall. It "flew" OK, I guess and the throttle was fun to twiddle, but every time you touched down the least bit hard, the blades would flex down and knock off the rudders - Once it knocked off the whole stab!
As for careful rotor design, well I won't disagree, but I will mention a small gyro that was in our club at one time. As an experiment, we pinned the rotor like a wing and it flew better than with the rotor thrashing about (at least it took off faster and was a little more responsive in climb and dive mode). So we pinned the rotor so that it pointed fore and aft and it still flew (but not as well), which gave us a pretty good laugh.
There is a fellow (Jim Lee) from Topeka, KS that has been flying the same Otto for over 25 years in any event that calls itself balloon bust (lots of different local rules have been used). His has no throttle, but he very nearly ALWAYS wins. And no, the rotor does not bust the balloons - the prop does.
I'll dig out that stuff and see if the camera is charged up.
Mike @