Hi Joe:
It is not an issue for model airplane, at least not for my fingers.... may be those top F3A pilots can tell the difference.
The major gyro effect comes from the prop. It was corrected or smooth out by pattern plane design..... the longitudinal stability. For typical patternship, the tail moment (CG to elev. hinge) and nose moment (prop hub to CG) ratio is 2 or higher, huge side area etc. that's why our patternship flies so smooth and so stable compare with those hotdog 3D planes. Theoretically, the out runner rotor has higher momentum of inertia than the inrunner, but it is over shadowed by the prop's contribution.
You can do an experiment:
Remove the prop from your planes. Hold your plane, start motor to full throttle. pitch up from horizontal to vertical quickly. Do you feel the head tends to pull left? Repeat for both of out runner and inrunner, compare the difference.
Now is the fun part; put your prop back, repeat the same steps (watch your fingers.... I do not take any responsibility if you cut your fingers..
), how about the side pull this time, much stronger, right? Do you think w/o prop is still an issue?
Theoretically (Chris, it's Greek again....), if prop tips wobble during the transition (quick pitch moment), the transition is supposed not so smooth as a rigid prop. If the prop rotation plane is somewhat flexible (blade is rigid, but the spinning prop "disk" is flexible) the transition will be even more smooth. Again, as a sandbag in Master class for more than 11 years, I can not feel the difference.[&o]
I guess, whole this discussion was originated from the WWI rotary engine. It was in a totally different scale: Mass ratio of rotary engine to the prop is way much higher than in our case. Diameter of rotary engine and prop size is almost 1:2, much smaller than ours. The contribution from the rotating engine is around 30-50% of prop's (OK, Chris, no more physics calculation
).
I agree the out runner has higher momentum of inertia than the inrunner, but it's still small compare to the prop's that I can not feel the difference. Don't think too much, just enjoy and fly!
Luke