I have just finished building another autogyro. A club member built a nice duel electric with the motors mounted on the wing. On his first flight the motors departed from the wing but the fuselage had very little damage. He decided to donate the fuselage to me for an autogyro. It weighs about 5.5 lbs and has a size 70 Saito engine. Maybe I'll be able to test fly it tomorrow?
I can't seem to upload a picture to this site so I have posted a picture on the following site:

http://www.auav.net/autogyro/

Phil

Hi Phil,
It's amazing what you can do with wrecked trainer types. But most have a good wing and a bad fuse.
Flew my Gyro Shtick for the first time Monday. Heading North this weekend and hope to make the Indiana Gyro fly-in in September.

Hi Jim,

I guess I missed that you are in Lakeland FL. I have just made several trips up that way in the last few weeks. I'm in Bradenton which is about 1.5 hrs away. I would like to see your gyro fly.

Where is up north and is this for the summer? Is the heat getting to you?

Phil

Hi Phil...
The photo looks great! How long are the blades? What airfoil?

BTW, with all the talk about the Indiana fly-in, it could be one of the best!

Bill

Hi Bill,

Only one airfoil to use. I'm using the blades that you made which I have been flying on the other autogyro. I think the blades are 23 1/2" long. This gyro is much larger than the other one but it was built very light for electric and the Saito 70 weight about the same as the OS 52 4-stroke which I'm flying on the other one. The end result is they weight about the same. I'm heading for the field in a few minutes so we'll see how it goes.

Phil

Well the first flight couldn't have been better. This is probably my best flying autogyro. I had a nice steady breeze and the gyro was off the ground within 20 feet. It only required a couple clicks of down elevator and a couple left clicks and it was flying straight as an arrow. I did have the Co-Pilot installed but this autogyro is so stable that it really doesn't need it. In fact, with the exception of coming out of a loop or roll I couldn't tell if it were on or off.

Here are the specs. for this gyro:

Weight = 5 1/2 lbs.
Length = 52"
Engine down thrust = 4 degrees
Engine side thrust = 2 degrees right (Approx.)
Blade Radius = 24 1/2" (3 blade SG6042 profile)
Rotor head incidence = 6 degrees
Distance from prop to rotor head = 24"
Distance from thrust line to rotor head = 20"
Disc loading = 6.72 oz/sq.ft
Rotor Blade Solidity Factor = 9.7%
Engine = Saito size 70 four stroke

Picture at:


http://www.auav.net/autogyro/

Phil

Good Luck and Happy Auto!

The 4* down thrust is about run of the mill, but side thrust? I thought they didn't need it.

6* Rotor head incidence? That's not much. Is that a function of the 6042 blades or the gyro itself?

Rotor blade solidity factor? I've never seen this spoken about other than boat props, what effect does it have?

Pretty gyro. It's funny I would never have picked those colors, but I really like then together. No Calvin Klien here.

Hi Rich,

I have found that with both dual and single rotors, a little size thrust seems to help the gyro track better. Just my opinion.

6 degrees of rotor head incidence is plenty for the 6042 blades as it will fly with less but the blades come up to speed faster on takeoff. Everything else being equal, rotor head incidence sort of dictates the type of flying and attitude of the gyro. If you like to fly slow and make quick turns increase the incidence. The best way to experience this is to build in pitch control on the head using another servo. However, after you determine your preferred flying method, the pitch control isn't really necessary as it's one more thing that can fail and it adds more weight and complexity to the control head.

Solidity Factor: (Area of blades divided by disc area): Bill Friedlander can explain this better than I. As I understand, smaller is better as increasing the number of blades or increasing blade width also increases drag. It's another measure of efficiency or something like that?

The colors are what it came with except the nose and the pylon. I didn't have the same color of blue for the nose but I had some black and I had lots of gray automotive paint for the pylon. Some of my gyros haven't lasted long enough to be concerned with color but I'm either getting better or luckier.

Phil

Autogyro engine thrust settings
Have not seen this explained and experience has dictated a need.
Thrust offsets: should be known that offsets are most effective
when engine thrust is high and flying speed low. As at take off
and when in hover mode.
Down thrust: my first Giro flew fine with neutral thrust. But, had a trait which was not liked. When applying power to exit a hover
the craft zoomed. It would not exit the hover directly into level flight. 5 deg, down thrust removed that trait without effecting anything else.
Side thrust: There was a tendicy in the hover mode for the Giro to drift left (turn?) Initially right rudder trim corrected that but in turn required left rotor trim for straight flight. Combo trims tend to
be speed sensative, action may change with speed changes.
Remember, thrust is most effective at low speeds?
As Phil has apparently found, about 2 deg. right thrust solved the hover left turn tendicy and allowed the other trims used to go
back to neutral.
Live and learn? Much of that has been with these rotary wings!

Hal deBolt