Summer adverse weather flying.

[asra]

Been doing a fair bit of adverse weather flying lately, hot and windy Victorian conditions.Have found my machine tends to speed up in thermaly wind conditions. ie set it up for the standard 50 knot cruise, fly along 1 or 2 min, and find speed sneaks up to 55-60 knots, but never more. I must also add that the usual 5200 rpm cruise in good weather is usually 5500 rpm in the adverse weather. During calm weather flying if I set it to 50Knot cruise she sits there all day.Interested in some constructive feed back. What do you think !!!!! Regards Sam............

[asra]

What, no takers

[Greg Mitchell]

Sam,Great over head shot of Dragonfly...geez those Patroney blades have a wide chord. I agree not passing Greg Grimingers airspeed stability test...not such a bad thing....I"m not convinced about this test. If the craft is solidly G load stable and only has a 15% vairation in airspeed, then I"m not so worried that"s a major issue. Most of what Greg and the others have set into the stability tests is agreed on BUT not all. I see Doug Rielly and others, still take issue with certain points of view posted by Greg. I found with my limited amount of flying the same to be true for Butterfly and the added rpm in rougher thermally conditions may well have been me chasing the desired/corrected

[Mark Horan]

Sam, my machine ,I think is pretty close to clt, nose doesnt rise or fall much with the application or decrease in power. although most people looking at it would suspect the trust line to be a little high, anyway.I have noticed an increase of speed on those hot mongrel days and I suspect that it may have contributed to my last "heavy landing" (my wifes terminology)Engine revs always go up when the air density is reduced and so, it should also follow that rotor speed will also increase (more noticeable on those machines with smaller rotor diameters) remembering that your rotor will only spin as fast as it needs to keep you in the air, straight and level.The other factor that is known by anyone who has flown very marginal machines, is that airspeed is your friend. for example, if a small pilot flew my VW powered skyhook at my place (2500ft) at say 30 degrees,he may have some chance of flying around at 300 feet at 45 knots airspeed. If I tryed it (remembering that I am a strapping young 45 year old who weighs twice my age) I would be lucky to get anywhere near 30 feet off the ground after flying in ground effect for a long way at around 60 knots or better. Also the rotor speed would be increased with my increased mass over the light pilot.Now do the same test at sea level or on a nice chilly morning and you would find that the engine power would be reduced, the rotor speed would reduce, the airspeed would reduce with both pilots being able to fly far easier than at th high alt high temp situation, the lighter pilot would still be able to outperform me cause Im a fat Ba$tard and he is just a ba$tardI think that gyros that have a larger rotor disk may compensate for lost performance due to air density by

[asra]

Thanks Mark, Good call !!!!I think you are spot on, and it would infact effect my gyro as you have explained.

[Greg Mitchell]

Excellent explanation Marcus! Sam, anyone making the effort to fly across in a gyro gets free meals and board at my place if so desired. Please keep me posted. I would love to drop out to George Town or just south to Cranbourne.Check out the google sat maps that Rotor has on www.rotorcraft.com.au for Cranbourne airfield details.Cheers,Mitch.

[NiqueNaque]

So Mr Horribulus...You"re only a 90 kg runt then?I"ve out classed you in the fat batard stakes by 5 kilos... beat that.Cheers big ears,Nick.

[Greg Mitchell]

Skinny Farts! :P You dont know what fat is! Mitch.