Advice Needed

[flapper]

Advice Needed …. G"day Everyone ! I was a member at Erskine Park in Sydney - 40 or so years back - and was starting to build my own Gyro - when I started reading all the crash statistics at the time ...............

[flapper]

Oops ...............

[davidbuzz]

One of the biggest issues I experienced, and continue to experience is the problem that "everyone has an opinion", and that they regularly disagree with each other.

[tonydenton]

that was well written and probably all true too from my experiences.

[Justin]

Joe as you have said,many people have told you about what to use,buy ect.My 2bobs worth is talk to Ross Symes,he"s had it, used it, sold gyros with it on them.

[birdy]

Just by the wasa and be dun with it. Absolutely no bias.

[mad max]

I would also chat to Tim (Megeagle) An old Dog. Been in the Gyro sport since Day one. He would know how some of the early aircraft engined gyro"s went.

[birdy]

Max, according to Rosco, they had woodn props, woodn rotors and woodn fly.

[aussie_paul]

Max, according to Rosco, they had woodn props, woodn rotors and woodn fly. I got Rosco flying strip runs on his wooden rotors Birdy. He just had a bad technique at that time. 1983 or 1984 it was, long before 2 seat powered training. He was then flying on GG 23" rotors with a direct drive ea 81. Sometimes do circuits and some time would not. I had a set of Hummingbird rotors made to 24" but were a little oiver pitched to hand start. I sent them with Rosco when he went to the Nations at Netalie (sp) homestead owned by Tom McClures brother. Tim reduced the pitch a little and Rosco flew them all weekend and could not believe the difference a foot of rotor blade made. My father proved that in 1981 when he had access to 23" RotoHawks and a set of 22 Bensens. Big difference on the same machine. That was a time when some local blade manufacturer"s said that the rotors would spin faster to carry the extra load of a 2 seat trainer. They did not realise that the increase in drag is the square of the increase in airspeed. IOW drag is quadrupled when you double the tip airspeed. Glad we have come quite a ways since then in gyroplane knowledge. Unfortunately there are people who do not fully understand the aerodynamics of gyroplanes.Aussie Paul.

[mad max]

My first gyro was a VW Higgans with 22 ft. hummingbirds. If there was too much wind they wouldn"t spin up. If it was a hot day I would climb 10 ft. and sink back onto the runway. On a nice day I would get to 500 ft. and consider I had a fantastic adventure. One day the top came off the air filter and hit the wooden prop. Knocking 90 percent of one blade off and then flying forward and smashing the dist. cap. and luckily shutting down the engine before I had time to blink. In that moment one of the four 3/8 engine mount bolts had broken in half. (brittle and not A/C grade) A hairs breath away from the engine tearing out. I no longer like wooden props. on a pusher (don"t even like wooden toilet seats) don"t trust commercial bolts and am a fan for safety back-up wires. Today thanks to reduction technology and big Carbon fibre props, Myself and my student will be shooting up a hole in the forrest like a sky rocket with still a little EA81 engine!

[MadMuz]

Hi Biggus, yes I used to fly at Erskin Park from the late 80"s to mid 90"s too... was awesome.... could count the cars in the dams after each week, the pipeline to guide you back to the strip if you got lost, and a giant safety net of pylons and power cables to catch you if you fluffed up....To be comfortable, 2 big people sitting side by side in a gyro is quite uncomfortable (or can be/usually is) as the seats have to be wide enough to allow left seats elbow some freedom without breaking righties ribs... I am 100kg ready to go and know all about trying to fit in sbs 3 seaters.... My recommendation would be tandem. The GA engines are just too heavy and too old technology for use in a gyro, in my opinion, While away from gyros I have been very interested in airboats. With airboats there is always the "them and us" with regards to aero engines vs automobile engines. Some swear by aero and others auto.... but a fully set up small block and aero engine both weigh

[Biggus]

G"day everyone !Many thanks for all your inputs too !!!!!( and BTW - I was visiting at Joe"s place when I posted the original "Advice Needed" message - and forgot that the message would look like it came from Joe ...... Not ME ! ... D"oH ! )Been busier than a one legged man who"s made the finals at a butt kicking contest - hence my tardiness in replying to you all ...I"m quite "taken" with the Sportcopter2 in many ways .... ( as it suits "amply built people" such as myself ) .... but I"m not at all enamoured with the price tag :-0 ..... Of which the Minister for WAR "n Finances would have the family jewels removed and nailed to the front door - were I to TRY and purchase one of .... So I"m still looking / researching .....I COULD see me purchasing a set of Sportcopter rotors & also their gimbal head though ...... and coming up with a suitable body / fuselage design of our own ... ( I say "own design" - as I have a good friend who is a CAR / Reg 35 Engineer - ( who helped set up ASRA many years back BTW ) - helping me with hall of this stuff :-)NOTE : Does anybody have a set of Hollman Sportser H2 plans that they would lend or sell me ?!?!?If so - drop me a live on : rjwh "at" skymesh dot com dot au( trying to avoid search robots harvesting my home email address ..... ) Thanks again !Looking fwd to catching up with all of you "sometime - soon "Biggus

[MadMuz]

You dont really need to buy plans.... just copy a rosco like nearly everyone else did

[Biggus]

G"day MM !Ok - here"s where I show my ignorance level .....WHAT is a "rosco" ... ?!?!?And ....... I NEED a two seater - so I can DO my license with it .... Yes / No ... ?!?The plan was ( is ) - to build a good two seater & use IT to A) get my licenseAnd then B) to ( eventually ) take passengers ...Currently sitting at :Using the IO-360 that I have ( IN my "hot, & not so little hands" ) already !Grabbing a set of Sportcopter blades & Gimbal ( as I now KNOW they CAN handle the weights )Building something similar to a Hollman Sportster - "cause I CAN afford this and I like the lower C of G the design offers( my buddy in Omaha ( ex USAF Engineer turned pilot / Coast Guard C-130 pilot / now jet jockey for Southwest ) said the other day that a tall gyro with a full canopy on it - tipped over while taking an off ramp / taxiway at his local airfield a couple "o weeks back - with the rotors still turning - and it beat itself into a $150,000 ball of junk ! ) ...AND - it"s design to use a Lycosaurus - and has a full set of stress analysis data sheets - done by a "proper Aeronautical Design Engineer" to reduce the guesswork re whether it will or will not discombooberate itself whilst my not inconsiderable person is in it !Biggus

[gyroo]

Howdy Rick,A Rosco"s a Rosco! I"ve attached a picture of a typical 912 single seater. Roscos are distinctive in that they have a stepped-down keel, done by inserting a short section of keel material between where the forward keel ends and the rear keel starts. The Rosco in the picture is slightly "non-standard" because it"s got an angular VS and rudder whereas Ross usually fits a more rounded VS and rudder.As for your Sportster idea, to my mind you are too big for a Sportster to handle, because the seat frame arrangement is very light, and having seen one at the Hiller Museum at San Carlos Airport south of San Francisco, I reckon the cabin probably isn"t much wider than 36 inches. Also, because the Sportster in original configuration has very low twin tail booms with twin VS and rudder and the HS on the same level as the keel, it seems to me that the arrangement of the stabilizing surfaces is sub-optimal (or as they say these days, "it"s not ideal") because practically all of the propwash apparently simply misses the VS"s and the HS. If the HS was raised to where a Xenon HS is situated, and if a 3rd central VS and rudder was placed along the centreline axis, then I"d be a lot happier about the design.Cheers,Mark ReganMelbourne