Is there anyone out there using the New Zealand AK rotors who could give us some feedback as to how they perform, any troubles etc.?Aussie Paul.
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The new NZ AK rotor blades??
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Paul, I had used the imported AK blades, 28", for my ex-2 seater Rosco. They were the best I had flown with since new. Though, heavy to install, otherwise, they really performed excellent either 1 or 2 up. They had good mass inertia to maintain rotor RPM without rapid decay during auto-rotation. Clumsy initially but steady maintainable thereafter. I believed it was more of pilot rapid input of the stick to gain that auto-rotate airspeed after idling. For the 100 hrs I had flown in, there weren"t any problem with imbalance to cause stick shakes. In fact, a few times, I had accidentally chopped off tree brunches the size of a thumb during taxiing and surprisingly it made no significant dink at all. Tough buggers! My present single seat Rosco also uses AK blades, 26". It was laid off for about 5 years in the back of the shed accumulated a thick layer of the red sand on the top. Some corrosion noted but after a thorough wash down, no pitting sighted. Just installed onto the gyro 2 days ago and pre-rotated on ground
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Heard that the AK"s now have more than 8 degrees pitch which would help no end.Rob Patroney made a new hub bar for my 27 ft AK"s [ Jeffs] and he put 2 degrees in and put more coning angle into the hub bar and they fly as well or better lift than the 27 fy 6 inch Patroneys but lots smoother. Would be interesting to know exactly what pitch they now run.
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Hi Brian, at present they are pitched at .7 deg.and coning is 2.0 deg. They are listening and if it is foundthat more is better they are willing to experiment. Anyonegot any thoughts on pitch & coning?The 27 ft AK"s I have were marginal on my gyro [ heavy suby 2.2 but with 2 degrees flys really well. This isnt based on anything other than just my thoughts but I reckon 1.5 degrees pitch would suffice nicely. The more pitch you stick into a blade, the more any minor shakes increase. Not sure what coning angle Jeff had but Rob put the same coning angle he puts on his hub bars and this has also helped. More coning angle should also help the hub bar cracking.
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I have done further research and found that AK blades arenow pitched at 1.6 deg. They had .9 deg + in realasion to the attachment straps which was standard with o pitch on the bar. They now machine .7 deg. into the hub bar givinga total of 1.6. Right on what your saying Brian?
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I have done further research and found that AK blades arenow pitched at 1.6 deg. They had .9 deg + in realasion to the attachment straps which was standard with o pitch on the bar. They now machine .7 deg. into the hub bar givinga total of 1.6. Right on what your saying Brian?Tis about what I said. Got to ask Rob what coning angle he put into the hub bar as well cause they because they come up easir than before.Spent a couple of hours mustering today, ideal conditions, cool etc, had a lowest groundspeed of 40 knots up to 53 knots on approx 3800 revs @ aprox 15.5 LPH highest and at times down to 13.5 LPH. Rotors had great lift and hard to fault although they could be smoother. Rotor revs were around the 330 revs.Its good that the
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