How do you build a Little Wing?

[dwhowell]

I was looking at some of the post. Some of you have missed the idea of this thread. We are trying to find out basically "what other parts are needed" and "where do you get these parts from?" Do you have to fabricate everything or can you buy parts from different vendors? What is the "standard" that Ron would do if it were his machine being built? Does this info help?

If anyone has this info, please post for others to see. It may promote some more builders interests.

I have been curious and some others may be also. I see that Ron sells just the fuselage. Where do you get the rest of the parts? Things like the rotor head, landing gear, flight controls, etc, etc... This may be common knowledge, but I been out of the loop for a little while. Please post if you know some of these things. I assume its covered with Stitts.

[giro5]

I recommend you buy a rotor head and blades from one manuf. Rotordyne, Dragonwings or Sportcopter or Rotor Hawk. Buy a proven engine like Rotax at least a 582 and you build or pay someone to build the rest of it from the Little Wing plans. You might check and see if Ron still sells the fuselage. It might have to be built from plans too.

Although this plane is more complicated to build it is probably one of the more stable and safe gyro designs available

[rgraffeo]

Dustin,
Contact Gary Hall, he's good friends with Ron Heron & is building a Little Wing.
You met him at Bastrop a few years back.

[Timchick]

Or just buy Frank Darby's Little Wing ready to fly.

[Screw]

Screw-In

Or just buy Frank Rawley's Little Wing ready to fly.

That's Frank Darby. For what it is, the cost, and time building, I don't think his pricing is out of line at all. The motor with all of the assessories is about 17-18k USD. God only knows how many hours he has building the thing, plus trailer.

I have no idea if it has been flown, but it's as close to a 0 time Little Wing you'll ever find. Frank has his number listed in the post below if anyone needs more info or has questions.

http://www.rotaryforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=14396

Screw-Out

[Timchick]

Oops. Sorry about that. I knew who I was talking about but my keyboard didn't.

[Hognose]

That's Frank Darby. ...
http://www.rotaryforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=14396


I'm simply astounded that this machine hasn't sold. There are detail pictures of it on Ron's website.

According to the website, you can still buy the prewelded frame:

http://www.littlewingautogyro.com/price.html

cheers

-=K=-

[Screw]

Screw-In

Frank confirms that his LW has not flown yet. Frank has not learned how to fly gyros yet, but he says it ready to fly.

Just thinking out loud, I wonder how difficult or expensive it would be to convert his LW to a two place? The airframe LW-3 comes single or two place with no changes in size....Just seat, controls, and fuel placement. The radial engine is ideal for a two place also. Just thinking out loud.

Screw-Out

[mcbirdman]

Hi John,

Off hand.... He ran different controls - pushrods up behind the back seat in a very neat arrangement that would not work for a back seat without re- running controls because the front seat has to fold forward to allow the pilot acess to get in the back seat.

The two place machine is I believe 2 or 4 inches wider to allow for the legs to run on the outside of the front seat in tandem position.

All this said.... Ron does have in his plans, or blueprints the layout for a conversion to go from single place to dual. He has information showing the areas to be beefed up with thicker tubing, and bracing material (triangulation) for different intersecting tubing. It shows it can be done but for the much smaller overall cabin width I really wonder how well it would work..... If the width wasn't an issue it would seem like it would be a fairly good idea to make these adjustments without having to do a ground up build.

Oh yea, and with all the metal work / the welding.... - the covering would have to come off but I am not sure how many people would leave it that color anyway...lol - just kidding..... to each his own style...... The paint doesn't matter.... it is the design and the beautiful work he has done....... It would still be much easier than starting from scratch.....

[Screw]

Screw-In

Hi John,

Off hand.... He ran different controls - pushrods up behind the back seat in a very neat arrangement that would not work for a back seat without re- running controls because the front seat has to fold forward to allow the pilot acess to get in the back seat.

The two place machine is I believe 2 or 4 inches wider to allow for the legs to run on the outside of the front seat in tandem position.

All this said.... Ron does have in his plans, or blueprints the layout for a conversion to go from single place to dual. He has information showing the areas to be beefed up with thicker tubing, and bracing material (triangulation) for different intersecting tubing. It shows it can be done but for the much smaller overall cabin width I really wonder how well it would work..... If the width wasn't an issue it would seem like it would be a fairly good idea to make these adjustments without having to do a ground up build.

Oh yea, and with all the metal work / the welding.... - the covering would have to come off but I am not sure how many people would leave it that color anyway...lol - just kidding..... to each his own style...... The paint doesn't matter.... it is the design and the beautiful work he has done....... It would still be much easier than starting from scratch.....


Like I said, I was just thinking out loud....I do know he ran the controls very neatly and I'm not sure how hard the conversion would be, but it could be done if someone wanted to. Not sure about the width thing, but what ever.

As far as Paint goes....Aren't you the "Pot Calling The Kettle Black?" Jeez.

Speaking of your gyro.....You got her flying yet? Haven't heard nottin.

Screw-Out