Yaw string fixed

[StanFoster]

I fixed my yaw string today. I found if I removed my right #12 off the rudder...and place it on the dash...the strings would stay perfectly straight.. :D

[Aussie_Paul]

Stan, I found that a small piece of chewing gum, holding the string to the center of the windscreen, did a great job of keeping Ron happy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Aussie Paul.

[StanFoster]

Ron: If I fly into a tree while focusing on my yaw strings...its your fault :D

[StanFoster]

Paul: I will have to try that gum trick... :D

[GyroRon]

Flying in a slip can be dangerous in a gyro. It is been blamed for the crash in Florida two or three years ago that involved the Sportcopter gyro with cabin and I think it could happen to many other gyros too, especially cabin gyros like the RAF.

[StanFoster]

Ron: You make it hard to respond here in a nice way. I will just stay mute. :D

[GyroRon]

It is not a picking on you post or a joke in any way. the guy in Florida was flying with his feet out of the cabin and started a turn to the left - while the gyro was in a slight yaw to the right - and then all of a sudden the gyro flipped inverted and dove straight into the ground. The pilot didn't make it. Many other gyro pilots were less than 200 feet away watching him when this happened. It has been discussed on Norms forum and it was decided that cabin gyros with all the side area they present to the relative wind can be blown into the rotor or flipped upside down if allowed to go too far into a slip under the right circumstances.

Not to say this will happen if you take your focus off the yaw string to take a picture every now and then. but it is something to keep in mind none the less.

[Aussie_Paul]

...if the fin and rudder are big enough, especially with the doors on. The difference between the Raf and hybrid wityh the doors on is 100's %. The Hybrid rudder is 30% larger than the Raf.

We made it that way because of the Raf problem and we had to make a new set of tail feathers due to the gear box prop rotation.

When it's broke, fix it!!!! :mad:

Aussie Paul. :)

[GyroRon]

Paul am I wrong about there being some level of danger flying in a slip in a gyro?

[Aussie_Paul]

The only level of danger is that there will be more drag. It was important when we flew gyros which only had 100 egine rpm between full power and cruise.

BUT if the tail feathers are not large enough and you put your feet outside of the cabin like the guy did in the vortex, and you hit a side gust, the airframe ends up at 90 degrees to the rotor so that side stick becomes either up or down stick. Even you and I could not think that quickly Ron.

Aussie Paul.

[StanFoster]

Ron: Thanks for making note of how detrimental yawing can be. I am however very aware of that....and thats why I have a yaw string....and a dual one at that. :D I had a single one...and it would occasionally get wrapped up.

There is one thing about the appearance of the yaw string...if it is going straight back and I take a picture off centered...it will be left or right depending on the angle of the camera.....parallax...

One thing I was told while learning to fly my RAF...was to get used to the yaw string going to the right a little since I am flying left seat. That was obvious...but I guess some students have the string pointing to them..and this would have the gyro slipping to the left.

[GyroRon]

Stan just put the string in the middle and mark the windshield with a little dot with a Black magic marker.

I was helping a fellow out at Goose Creek a few months ago while he learned to fly taidraggers in the Rans S-6 he bought. He always flew the plane in a slip and never could get the ball centered. I asked him why and he said he was using the tubes in front of the windshield as a reference and he thought he was flying straight. It took a while but finally he figured out he wasn't in a single place anymore and he was off to one side of the plane and needed to re adjust his visual cues to straight flight. After about 4 hours of training he is did fine and is now flying like a pro in his Rans.

[Dean_Dolph]

Ron, and anyone else, especially instructors, that wants to comment; years ago when a lot of gyros were falling out of the sky from PIO or whatever, there were two suggestions/recommendations made to help prevent it. One of those of course was a specified cyclic ratio and the other was a permanently mounted horizontal reference. My question for all of you gyro pilots is this, how did your instructor address this when it doesn't look like there is any horizontal reference point on say a tandem trainer such as a Parson's?

[RayPierce]

Note :Snipped some of Dean's message

[QUOTE=My question for all of you gyro pilots is this, how did your instructor address this when it doesn't look like there is any horizontal reference point on say a tandem trainer such as a Parson's?[/QUOTE]


I had no problem from the backseat flying Maxie's Air Command Elite.

I made a pretty good landing too.

He had a rain gauge air speed indicator mounted out to the side. I couldn't see the other gauges though.

[PW_Plack]

I thought I recalled the guy in Imokalee (sp?) was thought to have made a sudden, drastic cyclic input in the aggravating direction by instinctively grabbing for the stick to hold his weight shifting toward the dropping side? The Vortex "cabin" is more of a "fairing." There are no doors.

That guy was every kitmaker's nightmare. Seven years since he'd last flown a gyro, three hours on the Hobbs, more than half of that breaking in the engine tied down, showing off at 50 feet AGL over the hangars...

[Aussie_Paul]

Every trainer that I use must have a reference for pitch indication. Radio antenna work great and havw the yaw string on it as well.

My s X s A/Command was a propblem to fixed wing pilots who are used to a cowling. Between flights I found a piece of alloy 38" tube and duct taped it to the low instrument consol. The difference in his control was immediate and very obvious.

Aussie Paul.

[GyroRon]

My instructor taught me to fly gyros by feel not by looking at instruments or anything else. Just seat of the pants flying. I am glad too, cause I don't need to focus on instruments or what not to know what the gyro is doing, My butt is fine tuned to tell me whats up!

[StanFoster]

Ron: When you have doors on...you dont feel the yaw....when the doors are off...its easy to feel the air coming in one door or the other.

[Aussie_Paul]

Ron, you are coreect about the feel thingy, BUT, a newbie HAS to have something to refer to until they GET the feel!!!!!!!!!!!

Aussie Paul.

[GyroRon]

I agree Paul, I was just sharing MY experience. And my instructors machine the instrument pod was too low to use for that purpose anyway.

[Aussie_Paul]

Some people, and you are probably one of them, don't need a pitch reference for a start, BUT most do. I would have thought any instructor, who is serious and has trained quite a bit, would realise the value of a pitch indicator device, :rolleyes: but thats just my thoughts.

Although, it is nowhere near as important in a pitch stable gyroplane. Fortunately we are getting more and more of these stable gyros happening. :D

Even here in Oz, where I seem to have quite a bit of opposition, because of my hard stance on stability, more and more newbies are building the correct way. :o

Yesterday I received an email froma guy in Oklahoma. He sent me his pic with the lines drawn on it, and asked what I thought. It was a tandem open frame and solo the offset was about 5" amd the rear seat is up high so it will be better dual. The guy has added a good stab in the prop wash. Even though it is not perfect CLT he has it well set up to be quite stable.

At least by going to the trouble of finding out where the COM is, he knows what he has to work with. More and more people are now making the effort to find the COM of their machine, and that can only be good. :cool:

Aussie Paul. :)