Head Comparison For Dragon Wing Blades

[RICK MARTIN]

As I'm rebuilding my Gyrobee, I bought a pair of 24' dragon wings and sent my KB-2 head to Brock for testing. After hearing from Brock, I now have three options for my head situation:
1. I can spend $393.00 for my reconditioned KB-2 head
2. I can buy a new Brock Head (can't get a price until Monday)
3. I can buy a new Head from Ernie when he gets back in town.
It SEEMS obvious that the matched set is the way to go. If I buy Ernie's head, does anyone know if the pattern on my cheek plates will have to be changed or are they a standard pattern? And since I can't ask Ernie right now, does anyone know what Ernie's heads cost?

thanks,

[Udi]

Rick - Cheek plates are cheap to replace. That should not be a major consideration.

One major consideration, however, is that Ernie's rotor head would have higher teeter towers than the KB one. The KB head (as far as I know) only allows for the standard Bensen undersling. Ernie’s head will have the correct undersling for your 24 ft blades, which means less stick shake.

I don't know how much Ernie’s r. heads cost, but you can bet you would get your money's worth in quality.

After you assemble the new head make sure to hang test the machine again.

Udi

[Friendly]

Rick, I recently bought a head from a member of this forum. It is the gyrotech head and I ordered cheek plates from Brock ($28). The bolt pattern was the same width and height but the teeter angle was about 1 degree. So the pattern was the same but the measurements were not. I am still happy with the head, just need to modify the parts to make them compatible. The Brock head was $540 for the single bearing and included cheek plates and mounting hardward, the double bearing head was $620 and not recommended for the KB2. I have 22 foot dragon wings on the brock head but I believe I would like to have the tall towers to have some adjustment if necessary. Right now it is not necessary. If I change the gyro it may become necessary. I am not suggesting one over the other. I am so glad we have compaines that build this stuff and give us the choices. God bless them all.

[RICK MARTIN]

Udi & Mark,

Thanks for the reply. I'm going to wait a while and gather as much info from as many people as possible before I commit. But as I said before, it only makes sense to use a matched set.

It's a shame that I paid about fifty bucks (including insurance) to send the head to Brock. But not only did I send the head, I also sent my rotor brake and pre-rotator components because they offered to install them for me on the reconditioned head. Now I'll have another shipping bill to get those back. The result of a decision made in haste.

[GyroRon]

The Dragon wings will work just as good on a Brock head as a Dominator head. your machine is so light that the bottom hole in the blades - that is the only hole that will align with the hole on the brock head - should work fine for you. I wouldn't piss money away if it isn't needed and changing rotorheads in your case would be a pisser IMHO.

[RICK MARTIN]

Ron,

Thank you for your two cents. Keep the advice coming please.

- Rick

[GyroRon]

I just know that a new Dominator head will cost alot more than to overhaul the Brock head. Both will work just fine.

[RICK MARTIN]

What about the possibility of increased stick shake related to not being able to change the teeter height? Anybody else using Dragon wings on a Brock head?

[GyroRon]

you may or may not need to raise the teeter bolt to get the smoothest stick, but they will fly just fine in the bottom hole, and you may not need to raise the teeter bolt at all, so the Dominator head would end up being a waste. But maybe John L can answer, he has a machine about the same weight as yours and same blades too.

[Screw]

Screw-In

Hey Ron,

As I was reading, I was wondering about a statement you made when you flew my gyro. "Doesn't seem to have enough Back-Stick." Is that the result of using my Brock head with DragonWings? If I bought one of Ernie's heads for "DaScrew-Driver," would this increase the amount of back-stick?

Just thinking outload.

Screw-Out

[GyroRon]

yes it would John. The reason it would is that - Any - rotorhead will have just a certain amount of travel fore and aft before it hits the stops. The Brock head has close to the Bensen Standard of 18 degrees total from front stop to rear stop. The Dominator heads seem to be made to have much more travel fore and aft, mine was something like 30 degrees total.

I think your travel is fine though, you might need new cheek plates to move the rotorhead further back or perhaps you got plenty of back stick there now to be used, but your pre rotator cable is causing the rotorhead to jam up and not go full back in flight - this is what I suspect is happening.