Our Time At ROC

[CLS447]

Well, we finally made it home Mon. night & I am back to work. We are still unpacking & trying to catch up on the forum.

I don't know where to start !

First, we would like to thank Chapter 13 & all the great people who made ROC happen. Also, thanks to all the people who bought their machine to show & all the people who attended. Thank you all ! We really had the most unforgettable time of our lives !!!!

Due to having to leave for work shortly, I will keep this short & get down to the pics. We will add more to this as our time & memory lets us. I don't want to miss anybody. Thank you all !

1. Gyroron after trying out our SxS
2.Dana & Laura Linn with "Shack"
3.Pat Mcnear...loving it!
4.Ken Rehler's 1 of a kind beauty

[CLS447]

The tongue on our trailer broke 5 miles south of "South of the Border". We could have lost the gyro, but God,once again, was looking out for us ! Thanks to more of that Southern hospitality, we were back on the road by 9 Sunday night.

[Chuck Irby]

Wow Chris, I'm glad to hear that the problem with the trailer didn't cause a major catastrophe. You must have discovered the problem before it gave loose completely. I am also glad that you were able to go to ROC and enjoyed it so much.

The pictures are great and I really appreciate you sharing them. Is your machine doing better now?

[StanFoster]

Chris: Wow...glad to hear you didnt damage your beautiful gyro... :eek:


Sounds like you had a wonderful time at ROC....I never will forget your enthusiasm and nice personality when I met you at Mentone this year. I am sure you added to ROC. Happy and safe flying and I will see you at Mentone 2005. :)

Stan

[barnstorm2]

Whew! I am sure glad the gyro and you guys are ok. That could have been bad!

[Screw]

Screw-In

Chris and Shar,

Thanks for all the coffee! :D

Glad nothing bad happened to you or your gyro.

Screw-Out

[GyroRon]

Chris I remember someone commented on the trailer and it appearing awfully weak at the fly in. Glad it didn't go bye bye and cause major damage.

[CLS447]

Hey,thanks guys! John, you are quite welcome, Always glad to help out a fellow caffein addict. Alright, my pot's just done now!

Yeah the gyros fine & it is still on the trailer. We are gonna order narrower Hegar wheel halves W/tires today. They weigh half of what our 6x6's do. Should cut down parasitic drag & roll faster & easier.

I am also working on the taller towers, to fit up the 30' RAF blades. I didn't even get my blades out of the camper yet.

With these falling temps up here my performance should be gettin' better all the time.

Here's some more pics... If anyone needs a description of the pics , just ask!You all know who you are! I wished I would have taken alot more pics, but I was busy getting free advise. Thanks to all !

[CLS447]

Here are some more. Shar & I were happy to see our pet Grey squirrell was still living on the front lawn when we got home...he's cool ! We found him at the K town airport. He must have fallen out of his nest & crawled into the hangar asking us for help. So we bottle fed him for release but he won't leave us now. That's OK with us.

[CLS447]

More pics....

[automan1223]

Chris,

You now know there is a god, been there, done trailer tried and killed me thing long time ago.... thats another story (never trust anyone but yourself to torque the main nut on the ball..!!!) .

Quick question chris.

Why did you go with 28' blades ?

I was there last year and ernie was test flying 29.5' dragonwings on rusty nances blue 2pl dominator. Rusty said that the larger blade gave him significant improvement over the 28' and they would even lift my fat butt.

Does ernie make the 29's anymore ? I feel they would give you the extra margin to get out with weight / hot day.

your power setup is good with some minor, very minor tweaking, I feel you need more blade. Your power is already good.

Just my 2 cents.

PS I have a pet squirrel in the barn myself. He looks so good eating horse grain. The most well fed squirrel in the county ! I need steel storage containors because he eats thru the plastic ones when I forget to leave him a little food........

Jonathan

[CLS447]

Jonathan, I don't know about best fed, my mom is spoiling the hell out of our squirrel !

About the blades..... They are sized according to gross weight....right?

Jim Vanek recommended his in 28' size. Ernie also did the same even with the possibility of changing to an EJ-22. Ernie makes 29' ers on a "special need" basis & he felt I didn't need them. Agaist his advise, I bought a 5' hub. that will give me 29'. I will try it sometime,maybe soon, and let you all know how it works. I am hoping for good track & balance , of course.

I am gonna try 30' RAF blades as soon as my towers are done. I hope I can load them enough to make them spin over 300 rpms without having to repitch borrowed blades. If these do indeed improve my climb, I would like to get my SC blades changed to a set of 30'ers. Then I will work on the engine & prop tweeking thing. We are also gonna try to lose some weight, from our bodies & machine! I am also gonna try to cut some drag.

If all this doesn't work or even if it does,..... there is an EJ-22 or 25 in my future!

[stuart]

Thanks for the photos Chris. Great seeing everybody at ROC. stuart

[mcbirdman]

Chris - glad about the outcome with your trailer. I can relate. I handbuilt a sailboat that was beautiful from scratch. The cabin, the portholes, the steeringwheel..etc. Fourth of July going back through a town that was preparing to shut down the main street for a July 4th parade. I remember the grinding sound and as I looked back saw that the trailer had disconnected.

Going down the hill I stepped on the brakes ... let the winch hit the back of the car as the trailer moved up to the back of the car. I kept it straight and came to a complete stop right in the middle of the bridge that was lined with people sitting along the sidewalk. I haven't trusted other people - even if they have boats - to finish locking the trailer to the car.

I answered a few questions asking if I was ok etc, looked at the huge dropoff that the boat would not have survived if it went off the bridge and couldn't believe how things COULD have turned out. Scares me just remembering it. Lucky you too ! I wish you continued succsess. jtm

[automan1223]

what was your rotor rpm with each mfg of 28'ers ?

[CLS447]

Jonathan, Shar is still sleeping so I can't ask her right now, but the RRPM's were very similar. I think they both topped out at about 345 & as low as 310. I think?

Shar is now awake & has informed me that they got up to 355 but the SC blades tended to be slower than the DW's. What is your gross weight & RRPM with the 30' blades?

[barnstorm2]

What is considered the optimum range for rotor RPM??

[animal]

The tongue on our trailer broke 5 miles south of "South of the Border". We could have lost the gyro, but God,once again, was looking out for us ! Thanks to more of that Southern hospitality, we were back on the road by 9 Sunday night.

Chris, it was good meeting you and Shar,glad nothing happened to you or the gyro, was lots of fun watching you fly, I got some good video of your machine flying.fly safe.

[animal]

Jonathan, Shar is still sleeping so I can't ask her right now, but the RRPM's were very similar. I think they both topped out at about 345 & as low as 310. I think?

Shar is now awake & has informed me that they got up to 355 but the SC blades tended to be slower than the DW's. What is your gross weight & RRPM with the 30' blades?

must be great to have a co pilot like Shar, to take notes of the proformance.
like I said you better hang on to her.
best I have had is a women came by and sat in my scorpion, then said no way I would fly in this thing..lol guess thats why I am still single.

[GyroRon]

Animal..... you don't really think that is why your still single now do you! ;)

[automan1223]

My machine with half tank of fuel weighs in at 840 on the local truck scale. I weigh say 225 with gear and boots. My instructor weighs same. Plus weight of rotor blade 30' raf they say weighs 100 lbs. So

840+100+225+225=roughly 1400 lbs.

The new raf blades with digital rotor tach showed 345-350 with that max weight. flying on a cool day 65 degrees f.

Solo 315-320 (same cool day)


With 150lbs of horse feed in the back seat.
340 rpm
very cool late in day 55-60f dry cool air.

Jonathan