Nose light S-H

[Coen]

Hi,
Our S-H has made it's first hops this wekend, the test pilot mentioned that it feels nose light, and that he flew with the stick almost to the most forward position when under power just after getting airborne? There is nobody South Africa with gnowledge with these craft since our gyro scene is dominated by Magni's. Any comment will be welcome.
Thanks Coen.
Hi Guys,
The test pilot had this to say!
Hallo Coen

The take off speed was 45 kts indicated,rotor rpm 285, engine power just enough to get airborn ,fuel about 3/4 tank, pilot weight 165 lbs,wind 5 kts from left front, temp 22' C. I only flew the SH down the runway to about 55 kts and the stick was all the way forward with full forward trim.
will check control rigging as the rotor head static stop is still about 3 to 4 mm from the stop plate with the stick in the full forward position.
Will do more test flights as soon as the wind settle down a bit, we had 25 to 30 kts gusting winds over the weekend.

Any suggestions

Test pilot Coen's Sparrow Hawk
South Africa

[Mayfield]

Coen,

1. Where was the stick position after the aircraft accelerated to 60 or so?

2. What was his takeoff speed?

Since the SH does not have any nose down moment caused by a high thrust line, if you do not keep it on the ground until 50 or so it will feel as if the nose is popping up. Pilots that are accustomed to flying gyros with a higher engine thrust line often report this.

I generally reccommend using just enough power to lift off for the first few test hops.

Attempt to hold the nose down until passing through 50 indicated and then let it fly off in a level attitude.

As the aircraft accelerates to 60, pitch to a climb attitude that will maintain that speed.

Jim Mayfield

[Heather Poe]

Coen,
I am a student pilot with over 10 hours in a Sparrowhawk, and what you describe seems unusual to me.
Heather

[twistair]

Coen,

I'm sure that the best way to start is to contact AAI CFIs for starting information.

I can just share our own experience, so a couple of question first:
1) what are your hangtest results?
2) did you made hops only or flew it? At our first SH I noticed that it tends to "abnormally" nose up at LOW speed hops but leaves the ground without any nose up jump at speeds over 50 kmh (instrument)

For better response try to describe your results with more details: TO weight, speed, RRPM, etc plus environment (OAT, wind etc).

[WesTech]

Coen, I would recommend Mr. Mayfields comments, He would be the man to talk and listen to when it comes to flying a SH!

[KenSandyEggo]

Coen, sounds normal to me. I had to hold the nose down on mine with a lot of force until she picked up speed. Then I just eased off the pressure and away we went, but still holding the nose down somewhat until reaching 60 m.p.h. or so. She does want to jump off the runway and get flying. Once that's attained, all was normal. You could maybe try trimming the nose down some more, but what you describe is exactly the way I took off every time.

[NIEL]

Well I flew Coens S-H Late yesterday afternoon after adjusting the control links so that when the stick is in the most forward position the forward static stop hits the stop plate.I also put 20 kg of ballast on the pasenger seat and we filled up the fuel tank. It was a complete change to the first flight. The rigging was so that the rotor disc could not go all the way forward.It is fine now with no nose light conditions.
We will have to do the dynamic balancing as soon as the weather give us break because we need calm conditions to do it properly.As it is at the moment the tracking is out by about a 1/2 inch and that give the gyro a bit of a cabin hop , there is no stick shake so I think the lateral balancing is ok but the vertical balancing is out of specs.(Either headshift or tracking or bit of both)will see as soon as we get some readings.I am very impressed wit the S-H stability in flight compaired to the RAF.I personaly feel the the rudder and ground steering is way to sensitive but otherwise a fine Gyro.

Niel
Coen's test pilot
South Africa

[Mayfield]

That sounds great. All the best in your continued testing.

Jim Mayfield

[KenSandyEggo]

Same here.