Confused about crosswinds.

[Vance]

Please remember I am a not a CFI and my memory of training is not very good.

The challenge as it was explained to me is if rotor is turning at near flight speed and it is producing lift.

If you let the wind get under the disk over you go.

I don’t know how late you can fix it.

In my opinion once the blades have slowed there is little danger of a roll over.

In my experience the challenges are not over because as long as the blades are turning the anvancing blade can sail leaving the pilot unable to manage the rotor divergance. Itis my understanding that if this disk divergance is not arrested the rotor blade can strike things that it would normaly clear. I once smacked my rudder with the rotor blade because I did not have enough rotor speed for my takeoff roll.

Very little damage but I didn't do much for the reputation of gyroplanes that day.

The other way a gyroplane tips over in a cross wind landing is if the gyroplane is not lined up with the runway when it touches down. The gyroplane tries to make the turn and tips over in the process.

I have heard it is also possible to get into a situation where you try to fix the initial misalignment and go too far the other way.

In a SparrowHawk with its rudder pedals linked to the steering I was taught not to let the nose down until the forward motion had stopped. I feel this becomes more important if you have a lot of rudder in to compensate for the cross wind because the nose wheel is pointed the wrong way.

Based on experience I feel if there is a steady crosswind landing across the runway in a SparrowHawk might be the best choice.

Either way the rudder authority goes down by the square of the decrease in speed. On The Predator in a gusting crosswind I sometimes will add a little throttle to give the rudder a little more authority.


Thank you, Vance

[ferranrosello]

Vance, thank you very much for your words, and for your very wise posts.

I will be glad to help you with Juan De La Cierva story. I have some knowledge on this matter, and I´ve written a history-tale chapter for young readers focused in Cierva´s childhood and first autogiro development. This is a contribution for an aviation book that will be published to celebrate de first century of aviation on the Canary Islands.

If you want I could translate it into English. The tale is about 12 pages long.

About your concerns in gusting take offs I agree with you than in such bad environment we have to be very careful. The solution could be to build up more speed before letting her to become airborne. But sometimes the gust can make you airborne prematurely. Then the quickest way of getting speed is letting her to fly into wind not fighting against the rudder and continue easing the stick forward if you have enough height or maintain runway heading while you are easing the stick forward if a touchdown is likely to happen.
About the tip-over in landings I think that all of them happen because of two reasons:
1.- the nose wheel is touching the ground prematurely. We need to bleed our flying speed pulling the stick smoothly and gently to prevent the nose wheel from touch down too early. If your alignment is not good in the touch down the gyro will self align after touch down if the nose wheel is still on the air. To bleed off all forward speed before the nose wheel contacts the ground is very important to prevent tip-over. And this is something that can be always done in windy conditions.
2.- We fail to put the stick forward after landing in the good precise moment. This moment is immediately after the front wheel has touched down and our stick is against the rear stop, or in the very moment we have lost all our forward speed: if we don’t release the stick totally forward then we are going to roll rearwards… The wind can only tip-over our gyro if the rotor disk is tilted. If it is flat, no lift and no problem will arise.

Ferran

[Vance]

Hello Ferran,

I would love to see what you have written about Juan de la Cierva. A translation would be helpful to me because I have enough trouble with English.

Do you believe the story about the opera Don Quixote of La Mancha? It is hard to imagine a stage set that detailed.

I would also be grateful for any pictures you might have of the BCD 1 and BCD 2.

I would love to have a picture of the C3. The magnitude of the effort is hard to comprehend.

I will be able to attach these pictures to the story about the history of gyroplanes for Light Plane World.

Thank you, Vance

[ferranrosello]

Vance, I will send to you a translation as soon as possible.

What is said in Spain is that he was in the Opera (Aida was the play) and he was not giving attention to what was goin on on th stage. He was thinking in his problem with the lift assimetry, and then he gout a genial intuition.

Ferran.

[Vance]

Thank you for the correction Ferran, I look forward to your email.

I am going to start on the article today and then fix it when I get your helpful communication.

May I reference you as a source of information?

Do you have any pictures of the BCD 1, BCD 2 or the C3? They would be very helpful.

I am a little distracted by preparation for the Thunder Over The Valley airshow this Saturday and Sunday.

Thank you, Vance