Gyro-Tec carbon Blades 100 Hrs Follow Up.

eddie

RAF, turbo subaru 230hp
Joined
Jan 19, 2011
Messages
1,683
Location
Polvadera,nm 87828
Aircraft
230 HP turbocharged RAF
Total Flight Time
8,000 plus
There is really nothing remarkable to say except that the blades are performing well,they are still

in perfect shape with no signs of delaminating,seperation,bubbles forming,spider cracks or any thing

unusual with the construction.

After getting used to the lack of blade vibration I have started noticing other small

vibrations from other components and have been working on them, tires being out of balance,

prop blades are a couple of items being attended too. I also have ordered a new prerotator

housing and cable from Calumetair,the old prerotator was to long and had a very tight radius

because of the length,I am hoping that the vibration on prerotation will go away and that I will

be able to prerotate to a higher RRPM with the cable being straighter,I will report on that after

installation and use.

Anyway I can recommend the Gryro-Tec Carbon fiber blades and teeter tower as being probably one of the best

buys on the market today and the price makes them an exceptional buy.
 
WOW 100 hours in so little time man you really flew that Gyro.
Thanks for the feedback
 
I fly just about every day usually the wind is good in the mornings,the weather is not a problem as my

cabin has heat and even then is not really that cold.

The airport is just about all mine as we are somewhat off the beaten path,the white sands missile range is to the east

and there is a lot of high country to the west there is very little traffic to contend with.
 
That’s great to hear. Mine ship next week with new towers and hub bar. I added the leading edge tape for weather protection, so we’ll see how they do on a Cavalon. Did you have to balance or track them much on install?
 
I’ll add another question to magnights if you don’t mind.
Do you get towers and bolt them to your existing head, or is that all part of a new head?
Magnight: one for you too, why did you order these blades, factory blades fail you?

geoff
 
No failure of or issues with the factory blades. They’re fine, but I’m not a fan of their hub/teeter system. The stock AutoGyro teeter uses bushings and frequent greasing, Averso and GyroTech (basically a copy) use sealed bearings and a better tuning system. Also, the AutoGyro Cavalon uses 8.4m blades stock. In my opinion they need be to larger (ordered 8.6m from GyroTech). Apparently Autogyro just announced an 8.6m blade option, but same hub setup.

The towers bolt onto the stock head, so should be simple enough to change out.

The hope is that I’ll have better performance / more lift, smoother more balanced flight, and less maintenance.

Btw, my username may not make much sense, but my last name is Knight and used to live in Magnolia, hence MagKnight.
 
Jason the teeter tower should fit right to your existing setup and that includes the prerotator ring,there is a video of the test on the cavalon

using the Gyro-tec blades,I believe its on the gyro tec web page.The blades are factory balanced with the PB electronic balancer and they are

ready to go just follow the instructions,the blades will need to be aligined with the string method

Geoff The factory drilledl the teeter tower to fit my RAF prerotator ring and they also made a spacer for the bearing so the install was really easy

all your replacing is the teeter tower. The teeter tower is something that I really like, the ball bearings are inside the teeter tower there are 4 of them,

it makes for a really smooth and stable teeter tower,and the bearing are sealed for no maintenance issues,also the teeter is a one piece machined

part making it more solid and unlikely to get out of alignment like the bolted together ones.
 
No Title

Noy sure what you are wanting Stephen,but you can go to the Gyro-tec web site for more info and pictures,however here are a few.
 

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It seems that Gyro-Tech rotors/bar/towers are the economy answer for many RAFists, and their quality seems superior to OEM RAF.
Do not forget, however, that owners are still relying upon the RAF rotorhead, torque tube, gimbal arm, pop-riveted mast plates, and trim system.
None of those components are renowned for quality of material or design, so please keep a very close eye on them.

Please at least go to Aurora CAM-6 control rod ends (only $13@) and replace the rusty dog-collar trim chains with some galvanized steel links of 300bls tensile strength.

Modifying your RAf to directly pull down on the rear of the torque tube is an excellent precaution, easily done.
One must not run trim forces through the control system as RAF did. It's bad engineering, and risky.

I wish eddie continued pleasure with his new rotors.

Safe flying!
Kolibri
 
Has anyone seen a cross-section of a Gyro-Tech blade .... what material is the spar inside the composite skin? What is the stated life-span of the rotor system? ...curious ..... want a different rotor for my Butterfly ...when I ever get time to bring it back to flight-status!
 
Chris go to the gyro-tec web site there are videos of the testing that was done to the blades and hub bar perhaps they can answer your questions,if not just
email them with your questions.
 
I recently met such Gyrotech rotor here in Moscow. Not flown it yet but was able to examine it and to cross-check blades CG. What surprised me very much is their paint - it is very very soft, even touching it by fingernail leaves the trace on blade surface. This should mean that regular cleaning of blades would destroy their finish very soon.

Hope to fly them soon. Local pilot who've already did that on an MTOsport told that they increase vibs significantly at speeds over 120 kmh. I'm curious to try them myself.
 
Alex something must be wrong with that paint because my paint is very hard and has a beautiful finish and is one of the things

that I really liked.
 
Thanks for that info, Eddie. I also think that it's something wrong with this particular rotor set. I told owner to contact Gyrotech about this. Let's see what they reply.
 
twistair;n1134927 said:
I recently met such Gyrotech rotor here in Moscow. Not flown it yet but was able to examine it and to cross-check blades CG. What surprised me very much is their paint - it is very very soft, even touching it by fingernail leaves the trace on blade surface. This should mean that regular cleaning of blades would destroy their finish very soon.

Hope to fly them soon. Local pilot who've already did that on an MTOsport told that they increase vibs significantly at speeds over 120 kmh. I'm curious to try them myself.
Hello everybody! My name is Igor Maltcev, and I think I am the only pilot around Moscow flying mto-sport with gyro-tech blades (and like them a lot). I have about 20 hours on these blades and no sign of paint problems... The set is covered with epoxy based paint, like plastic/composite boats... Gelcoat... If you understand me.. I can not imagine how must blade look like if a touch of a finger lives marks... If you scrach it with a sharpened finger nail?)
Aleksei, please tell to Volyrin or Vechtomov or directly to me, whom are you talking about?
 
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Thanks for the Info Igor,Yes the paint on the blades is like a epoxy coating very good. and durable.
 
Since I am in preparation to order a set of blades and head from GyroTech, I'm curious how the price might be affected by US/Polish tariffs, etc. Wondering if it might be advantageous to order them sooner rather than later. Are these items affected by any new import laws?
 
Pirogoff;n1135211 said:
whom are you talking about?
Welcome aboard on rotaryforum. This set is now in Voskresensk and wasn't flown here yet, I've just inspected it and made blades' CG crosscheck. During it we saw that blades' paint is apparently very soft. We informed Gyro-Tech about this and are waiting for their comments.
Hopefully this rotor will be flown after July, 15th ;) on MTOsport in Voskresensk.
 
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