skyguynca
Gold Member
- Joined
- Sep 23, 2004
- Messages
- 1,413
- Location
- Acampo, CA
- Aircraft
- depends on what I have sold recently
- Total Flight Time
- 5000+
OK yep it has been awhile since I flew a gyro, even longer for a helicopter. With all this time I have with the shut down/stay at home/workshop order I have been doing a bit of thinking and need some feed back from you experienced guys and gals.
Ok so as a example we have the common gyro, blades set at 1 to 3 or so degrees for auto rotation. For jump gyros you can over spin the rotor system and get lift i.e. the hydrogen peroxide pre rotor guy found out many years ago, video was posted here somewhere.
Now with the helicopter the base setting for the blade pitch is the auto rotation pitch and then collective is an additional range of 7 to 13 degrees (if my memory has not failed) depending on the airfoil used for the blades.
So some may remember I was looking at the Stork, a weight shift ultralight helicopter design that disappeared because the designer passed away of a heart attack. I believe Chuck had met him at Oshkosh and he was using a copy of Chuck's rotor drive system from his 3 blade helicopter.
So to keep complexity down along with the weight, would it be feasible to build a weight shift helicopter, but instead of a complex head that changes pitch to flight and auto rotation based on power, could you just set the blades to a auto rotational pitch that allows for a controllable descent, and over spin them for lift for normal flight? I understand that this will be a much higher than normal rotor rpm, so it will be a balance to put the blades at an rpm that will allow both modes of flight safely.
You would control your amount of lift by throttle and if you experience an engine failure or drive system failure the blades would slow but only down to the auto rotarional rpms provided you have enough forward speed in the descent.
I realize this is not optimal, but could it actually be done with a decent safety margin for a minimal ultralight weekend flier?
Thoughts and comments gladly accepted.
David
San Jose, CA
Ok so as a example we have the common gyro, blades set at 1 to 3 or so degrees for auto rotation. For jump gyros you can over spin the rotor system and get lift i.e. the hydrogen peroxide pre rotor guy found out many years ago, video was posted here somewhere.
Now with the helicopter the base setting for the blade pitch is the auto rotation pitch and then collective is an additional range of 7 to 13 degrees (if my memory has not failed) depending on the airfoil used for the blades.
So some may remember I was looking at the Stork, a weight shift ultralight helicopter design that disappeared because the designer passed away of a heart attack. I believe Chuck had met him at Oshkosh and he was using a copy of Chuck's rotor drive system from his 3 blade helicopter.
So to keep complexity down along with the weight, would it be feasible to build a weight shift helicopter, but instead of a complex head that changes pitch to flight and auto rotation based on power, could you just set the blades to a auto rotational pitch that allows for a controllable descent, and over spin them for lift for normal flight? I understand that this will be a much higher than normal rotor rpm, so it will be a balance to put the blades at an rpm that will allow both modes of flight safely.
You would control your amount of lift by throttle and if you experience an engine failure or drive system failure the blades would slow but only down to the auto rotarional rpms provided you have enough forward speed in the descent.
I realize this is not optimal, but could it actually be done with a decent safety margin for a minimal ultralight weekend flier?
Thoughts and comments gladly accepted.
David
San Jose, CA
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