- Joined
- Oct 30, 2003
- Messages
- 18,346
- Location
- Santa Maria, California
- Aircraft
- Givens Predator
- Total Flight Time
- 2600+ in rotorcraft
I struggle with the basics of gyroplane flight and I would like to expound and seek knowledge on one of the many things confusing me.
I want to build a somewhat faster open tandem gyroplane.
The Predator tends to lower the nose just a bit at speed.
She has a very large horizontal stabilizer set at zero angle of attack and is very near center line thrust with full tanks and Ed in the back. As the 22 gallons of fuel are exhausted she becomes slightly low thrust line.
My fantasy is that as the speed picks up the rotor drag goes down and she is balanced to fly level for the rotor drag at about 60kts, 69 miles per hour.
My second fantasy is that all the rest of the frontal area increases its drag by the square of the increase in indicated airspeed.
I feel that her windshield also produces some down force.
I feel that an open tandem at some level of nose down will have the drag go up dramatically, sort of like a bucket with the open end into the wind.
I feel that this might exacerbate the nose down tendency and could become a non recoverable event.
I feel it would be good to have a pitch trim adjustment on the horizontal stabilizer but I seem to be alone in this.
I suspect I am missing something because the fast open tandems do not seem to be falling out of the sky.
Thank you for your input, Vance
I want to build a somewhat faster open tandem gyroplane.
The Predator tends to lower the nose just a bit at speed.
She has a very large horizontal stabilizer set at zero angle of attack and is very near center line thrust with full tanks and Ed in the back. As the 22 gallons of fuel are exhausted she becomes slightly low thrust line.
My fantasy is that as the speed picks up the rotor drag goes down and she is balanced to fly level for the rotor drag at about 60kts, 69 miles per hour.
My second fantasy is that all the rest of the frontal area increases its drag by the square of the increase in indicated airspeed.
I feel that her windshield also produces some down force.
I feel that an open tandem at some level of nose down will have the drag go up dramatically, sort of like a bucket with the open end into the wind.
I feel that this might exacerbate the nose down tendency and could become a non recoverable event.
I feel it would be good to have a pitch trim adjustment on the horizontal stabilizer but I seem to be alone in this.
I suspect I am missing something because the fast open tandems do not seem to be falling out of the sky.
Thank you for your input, Vance