anthom
Member
Having flown different tandems, side by sides and a single, I find some of the commonalities in all gyros that I've flown that are not jump take off capable as:
1. All of them need pre-rotation to get the blades spinning. Whether it be by hand or a mechanical one, the fact is clear that all of them need to be brought up to flight RPM. Part of this is done when the gyro is stationary, and part of it is when the gyro is rolling on T/O. The small differences would be in the specific POH. This again would be different for different types of rotor blades. However, all of them start the pre rotation with the disc tilted forward and then tilted back as the roll commences and begins to speed them up more. This is by a combo of throttle and disc back.
In my own personal experience, I had a single Dominator with an electric prerotator that would not come up to speed, and if I tried nursing the Dragon Wings up to speed, I would often experience the onset of blade flap and I would abort by pushing the cyclic forward and cut throttle. The DW blades were replaced by McCutcheons and the problem went away.
2. Regarding the landings, coming in at forward speed is not the issue, but what happens prior to touch down. As pointed out by WaspAir, the physics is clear. Mass x velocity = Momentum. Mass is pretty much fixed. So obviously the only control is of the velocity. I do not see how any gyro can tip over at touch down when the velocity is zero. Yet they happen, and that is usually attributable to a vertical descent prior to touch down, or the disc flapping due to sudden wind gusts. The severity of the impact will be greater where the impact is associate with forward speed.
From personal experience again, I was coming in for a landing in my tandem and unknown to me, the nose wheel had come loose at the spindle shaft due to a design anomaly; and I landed as usual on the mains and after the nose wheel touched the ground, it immediately acted as a brake. I would have had a different outcome if I had landed with forward speed. I prefer to use the rotors as a brake right after T/D.
While the nitty gritty of the above two issues can be flogged beyond death, the fact is clear that the focus on the training ought to be on teaching students to manage the rotors in all situations with proper rotor management, and to manage take offs and landings that avoid the causes leading to the possibility of mishaps.
As an aside, I have seen what some students that have trained with other instructors prior to coming to me do. I see that some have been taught in ways that do not conform to the simple stuff that I have explained in my above post. This is truly disconcerting.
Just my thoughts.
1. All of them need pre-rotation to get the blades spinning. Whether it be by hand or a mechanical one, the fact is clear that all of them need to be brought up to flight RPM. Part of this is done when the gyro is stationary, and part of it is when the gyro is rolling on T/O. The small differences would be in the specific POH. This again would be different for different types of rotor blades. However, all of them start the pre rotation with the disc tilted forward and then tilted back as the roll commences and begins to speed them up more. This is by a combo of throttle and disc back.
In my own personal experience, I had a single Dominator with an electric prerotator that would not come up to speed, and if I tried nursing the Dragon Wings up to speed, I would often experience the onset of blade flap and I would abort by pushing the cyclic forward and cut throttle. The DW blades were replaced by McCutcheons and the problem went away.
2. Regarding the landings, coming in at forward speed is not the issue, but what happens prior to touch down. As pointed out by WaspAir, the physics is clear. Mass x velocity = Momentum. Mass is pretty much fixed. So obviously the only control is of the velocity. I do not see how any gyro can tip over at touch down when the velocity is zero. Yet they happen, and that is usually attributable to a vertical descent prior to touch down, or the disc flapping due to sudden wind gusts. The severity of the impact will be greater where the impact is associate with forward speed.
From personal experience again, I was coming in for a landing in my tandem and unknown to me, the nose wheel had come loose at the spindle shaft due to a design anomaly; and I landed as usual on the mains and after the nose wheel touched the ground, it immediately acted as a brake. I would have had a different outcome if I had landed with forward speed. I prefer to use the rotors as a brake right after T/D.
While the nitty gritty of the above two issues can be flogged beyond death, the fact is clear that the focus on the training ought to be on teaching students to manage the rotors in all situations with proper rotor management, and to manage take offs and landings that avoid the causes leading to the possibility of mishaps.
As an aside, I have seen what some students that have trained with other instructors prior to coming to me do. I see that some have been taught in ways that do not conform to the simple stuff that I have explained in my above post. This is truly disconcerting.
Just my thoughts.