Got the Helicycle home

I was not aware of that. It sounds like you know what you are doing.


:)

I sincerely doubt that :)

Anyway, I think they are trying to "middle" the neutral position through weight and aerodynamic forces to minimize the stress on the elastomerics. It will be a simple adjustment and maybe dennis has the answer by just killing some lift.
 
Mike,

I looked at your pictures and was going to adjust mine. Guess what? My tail is not adjustable and does NOT have the same bracket yours has that attaches the horizontal to the vertical. The horizontal is fixed in place with the spar rigidly mounted th=o the frame of the machine. My mechanic suggested bending the rear trim tab up to reduce lift on the tail. I have posted the question in the builder's forum as well.

In a hover I now have exactly 2" of rear stick travel, but in flight I still have 1" of rear stick travel at 90 MPH. According to the manual I should have 1.5" of forward stick travel, so I am off by 2.5" total.

Thanks!
 

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Mike,

I looked at your pictures and was going to adjust mine. Guess what? My tail is not adjustable and does NOT have the same bracket yours has that attaches the horizontal to the vertical. The horizontal is fixed in place with the spar rigidly mounted th=o the frame of the machine. My mechanic suggested bending the rear trim tab up to reduce lift on the tail. I have posted the question in the builder's forum as well.

In a hover I now have exactly 2" of rear stick travel, but in flight I still have 1" of rear stick travel at 90 MPH. According to the manual I should have 1.5" of forward stick travel, so I am off by 2.5" total.

Thanks!

I imagine that you can attach the tail to the boom with the fwd fitting under the boom tab, with some shims probably, that will increase the AoA of the horizontal stabilizer.

I mean decrease the AoA (edit)
 
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Mike,

I looked at your pictures and was going to adjust mine. Guess what? My tail is not adjustable and does NOT have the same bracket yours has that attaches the horizontal to the vertical. The horizontal is fixed in place with the spar rigidly mounted th=o the frame of the machine. My mechanic suggested bending the rear trim tab up to reduce lift on the tail. I have posted the question in the builder's forum as well.

In a hover I now have exactly 2" of rear stick travel, but in flight I still have 1" of rear stick travel at 90 MPH. According to the manual I should have 1.5" of forward stick travel, so I am off by 2.5" total.

Thanks!

Todd,
Your tail setup is normal, I added the tab to the back of my horizontal stab just for extra security. If you loosen the two bolts going through the horiz. stab it should have a bit of play allowing you to twist it a little then re-tighten the bolts to lock it in place.

Mike
 
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Thanks Mike. According to Joe Loxtercamp I only need 1" of rear displacement in hover and neutral in flight, so I am going to ajust weight first. Since that is the case I am goign with the lithium batteries and will try to get rid of the ballast I have.
 
Made some changes during the condition inspection. I decided to re-do the seat. The original seat was a blue denim and clashed with the already interesting paint. Furthermore, the seat was made from hard insulative foam and only 1" of pad. I put in 4" of memory foam instead and the comfort is 100% better along with my visibilty since I sit about 2" lower.

I also replaced the factory push button momentary switches with on-off switches and guards. With the old switches if you bumped them in flight you could easily engage the starter or, even worse, engage the start fuel sequence. Now, instead of holding the buttons I simply lift the guards up and engage the switch. When I get to 30% I flip the right guard down and when I get to 50% I flip the left guard down. Dirt simple and much safer. Just have to re-label them now.
 

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Todd- I like your guards. I have the heavy switches, but need to idiot proof them also! Stan
 
Stan, did you install toggle switches like I did or just heavy duty push switches?

Also, what is your startup EGT temperature and in flight? Mine does not get over 800F on the start and 875 in a hover. That seems low to me.
 
Todd- My EGT typically is 600 degrees idling. Usually 900- 950 in flight. When flying 100 plus the other day when it was near 100 degrees out, my EGt was near 1000 degrees. My EGT always shows slightly less than 600 degrees after letting it idle 30 seconds on my shutdown. My start and start fuel buttons are very strong push momentary switches that can't be activated by brushing them with something. You really have to push hard on them. Stan
 
Stan,

I guess that makes sense then. My guage scale starts at 700F and ends at 1900F. I have no idea why they would build the guage this way when redline is 1100F. I would much rather see it start at 400 and end at 1500 since you would be able to trend much better. I will be removing this instrument this winter and installing a quality digital guage with programmable limit warnings.

Same goes for the tach. Since I have the dual tach I will piggy back a low and high speed alarm. The governor does such a great job that you sometimes forget to keep ther tach in your scan. I think a tach warning is a good idea.
 
Todd- My digital tach reads 61300 to 61500 90% of the time. A low rogue reading of 61200 might be noticed with an equally rare rogue high reading of 61600 rpm. Not too bad that my rpm stays less than 1/2 percent of the target all the time! I do scan that turbine rpm as its impossible for me to hear or feel the turbine losing much more rpm. Another governor test is to HIGE and do some yo-yo maneuvers by pulling the collective up sharply and jumping to 10 feet. Seeing how quick the governor catches the spool down and it being a single stage turbine, kind of shows me it is a good powerplant for this ship. Stan
 
I agree Stan. My Red Lion guage pretty much stays at 61700 +- 100 RPM all of the time. I have never seen it below 61600 and never above 61750. It is quite amazing. Even more amazing is my dual tach. Once I go to 100% RPM it stays there like it is broken. Granted, I fly my machine like it is made of glass. Slow inputs of all controls. I'm still getting use to this machine and need all the help I can get :)
 
Todd- You looked very smooth in your Helicycle. I seldom get to see or hear one flying while I am on the ground. They have their own sound and smell for sure.


Stan
 
Took some video with the camera on the instrument pod. A little better view with some narrative from me. Some "fun flying" starts at the 13:00 mark. About as brave as I get.

http://youtu.be/ozsDfusFpU8
 
video

video

VERY good video you are a very professional skilled pilot and very safe abought it. if all pilots would fly like that would be good a thing.your helicycle looks real smooth to.keep up the good work.maybe get some auto rotate videos coming.....thanks for sharing....tom
 
Thanks Tom. I'm a very average pilot and actually I am not even a helicopter pilot. This is the first helicopter I have flown in 10 years other than getting 2 hours in a R22 3 weeks ago. This machine is dirt simple and reliable as you will find. I have put a little over 10 hours on it and have done nothing to it other than grease 11 zerks and change the tail rotor fluid. The turbine engine is what makes this machine. Without the turbine I would not have bought it. I can't say enough good about the engineering of the machine.
 
Thanks for the video Todd. The narrative kept it interesting even though it's a long video and the camera placement felt like I was doing the flying. The beautiful, cooler weather here is making it painful to wait for my checkout to be scheduled. If I had a trailer I'd consider hauling it to Doug this week and say lets get this done!

Mike
 
Mike- Hang in here. Those last "in about 2 weeks" waiting on my turbine to arrive ended up being 6 months..........but well worth the wait. 2 years has passed since y first flight and it just is a pleasure to fly. Todd----Your adventure with your Helicycle has been fun and amazing to watch. Fly over anytime if you need a cross country mission. Stan
 
Mike,

Yours looks ready to me. When are you located? I have a trailer if you want to use it. You are going to love flying the little machine.
 
Stan,

I'm looking at buying a balancer at the end of the month. Maybe we could spend a weekend checking the balance on our machines. Also, does anyone build doors for the Helicycle? After building 4 previous experimentals I am a little burned out on the building process and would gladly pay for someone to build doors.
 
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