Governor question

Heliboy

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Joined
Oct 23, 2014
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39
Location
Wilmington NC
Has anyone every experienced a situation where there is a consistent " surging " or fluctuation of the engine caused by governor. I recently visited a Helicycle owner to purchase a Helicycle and at idle there was a constant fluctuation of the engine RPM verus smooth and steady running . It did appear to go away during a flight he made but was again noticeable afterwards. You could see the governor control arm moving in almost a rythmic cycle causing variations of RPM of 5-10%. (example : at 80% you would get fluctuations above and below by 5-10%. You could hear the turbine reacting to the changes. There were no inputs being made .

This may not be explained well but has anyone noticed this before?
 
I had the same issue with the gov on a constant speed 914, wouldnt settle at any power settn.
Easy fix is a soft spring to preload the throttle systm sumwhere so the gov has to hold against it. Problem solved.
Just be sure its a soft spring so,s it dont over ride the friction or have the gov motor workn too hard against it.
 
Birdy
Thank you . We actually thought the same and checked the spring when I was there yesterday and that was not the issue in this particular case. But as you said that was the first impression you would think of.

I received a call tonight and the owner and another Helicycle owner both worked on the issue all day today. They ended up calling Blake at the factory and he made a suggestion. Quite honestly I dont know the specifics of the solution and they both said they had never heard of this issue nor thought of it as a possible issue . As soon as they did what Blake suggested the engine RPM smoothed out immediately and there was no more fluctuations .

Once I find out the specifics I will post it because it was significant to all owners . I actually drove 14 hours to pick it up and had to leave without it because they wanted time to work through the issue which was good for me. It was definitely a situation of where its best to have two dedicated individuals working together to determine an issue.

Im working on having it next week and can't wait !!
 
change the dip switch positions on LEAD sw1 and sw2 then adjust the gain and sensitivity pots on the governor control box 1/8 turn ccw first.

adjust as needed cc or ccw small bites.

Governors of America inc. has a trouble shooting guide on line for ESD5200 series control boxes.
 
I have nothing of value to add, other than I've had the same question/observation when watching various Helicycle's on YouTube. Seems every video after the turbine is started, it begins to surge up and down until the power is brought up to flight.
 
Interestingly enough it was actually a simple fix: the ball link on the governor arm was not freely moving : the link was removed : the bearing was cleaned really well with cleaning agents : placed back on and smooth engine RPM . The governor was trying to work and do its job but the lack of freedom in the ball link arm was working against it with the gumming up issue (which was not actually visible to the eye upon average preflight review )

It was first thought to be an actually governor adjustment issue inside the box but was simple gumming up of a bearing. I think it may have been a good learning lesson to keep the bearings cleaned up even when they dont look to be compromised.
 
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