Doug Riley
Platinum Member
- Joined
- Jan 11, 2004
- Messages
- 6,710
Overhead sticks: The biggest problem with them these days is that there are no 2-place training gyros with overheads. (The old SxS gyroglider trainers often did have both.)
Before trikes and hang gliders became popular, the "reversed" control sense made these sticks controversial. Trikes have the same control sense, however (push out to increase wing AOA, etc.), so that argument has lost some of its sting. Lots of ultralighters fly both joystick airplanes and tri-bar trikes.
When I built my first gyro as a teenager, I had no fixed-wing experience to un-learn. I did, however want a joystick because I thought the overhead looked stupid (there's some deep teenage thinking for you). I wanted to fly an aircraft, not a lawnmower. But short money, and a desire to get into the air, led me to mount an overhead "for now."
I did not find the directly-connected overhead to be "reversed." To me, the overhead stick represents the bottom half of a control circle. A joystick represents the top half of the same circle. To bank the gyro clockwise, for example, you rotate the control circle clockwise. The fact that this means you push left on an overhead and right on a joystick seems not to matter. Same non-issue as holding your car's steering wheel on its bottom (which I did religiously when driving out to fly my O.H. stick gyro).
Another way to visualize the OH control is to say that the crossbar represents the gyro's main axle. The gyro's axle tilts in the same direction as the crossbar (a bit like a gyro-horizon instrument). In fact, for those of us who fly both kinds of stick, the crossbar may be the item that loads the correct set of reflexes. I would hesitate to try flying a direct-linked O.H. stick that didn't have a crossbar, fearing that my brain would think it's a joystick.
All this anecdote and theory aside, the fact is that adults, especially FW pilots, have wrecked O.H. stick gyros because of confusion about which way to push. Even Gyrobee developer Ralph Taggart, who flew hang gliders before taking up gyros, messed up when he tried an O.H. stick.
Before trikes and hang gliders became popular, the "reversed" control sense made these sticks controversial. Trikes have the same control sense, however (push out to increase wing AOA, etc.), so that argument has lost some of its sting. Lots of ultralighters fly both joystick airplanes and tri-bar trikes.
When I built my first gyro as a teenager, I had no fixed-wing experience to un-learn. I did, however want a joystick because I thought the overhead looked stupid (there's some deep teenage thinking for you). I wanted to fly an aircraft, not a lawnmower. But short money, and a desire to get into the air, led me to mount an overhead "for now."
I did not find the directly-connected overhead to be "reversed." To me, the overhead stick represents the bottom half of a control circle. A joystick represents the top half of the same circle. To bank the gyro clockwise, for example, you rotate the control circle clockwise. The fact that this means you push left on an overhead and right on a joystick seems not to matter. Same non-issue as holding your car's steering wheel on its bottom (which I did religiously when driving out to fly my O.H. stick gyro).
Another way to visualize the OH control is to say that the crossbar represents the gyro's main axle. The gyro's axle tilts in the same direction as the crossbar (a bit like a gyro-horizon instrument). In fact, for those of us who fly both kinds of stick, the crossbar may be the item that loads the correct set of reflexes. I would hesitate to try flying a direct-linked O.H. stick that didn't have a crossbar, fearing that my brain would think it's a joystick.
All this anecdote and theory aside, the fact is that adults, especially FW pilots, have wrecked O.H. stick gyros because of confusion about which way to push. Even Gyrobee developer Ralph Taggart, who flew hang gliders before taking up gyros, messed up when he tried an O.H. stick.
