New Rotorhead & Blades for my Twinstarr

Rick Whittridge

Gold Member
Joined
Dec 30, 2003
Messages
1,788
Location
Ohio
Aircraft
Bensen B8-M
After 6 mths of work in my shop( Advanced Rotor Designs )over this winter I finally got my Twinstarr ready for summer flying. I ordered a set of Sportcopter 30 ft blades in Nov. 2006, got them in Jan 2007. I then designed & machine up my own rotorhead with some features that will be easy to maintain. I use a main bearing that can be greased & teeter bearing that can be greased without disasembly of the rotor head. Teeter limiters where added to manage the blades on the ground. I added a little Gadget Green to the towers. I then put everything on the Twinstarr & spun them up the first time yesterday. A couple of high speed taxi tests felt good so on the third pass it was time to find out how it would fly. I`m pleased to say it is smooth & flys hands off without any trim springs. It felt so good I flew for a hour (I had to break it in of course) I`m still flying off my 40 hrs so now I can fly all over within 75 miles of my airport.:whoo:
 

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Looks great, Rick. Does your rotor brake engage automatically when you push the cyclic forward?
 
Rick at what rpm does the teeter limiters kick out and what material are they made from? Thanks Roy
 
Fantastic!!!

Congratulations!

That machine is SHARP!!!!
 
Hey, nice job !

Looks alot like SC's head, but I bet it cost less !

How much would yours cost if someone wanted to buy one from you ?
 
Tim, Yes the brake engages with full forward stick
Roy, The teeter limiters are made out of ABS plastic & release at 25 RPM
Chris, Although it looks like some others it incorporates some features not currently availible. I will offer thses rotorheads in the near future for a very attractive price (to be anounced) if someone is interested.
 
I was wondering why we haven't heard much from you on the forum.. you've been busy busy.
 
Congratulations Rick.

Nice pics. I can't see much with those small pics...could you resize 'em to maybe 800 x 600, or maybe resize any future pics. Thanks, Rick.

I like lookin' at your machine.

Cheers :)
 
I put 2 more hour on the Twinstarr today. Sure is nice flying around building time in this machine. I took my camera with me & took atleast 25 shots I thought but when I got back down & checked the camera NOTHING! I was a little upset but had a great flight & will be checking my camera out for BUGS! If I had Stan ( Mr shutter bug) in the back seat I would have it made!
 
Very nice Rick. I'm glad it's working like you thought. But then again. I've seen your work and I knew it would be a very beautiful machine.

Please let me know if you used your old bearing size or went with the newer small bearing and bolts.
 
RicK, I'm gona have to come down and check it out! on the 2nd pic...Is that one of them bits that runs the coolant down the center. or are you just manuelly applying it?
 
Paul, I manuelly applied the coolant on these parts. I wasn`t in a big hurry! Now if I go into production I will crank it up!
 
WOW! Great job Rick, I love to make the chips fly, Is that a double bearing head? sure looks good,
 
Scott, The bearing in my rotorhead is not the stacked single place bearings that most use. The bearing I used is a large double ball bearing that can be greased without taking the rotorhead apart.
 
Tim, I set up a machine shop many years ago to handle all the stuff I do for my cycle business & pleasure.
 
Building some more TIME!

Building some more TIME!

I was able to get another hour on the Twinstarr tonight. I flew about 100 miles , burnt a half a tank of fuel. I really like my mixture control to lean the engine out for some fuel savings & keep the plugs clean.
 
hello rick, very nice work! That is a beautiful gyro you have. Timchick tells me that you sell an electronic ignition for the MAC72, please email me or post here what you get for them. I would feel much safer with it!
 
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