I admire your tenacity and your desire to understand things clearly Jeff.
These are useful qualities in a flight instructor.
I find clients often imagine they understand some aspect of gyroplane flight when they don't and they aren't willing to ask the questions to clarify divergent opinions.
Vance
you are stuck on a phrase not in the gyro handbook?
As a flight instructor I find value in using the correct terminology so that my explanations are not misunderstood and it aligns with any homework I have given the client.
I was not able to find a definition for your equations.
I am not able to agree with an equation that has no meaning to me.
Explain this to me.
You said you have not flown a gyroplane that instantaneously responds to cyclic input.
I said the same exact thing you just did not read it.
The carriage lags behind. The cyclic moves instantaneously period.
Explain how that’s not accurate.
In my physics book it suggests that you can mechanically link the rotor to the stick and get instant movement with a delayed reaction.
so now that’s wrong? Explain that
Push the cyclic forward - the rotor disc tilts forward instantly but the carriage lags behind because it takes time for that mass to settle into the new attitude. Push cyclic forward, rotor disc tilts slightly forward carriage lags behind a second then follows by a nose down attitude.
tell me now how your physics is different?
Tell me how you have a level rotor head at full speed? This is not an opinion piece. I would be interested in knowing where you obtain that information. In every case, the rotor will stop spinning once the advancing blade ceases to have an angle sufficient to catch The wind. So tell me how your gyro is capable of having the disc level at full speed and everyone else’s is tilted back at an angle comenserate with the speed.
You wrote:
“the answer is
that once the force is applied to the rotor (in this case forward motion tilting the rotor head down at some degree)
Instantaneously the rotor pitches forward- but the carriage lags behind just a second or so.”
I wrote; “I have not flown a gyroplane with rotor system that instantaneously responds to cyclic control inputs. The slow response of a gyroplane rotor to cyclic inputs is often a challenge for new to gyroplane clients compounded by the fuselage lag.”
These explanations do not have the same meaning to me. I feel it is important to consider the progressive cyclic response of the rotor control system as a part of understanding the flight controls.
If I assume that you use the word “carriage” to mean the fuselage; we are in agreement that there is a lag in the fuselage response to the change in rotor disk angle.
I have not flown a gyroplane with a “rotor” that responds instantly to rotor control inputs. In my opinion based on my observation the rotor disk angle lags behind the rotor control inputs and the fuselage lags behind the change in the rotor disk angle.
This is often a valuable understanding for a low time pilot flying in gusting winds.
They tend to stab at the cyclic when they feel a gust.
I can shake the cyclic pretty hard with effectively no response from the rotor.
Tell me how you have a level rotor head at full speed? This is not an opinion piece. I would be interested in knowing where you obtain that information. In every case, the rotor will stop spinning once the advancing blade ceases to have an angle sufficient to catch The wind. So tell me how your gyro is capable of having the disc level at full speed and everyone else’s is tilted back at an angle comenserate with the speed.
I don't recall opining that I have a level rotor disk at maximum indicated air speed in The Predator.
When I measure the angle of the rotor head on The Predator when she is on the ground with the cyclic against the forward stop the angle is very near zero degrees. At higher airspeeds The Predator fuselage flies very near the same angle as she is on the ground. Even with the cyclic at the forward stop the rotor disk angle is still tilted back because of blow back. At ninety knots indicated air speed the cyclic is near the forward stop in The Predator.
From The Rotorcraft Flying Handbook Glossary: Blowback- The tendency of the rotor disk to tilt aft in forward flight as a result of flapping.
If a gyroplane's rotor disk is at zero degrees to the relative wind there will be no lift produced and the gyroplane will descend providing the rotor disk with a positive angle of the disk to the relative wind.