Raf 2000 without canopy

NIC

Newbie
Joined
Mar 24, 2010
Messages
6
Location
HARRISMITH
Hi there guys i am new on the forum and would like some advice please ? I have got a secondhand Raf with one hell of a ugly home made canopy , i like flying in the open. The canopy weigh 20 kg . What would happen if I Chuck it away and fly without it ? Please advice !!! Thnx
 
Heheh.. The words "Chuck" and "RAF" in the same sentence.

Chuck was sitting somewhere in Florida and sat straight up to say "I felt a great disturbance in the force".

:peace:
 
I am thoroughly impressed by RAFs and way in which they speed up the process of natural selection.

The only problem is that there aren’t enough of them to have much impact on the gene pool.
 
RAF without canopy? If it is winter and lots of snow, I think it will be an ice cream scoop! :D
But seriously, how will it fly? (forget the scorpion tail in the back)
Heron
 
Last edited:
Yea yea i can take a joke !!! But the thing is not that bad and the winter not that cold so get serious about it please !!!
 
Chuck, I don't think he got your message.
 
Best of luck!!!

Best of luck!!!

Nico,

There are many people on the forum who don't think highly of the RAFs. Over the years it has created many a rif between members of our sport so you are getting some smart elecky answers.

The truth is I don't know how an RAF would fly without the cabin. I suspect it would decrease the nose down pressure on the gyroplane at higher air speeds. (which is a good thing) It would also probably make significant changes to the center of gravity on the machine and may require different cheek plates to adjust the hang angle. I suspect it would decrease the high thrust line somewhat (also a good thing). It may also affect many other things that I am not thinking about. So I am not aware of any terrible consequences of what you propose. However you need to understand whenever you make significant changes to the design of a machine like you are proposing, the changes have the potential to make it a significantly different machine. Having an experienced builder or even better designer oversee your changes and having a qualified test pilot slowly test your machine for stability issues would be a wise thing to do.

Best of luck!
 
Welcome to the forum NIC!

I am sorry that I don't have the experience to answer your question.

I am a fan of open side by side gyros. I would like to see a RAF without the pod and know what it flies like.

Just don't forget an HStab!

.
 
For sure it will loose in aerodynamics . . .scooping air is not a good thing.
Loss of speed, twitchness and all . . .
Heron
 
Thnx for the input that is worth something . I have expected some weird comments but it does not bother me ... As long as each one of us enjoy the privelage of flying so what the heck if you fly a cyte it does not bother me and i will not spill my mouth over some one else s craft !!! I have also got a kb3 and use to fly paragliders . I think thats where i start to like the open story whithout a enclosure . Learned myself the hard way to fly both the gyros . Would not recommend it , its to risky . Have got my licence for 2 years now . I have got a hstab on both gyros and will not fly whithout it . I will take it slowly and carefully for a couple of hours to see what it is doing and report back what happend later for what it is worth ....
 
For my 2 cents. If Steve says it's unsafe to fly. I personally would not try it.

Now I wonder if you just got rid of the whole top part of the canopy. So it was more like a pod on the bottom?
 
It;llll scoop the air just like it would anything else... Other words Don't even try it.. Without a windscreen..

Language Barrier Alert...Steve, when he says canopy, he's talking about the whole cabin. Nothing there to scoop if he takes the whole thing off, just lots of drag. It basically becomes a Canadian Marchetti.

I guess you'd need to somehow mount an instrument pod, seats and and fuel tanks, for starters.
 
Sorry i have not mentoined that i want to convert it to a single seater . We are 5560 ft asl and it have got a ea82 Subaru motor . The instrument pod is already finished and i want to put a single 50L seat tank in . the motor is a bit under powered at this height and the speed is not a issue 60 mph will be good enough for me .yes i am going to remove the nose pod completely
 
Last edited:
It may be a good machine, just adjust seating for better CG positioning. (try another Sub)
Heron
 
Sounds like a radical rebuild using some of the parts from a RAF.

Going to a single seat, raised to approach CLT, and a viable horizontal stab. . .
probably do nicely.

But I'd drop the "RAF" association to save mis-understanding. ;)
 
Thanks for the info i will for sure keep it in mind. Will a raise of 300 mm be sufficient enough , was thinking of maybe 500 mm ?
 
NIC,

Are you still with us? How does she fly? Any updates?
 
Top