Slinging the blades

GyroChuck

Gyro's are more fun
Joined
Oct 30, 2003
Messages
4,063
Location
Naperville, IL
Aircraft
SnoBird Tandem Gyro, Robinson R-22, Mosquito XE-285, Assorted Fixed Wing
Total Flight Time
2400
Years ago at Mentone it was brought up to keep blades in lead/lag was to sling the blades.

In other words loosen the blades bolts slightly. Spin up the blades fly the length of the runway with no wind. Let the blades spin down on their own no braking. Re-tighten the blade bolts.

The idea is to let centrifugal force line up the blades.

Any ideas on this topic, who has tried it . Will it work.
 
Years ago at Mentone it was brought up to keep blades in lead/lag was to sling the blades.

In other words loosen the blades bolts slightly. Spin up the blades fly the length of the runway with no wind. Let the blades spin down on their own no braking. Re-tighten the blade bolts.

The idea is to let centrifugal force line up the blades.

Any ideas on this topic, who has tried it . Will it work.

It works if you are very disciplined about it. No wind or external forces is very necessary. The right way is to do RTB using a dynamic balancer because it takes care of all the tracking and balancing but if you don't have access to a balancer or don't know, this isn't a bad thing to try given that you rotor system is statically balanced.
 
On the radio control gyros I built, I used a single bolt for the rotor blade to grip connection for this reason.
It is only tight enough to act as a partial friction clutch. This also reduces damage in crashes since the blades can easily move independently of the hub bar...
 
It works if you are very disciplined about it. No wind or external forces is very necessary. The right way is to do RTB using a dynamic balancer because it takes care of all the tracking and balancing but if you don't have access to a balancer or don't know, this isn't a bad thing to try given that you rotor system is statically balanced.
I would like to try this on my Mosquito helicopter. Since I can hover in place. Set it down close the throttle then the clutch will disengage.
 
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