Crane Fly Trainer Autogyro

[Al - AJ Blades Ltd]

Hi to all,

I have had both my Mk1 & 2 Cranefly models maidened at the weekend by Tim (Big T) and am happy to report that they both flew well.MK1 has not been without problems,it was not built to plan,big mistake and lesson learnt.MK2 flew straight off the bat,well,off the ground actually,with no problems whatsoever,It climbed well,Tim did some touch and goes and a power off auto rotate landing.It was an absolute joy to watch them fly.

Tim handed the TX back to me and said to have a go.It was supposed to be a short hop but turned out to be a short flight,ending in a crash as I became disorientated,lol! No damage and all is fine.I would recommend this model to anyone starting out with autogyros.It is cheap and easy to build,is very tough and flies very well.My thanks go to Tim for his advice and doing the maidens, Chris Hawkes for the in flight photos and above all thanks go to Tom for making such a wonderful flying machine available to all of us!

Some images from Saturday`s flying

This is the MK1 - not built to plan and was a nightmare to fly.A bit of a mixture now but flies well.Note the at the field surgery on the fin to clear the rotors lol.

MK2

Alan

[David Begg 1]

Hi Tom,

Thank you for the suggestions.

Yes I have fitted the rotor weights, the blades are also balanced. In a gentle and steady sea breeze the test spin up of the rotors was surprisingly smooth. I am quietly confident all is good with the rotors. When I set the rotor tilt angle my Tx I will also feed in a little up elevator. I will also recheck the hang angle.

Unfortunately I had to work yesterday (pays for the hobby) , the weather is unsuitable for flying today and then we are off to Queenstown this weekend for the Autumn festival, so it will be next week before I can maiden the Crane Fly.

[Tom Wright 2]

Allan.

Thanks for the excellent photos , and congratulations on achieving two maidens . Your approach of getting help from a proven Auto gyro pilot has no doubt paid off , and will help set you up for plenty of Auto gyro air time during the new season.

Tom.

[Terry Whiting 1]

A couple of very nice models there Alan, what were their weights?

Terry

Edited By Terry Whiting 1 on 12/04/2013 19:04:34

[Al - AJ Blades Ltd]

Hi Terry,

Thanks for your kind remark.I have weighed them on my kitchen scales without the rotor assembly and battery.

Mk1 - 560 gm (this weight includes two spruce rails glued to the underside of the fuse that I can`t remove.They were used to house a carbon boom which has since been replaced by a spruce one)

Mk2 - 556 gm

Both models used the same rotor assembly which consists of the blades (depron cored),tri plate and bearing which weighs 132 gm and used a 2200 mah battery.

Alan

[Al - AJ Blades Ltd]

Hi Tom,

I am very fortunate in that there are other members of my club that are into gyros and all are willing to help.After approx. 5 months I have now had my first flight,my first r.o.g.,my first right hand turn and my first crash.and I`m sure it gets better from here.

All the best,

Alan

[Tom Wright 2]

Allan.

Air time with minimum time between visits to the field should soon have you collecting your Auto gyro wings . Even better if your Auto gyro instructors can be there to help out .

Tom.

[Terry Whiting 1]

Hi Tom,

Question, Blades, what is the desirable TE thicknes to be aimed for. I'm about to start the blades, going for the 2"x 18" (slow fly type) with the 3mm c/tube LE with 3" 1.5mm piano wire tip weights.

Regards

Terry

[Tom Wright 2]

Hi Terry.

A lot of my blades are fitted with 1 mm carbon rod along the t/e ,this is a reasonable final thickness, light,and very tough, but GS don't seem to stock it anymore . So you have to balance durability with minimum thickness. This depends also on the grade of balsa selected so your judgement as an experienced modeller will be as good a guide as any .

Tom.

[BILL PETTIT]

First Crane Fly flight of 2013

BILL

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EisKulFqX-M&feature=youtu.be

[Terry Whiting 1]

Tom, Pleased to read about the 1mm c/rod, as only last evening after sending you my question, I was looking through my stock of assorted cabon sections and was looking at that very size and wondering.

Thank you

Terry

[Terry Whiting 1]

Hi Bill,

Wanted to see your Crane Fly , but the link didn't work for me, still I was not surprised as far as computers go I'm brain dead. I was borne in the time when gas lighting was though to be high tech.

Terry

[Mike Etheridge 1]

Last night I discovered my 1975/6 APS plans handbook. Under the heading 'Unorthodox' it has details of six autogiro designs / plans but I assume now they are unavailable?

Anyone like to see scans of the pages/illustrations?

• CONTRA-GYRO-Laurie Ellis
• HOPPITY-W.I.Barrett
• JUMPING JIMINY-Ron Moulton
• SKEETER-D.Cooper/ R.Coles
• TWIN GYRO-R.W.Brown
• RO-DART-D.Neale

MJE

[Tom Wright 2]

Terry.

Left click from the right hand side of Bills link ,hold your finger down on the mouse and go across the link ,it will go blue ,and appear in the Google ( or whatever) search box .click search and it will take you straight to Bills video ..

Tom.

[Tom Wright 2]

Here it is if you did not succeed with the computortrickery.

Tom.

[Al - AJ Blades Ltd]

Hi Terry,

I used the long bamboo bbq skewers to strengthen my trailing edges.You will have to cut the pointed part off and use part of another per blade to make up the length of each blade.I simply glued them into position and wrapped tape around until set.I used gorilla glue as it foams up and fills any gaps.When set,I filed/sanded the skewers top and bottom to blend with the profile - worked a treat.This gives a hard trailing edge which stands up to knocks very well.

Alan

[Terry Whiting 1]

Thank for that Tom

Nice one Bill, you have a good pair of hands as I thought it was going into the deck a couple of time.I cans see how important it is to keep the nose up in the turn.

Thoroughly enjoyed you vid

Terry

'

[Tom Wright 2]

Posted by Mike Etheridge 1 on 16/04/2013 14:26:21:

Last night I discovered my 1975/6 APS plans handbook. Under the heading 'Unorthodox' it has details of six autogiro designs / plans but I assume now they are unavailable?

Anyone like to see scans of the pages/illustrations?

• CONTRA-GYRO-Laurie Ellis
• HOPPITY-W.I.Barrett
• JUMPING JIMINY-Ron Moulton
• SKEETER-D.Cooper/ R.Coles
• TWIN GYRO-R.W.Brown
• RO-DART-D.Neale

MJE

Mike .

Thanks for the list , it's good to compare the various approaches to design ,by comparison to contemporary thinking. One thing's for sure the Physics don't change. .

Tom.

[derek grace]

HI help i am not able to put photo up... but have brought EMAX2210/ 25 servos EMAXESO8 MA i hope thease will be ok for SFH also 2 sheets EPOXY GLASS 0.8 & 1.6 if any 1 can help Derek

[Tom Wright 2]

Hi Derek.

Welcome to the thread , if you need help posting photos etc, just shout and we will do our best to assist .

Can you confirm you have the SFH pdf please . The motor you have is a little marginal but should do if propped correctly . The KV is 1400 so perhaps an 8 x 6 prop to start with and use a watt meter to check for around 180 Watts.

I am not familiar withe the servo type you mention but can confirm the rotor roll servo should be a 12 grm metal geared . 9 grm plastic geared servo is ok for the elevator .

Tom.

[derek grace]

HI thanks yes I have the PDF you sent back 25/03 2013 Derek

[Terry Whiting 1]

Derek,

I printed off the PDF and made a instruction manual of it, if you follow Tom's instructions to the letter you will not go wrong.

What models have you built in the past?

Terry

[David Begg 1]

Wow Tom you are the Autogyro man!!!!!!

My Crane Fly flies superbly!!! No issues at all, truly fantastic, thank you, and all the other RCME guys, for your input. A truly brilliant design. Even if I never have another Autogyro flight, this morning was well worth all the effort!

I let the blades spin up in the gentle but steady southerly wind until they began to sing, applied ¾ power and let it go, off flying just like that. I trimmed out the little bit of the up elevator I had applied for my mast bearing mod, as it was not required, the Crane Fly flew straight and level, truly fantastic!!! I did 4 landings and launches, figure of 8s and flattening my 2 batteries which I thought would be plenty. My batteries gave me 2 x 5 min flights which for the first attempt at autogyro flying was actually plenty of flying time, as I found that I had to fly the Crane Fly all the time, no coasting along as with a fixed wing plane. I have plenty of power, the Crane Fly flies along very happily on 2/3 throttle, climbs well on full throttle, but is not going ballisticly vertical or anything like that. The motor and ESC remain cool so that is all good also.

Maintenance: I am going to have another look at the blade shims, there was an 8 to 12 km breeze this morning and the blades did not spin up as quickly as I was expecting from watching the videos, apart from that, charge the batteries and off again. I will also buy some new batteries as my 1.3mah batteries are far from new and I suspect they are getting a little tired.

Thanks again.

Cheers David

[Tom Wright 2]

David .

Well done a very successful maiden . I think we can say you have got your Auto gyro wings . Still a lot to learn though if this your first Auto gyro .Do let us know how things go and wether or not you now have an eye on a Panther .

Tom.

[David Begg 1]

 

Thank you Tom but I still have a lot to learn about flying autogyros before I will consider myself to be a competent autogyro flyer. I have saved all the Panther plans and articles from the RCME , it is certainly on the ‘to do one day list’. In fact just this morning I was looking at the Panther Autogyro blog and thinking it would probably be a good idea to purchase the head kit so when I get around to building one I do not have to improvise again.

The next autogyro I build will be another Crane Fly, however the fully functioning head version. I believe this will teach me how to fly a fully functioning autogyro and if I should move a stick the wrong way in the process of learning the idiosyncrasies of flying a fully functioning head autogyro, it will be much simpler to repair that a Panther. Where do I obtain the build instructions for this version of the Crane Fly Tom?

I suspect there will be a number of people that have built Panthers that are discovering to their cost, that autogyros are different, and that it may have been better to build the less sexy but far more practical Crane Fly to learn on.

Edited By David Begg 1 on 18/04/2013 22:47:04