Crane Fly Trainer Autogyro

[Tom Wright 2]

I have now flown the Crane Fly Major with the extended nose and found it worked well as I can now use any lIpo in the range from 2.2 A to 5 A .

Tom.

[Handyman]

Hi Tom, thats good news. Means you are not tied down to a certain weight of battery. Its great to be that flexible. Any news yet on the sale of the blades. I am champing at the bit here and not enought ime to do what I want to do,a couple of repairs on the bench, a SFH Cranefly partially built and wishing there were 48 hours in a day. I often wonder how I found time to go to work, I seem to be on the go doing other non modelling jobs around the house. Not what I intended for my retirement.

Oops!!! I hope she does not see this. I love her to bits really. Hee.hee,hee.

[Tom Wright 2]

Hi Tony

I think most of us retired folk find there are not enough hours in the day , I think it' partly due to time speeding up with age the black hole effect lol. Loads of blades are now in stock it's just a matter of AJ finding the time to finish the work on the web shop.

Keep up the good work .

Tom.

[BILL PETTIT]

Hi Tom

The reference to AJ blades caught my eye I have been away from the threads for some time and might have missed what they are. Are they blades for sale? If so can I get them in the states? Any details would be great!

Bill

[Tom Wright 2]

Hi Bill

Hope you are now full recovered from the op . Keep an eye on this thread for the the link to the AJ Blades web shop. I do belive they will be shipping to the USA.

Tom.

[Handyman]

Hi Bill, I also wish you a speedy recovery from your op. I was just wondering why, when you are in the States you do not avail yourself of the excellent blades made by Aerobalsa. I was in Florida last August and I got two sets sent to me at the villa that we rented in Kissimmee. They were of an excellent quality and one set is going on to a DAG autogyro and the other set for the Firefly 2. But not until I have mastered the Cranefly aand have a greater understanding of how these things fly. Tony.

[Tom Wright 2]

Tony

As far as I know Aerobalsa are no longer trading as Mike sadly passed away .

Tom.

[Handyman]

Thats very sad news Tom. When did this happen. I spoke to him several times before I went out to Florida last August. I wonder if my blades are the last ones that he made. Any idea what pulled him down, because when I last spoke to him, he was very chipper and a real gentleman. He put himself out to get my blades ready for when I got out to Kissimmee. To be honest, I had not tried to access his site for a while. Howw did you find this out Tom, was it mentioned in the RCM&E by any chance.??

Anyway, I am off to bed now, missus says she is cold and wants my body, just for warmth, don't you know. Ooh Renee!!!

[Tom Wright 2]

Tony

The sad news came down the Auto gyro grapevine earlier this year .

Tom.

[bees]

Two more successfull flights this afternoon and was doing figure eight circuits and was flying it a little bit furher away and did not lose orientation, Hardly any wind today so i must work harder at getting a controlled landing using throttle and elevator. Set my timer with my 1800 li-pos to 5 mins with a little bit extra juice left just in case but i must say with all the concentration needed the 5 mins seens like 1 or iam just starting to enjoy these CF flights more now that iam slowly getting used to the CF. Must get some more packs. Glen

[bees]

Forgot to ask you a question Tom.

As you know iam in the process of building the CFL amongst other fixed wing projects and i know you say it makes for a better flyer with rudder but am i not making it more difficult regarding orientation with it being smaller. Glen

[bees]

Could not resist and went back down to the field and got two more successfull flights in also the wind had picked up a little so that was help full. Glen

[Tom Wright 2]

Airtime is is everything Glen , glad to hear you progressing well . .

As for your question , if I understand correctly , the coupled rudder really does make directional and roll control very easy , if the rudder is not coupled then it would need a pilot that can accurately balance rudder and roll without thinking . The Light design, if built , and set up to plan, results in the rudder leading the roll control which for this model results in a very positive but smooth and easy to handle response, best to ignore the pundits as they will not have flown this machine and no doubt will be applying fixed wing experience to an auto gyro . I have not found that the slightly smaller overall dimensions results in an increased risk of disorientation as the model, if built to plan and flown as suggested, will normally give more time to decide what's happening .

Thanks for keeping us updated ,will look forward to news of further flights.

Tom.

[Richard Franks]

if i use an ic engine on a crane fly what size would you suggest?

Richard

[bees]

Thanks Tom, looking forward to flying a autogyro with rudder and making slow progress with the CFL but have two other projects going at the same time. I keep thinking about changing the under carriage if you remember I made a mistake with the measure which makes very hard on landing without it topping over onto the blades. I have a carbon under carriage weighing aroun 43grams which I thought I could bolt directly to the underside but not sure if it would make a difference to the flying , what do you reckon. Glen

[bees]

Thanks Tom, looking forward to flying a autogyro with rudder and making slow progress with the CFL but have two other projects going at the same time. I keep thinking about changing the under carriage if you remember I made a mistake with the measure which makes very hard on landing without it topping over onto the blades. I have a carbon under carriage weighing aroun 43grams which I thought I could bolt directly to the underside but not sure if it would make a difference to the flying , what do you reckon. Glen

[Tom Wright 2]

Glen I think modifying that floppy uc would be good.

If you plan to continue hand launching the model then a lower set arrangement will be fine but , with a wide track at least as much as you have at the moment . The lipo position can be adjusted to take account of any cog shift .

Another option would be to bend the existing uc to give a wider track and , if required, cut some off and, re bend the axle, if you find it's still not rigid enough you could add back stays as I did with the CFG , or as an alternative to a back stay you may find that a cross brace will be sufficient.

Tom.

[Tom Wright 2]

Posted by Richard Franks on 05/09/2013 19:21:47:

if i use an ic engine on a crane fly what size would you suggest?

Richard

Hi Richard

Welcome to the thread.

I have not flown a lightweight auto gyro powered with IC , and I think electric would probably be an easier route if you have not flown autogyros before. Something like a cox 049 with it's integral tank and bulkhead mounting would be my first thought but, you do need throttle control . It will also depend on which Crane Fly model you were contemplating but, as a guide around 3 /4 of a pound of thrust , will be needed for the CF Lite and the weight of the motor with silencer ,mount ,and fuel , should not exceed 5 ozs . A little more power will be needed for the CF SFH model.

Hope that might be of some help.    

Tom.

Edited By Tom Wright 2 on 05/09/2013 21:54:22

Edited By Tom Wright 2 on 05/09/2013 22:14:22

[Tom Wright 2]

For you guys in the early stages of auto gyro flying the video shows how gentle flat turns can be achieved without rudder . The model is an early Crane Fly MK 2

Tom.

[Tom Wright 2]

This one is the Crane Fly SFH using elevator for pitch , and fitted with the 1.5" chord blades built as per the PDF. Fitting the 1.75" A J blades will enable the model to fly very slowly .

Tom.

[bees]

Tom, Undercarriage sorted, as i said used a carbon leg with spats on and simply screwed to the foremost front fire wall looks kinda neat and allso helps with orientation as well. Not as much width and depth as the original piano wire but works a treat. Hardly any trim change and no more tipping over on landing and was even tempted to do a touch and go but at the moment satisfied with getting my landings even better. Keep you posted , Glen

[Tom Wright 2]

Sounds good Glen , and a step forward now you are getting the hang of the flying side of things . The rigid uc may not give as much crash resistance and, depending how low the model sits it may not want to take off again, in low wind, after touching down. This does make landings easier as the model will lose lift very quickly once on the ground and is less likely to be effected by wind.

Tom.

[bees]

Hi Tom , forgot about the low angle of the blades, glad i did not try a touch and go. As for crash resistance you are right but if i make a hash of things i am hoping it will just rip the undercarraige off with the screws straight out but hopefully iam getting better now with my overall flying and landing touch wood, but you never know as it allways comes back to give you a kick up the back side just when you think its getting easier. Made a little bit more progress on the CFL but have got a couple more fixed wing projects going as well which is taking up my time but with 3 models on the building board i am still looking for my next autogyro, at the moment it is the Panther because it still classed as a trainer but i still like the Dag R2 but dont fancy building from scratch as i have no patience regarding cutting the formers etc. Best regards Glen

[Tom Wright 2]

Glen

It sounds if you have got plenty of building work on the go .It might be an idea to check the boom sit angle as if it is around 10 degrees touch and goes should be ok, particularly if there is a bit of head wind. The Lite sits low, (about 11 degrees ) and will touch, run ,and go, just fine and, as you already have the mast rake back angle to add to the boom angle you will probably have around 15 degrees total.

Tom.

[Tom Wright 2]

I see Malcolm has added more useful autogyro items to his shop ,and with AJ Blades opening their web shop later this week things are looking good for more Crane Fly Builds with a lot of the work ready done. .

Tom.