Mario's Trainer RC autogyro (2007)

[MIA Micro-FLIGHT (Mario I. Arguello)]

I recently came across a thread that talked about a "trainer RC Autogyro" called the Crane FLY, this brought back memories of a similar one I designed back in 2007 and interestingly, also called it "Trainer" and with narrow blades. So this is a recap of the one I designed back them and also did several variations of such in various sizes.

I am reposting this as it seems to have gotten lost in the mix of the many rc autogyros people have done, but maybe not, as when I posted this originally it generated interest. Here is my whole write up and photos on it, as I posted back August 24, 2007 with supportive You Tube videos posted at same time, as proof of concept. Copy Verbatum.

Ok this little MIA RC Trainer Autogiro started a while back as a basic model to teach myself to fly autogyros, it has gone through many upgrades for durability. It is not a copy of anything out there since it uses my own angles and moments derrived from my earlier experiments with such. It also uses my own blades that I've been using for Sub-Micro helicopters, as well as for other of my smaller gyros, thus they are narrower and with my own airfoil, than the more typically available larger 1.5" blades for larger model autogyros.

The rotor on this gyro is 22" and the blades spin very easy with a slight breeze, in fact, if there is no wind at all, you can take a brisk run with the rotor pre-spun and in a vertical position, and can get the blades spinning to a point ready for lift off. It also ROGS easily, but you need a good area of runway like a wide street with a smooth surface, as possible.

I have broken/repaired many variations of this autogyro, while learning to fly, and trying to get all the bugs worked out, but I have learned a lot from it and have improved it to a point where my latest version is worthy of the term "trainer", it has also taken a lot of abuse from friends who have tried it and it is still ticking with very minor repair work.

One of the most intimidating and probably most important reasons why RC autogyros are not as popular as other RC models, is that they are hard to design and fly, for the average person. But a good amount of people have designed and flown RC autogyros successfully but they are still a very small group.

I hope to entice more people to try an RC autogyro, hopefully this trainer will help those that want to give it a shot!, without too much hassle and expense. Plans, instructions and bill of materials to follow.

I am just finishing up a cleaner version of this autogyro and will have construction photos and instructions. The frame is simple but I have made the LG even better, it is interesting how much you can improve on a model when you crash a lot during testing, flight training. It provides so much information that otherwise would not be obvious.

I plan on going to the flield today to get some more flights, if weather permits, I will get someone to videotape it for me, so video, in flight pics and how to make this autogyro is upcoming.

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[MIA Micro-FLIGHT (Mario I. Arguello)]

I did manage to video it tonight with the help of a recent local flying friend, Randy. So I just need to upload the video to my PC.

A little story behind it. Today I woked up with a desire to make this model even better and figuring some people might want to build it after they see my video, I set out to make it a little spifier than the first pictures and took lots of assembly photos. So here it is in all its final glory.

The model flies beautifully, to me this means that it doesn't exagerate the typical tendencies of autogyros to roll from rotor torque. Takes off are easy and straight. I am only using mixing for the airleron/pitch servos, there is no programmed mixing involved between the rudder and aileron, as per the upcoming video. So I needed to get my hands in that mechanical mixing mode, but it isn't hard once you get a few tries at it. This little gyro pulls up fast and has very clean wind penetration going up as well as going down, so you have to treat the control gently or dial in some dual rates on your tranmitter. I pull it into dives and was able to pull it out of them with pitch up, easily.

My blades are flying it great and I am so very happy they are working as they should, well, you will see it in the video, but for now here is a picture of the final model, all dressed up, before tonight's flight.

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Ok here is the video, that was filmed last night at about 7 PM, it was a bit dark, and a challenge to see it, nevertheless we got it on film, and one can hear that captivating autorotating whirling sound of the rotor, as I made passes around the field, a hard landing, I was practically flying it blind, at the end of the flight it was dark, but nothing broke. Picked it up and did another flight. .

I bet if this video is lightened up in a video editing program (ANYONE?), one can see it better, but I have had a hard time converting this MPEG into avi so I just uploaded as is to YouTube. I have the second section of this video, but it s over the bandwith limit allowed by YouTube.

I will do more videos during the morning when it is brighter and the gyro can be better seen, just gotta find someone to video tape it again.

This little guy really flies well and overall I am happy with the end result.

[MIA Micro-FLIGHT (Mario I. Arguello)]

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Construction - Main Frame

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The most important part of this gyro is the main frame, landing gear and motor mount, these three sections are what will separate my autogyro from other similar and perhaps simpler pod and boom RC autogyros.

Originally I was using 1/4" dia. carbon tubes for the boom and mast, and 2.5 mm carbon rods for the landing gear, to keep things very simple but due to hard landings and crashes, during testing, the carbon booms developed hairline fractures and were twisting, creating lack of firm control and good flyability, while the carbon rods also broke, on hard landings. So I switched to 1/4" square Basswoood for the boom and mast and wire struts for the landing gear.

The square Basswood pieces have no torsional twisting problems, are light enough, as well as strong (when used with my LG design), and have flat surfaces which makes them easier to attach things like horizontal stabilizer and servos without the need for additional gussets, etc.

I am using the landing gear wire for the landing gear struts, as well as for structural support of the main frame front section. I've done it this way, to create an indestructable front end, distributing the landing gear loads more evenly should the model land hard, this is important to have, during training, you don't want to have to repair your model on every hard landing and so the way I am doing this setup serves that purpose.

To do this, the mast and front motor support 1/4" sq Bass wood pieces need to be slotted centerline, on the sides to a depth of 1/16", to accept the 0.059" piano wire struts which get sandwiched by the 1/16" thick aircraft plywood sideplates.

You start the build by using one of the 1/16" thick x 1.25"H x 4"L Plywood pieces as your template for the boom and mast location, the mast and front motor support pieces are positioned at opposite 95 degrees with reference to the boom. In other words, the mast has a tilt back of 5 degrees, while the motor has a tilt down of 5 degrees from a line perpendicular to the boom. Very simple!.

The main frame is composed of:

2- 1/16" Thick x 1.25"H x 4"L Plywood
1- 1/4" sq x 17"L Basswood
1- 1/4" sq x 6" L Basswood
1- 1/4" sq x 1.25" L Basswood
4- 12"L x 0.59 diameter piano wire

The 4 lengths of piano wire need to be bent, in the middle (6 inches) to an angle of 120 degrees, as a starting point. The ends get bent after they are installed on the frame, with the plywood sideplates. Use the photos and captions, as guidelines. Questions, ask.?

Tools and Materials

Standard Model making tools.
Button Thread (optional, dental floss) for wrapping parts.
Medium Viscosity CA glue with a fine tip (0.40" openning is ideal) so that spreading ca glue is clean.
White Paint for the main frame Deep Yellow for the tail section

I use Krylon "FUSION" for Plastics paint, available at Walmart -USA. This is foam safe, but you have to spray it in light coats. It works great on wood and metal too.

[MIA Micro-FLIGHT (Mario I. Arguello)]

[MIA Micro-FLIGHT (Mario I. Arguello)]

[MIA Micro-FLIGHT (Mario I. Arguello)]

Construction - Motor Section

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This is the motor mount.
Eflight 300 motor with mounting screws
Fiberglass Motor Mounting Plate 1/32" Thick x 3/4" Wide x 2-1/4" L
2 - 3/8L small wood screws.

I am using an EFlite 300 motor and have manufactured the mounting plate, so that the motor sits above the frame.

There is a very important reason to this type of mounting and using fiberglass plate for such. It allows the motor mounting plate to spring back and give a little, in a hard nose dive, or crash landing .

How did I arrive at this? Many crashes, and going back to the drawing board for something better. The prop is also mounted to the motor with an O-Ring (Prop Saver), this combo of crash cushion, prop saver and flex motor mounting plate, is a double crash safety for the model as well as the motor

Also note, that I have offset the motor mounting plate holes, to the frame. There are 4 holes ,which I drilled, to get different flying effects. USE the set of holes that when mounting it to the frame, the motor is offset to the right by 1/8" distance from center line of model, as seen from the rear of the model.

[MIA Micro-FLIGHT (Mario I. Arguello)]

Construction - Rotor Head Gimbal and Control Arm

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Here is the way I am making the gimbal and control arm. I have tried various ways of making gimbals, some very spiffy ones and some very quick, but I wanted to make one using parts that you find in local hardware stores. So here they are:

2- 1/4" inside diameter , black nylon, plainedge cable clamps
1- 1/4" outside diamete x 2-1/4"L black nylon hard plastic tubing drilled to accept rotor head bearing 3/32" diameter x 1-1/2" L carbon shaft as well as 3/32" diameter x 1-1/2" L carbon rod control arm.
2- fiberglas washers
1- 1/8" wide aluming spacer
1- 2-56 x 3/4"L machine philips pan head screw
1- 2-56 screw nut
1- Press fit 3/32" ID should nylon washer.
2- control arm nylon spacers made from 1/4" OD nylon tubin "SPLIT" to be slipped over 1/4" OD control arm, as spacer-clamp retainers.

Note that after installation, the basswood mast gets trim-sanded to the angle of the lower cable clamp to allow the gimbal control arm to pivot in for/aft (pitch) freely. Also note that the control arm pivots left and right, freely, via the upper cable clamp. The control arm is retained inside the cuppe cable clamp with two nylon spacers which have been carefully CA glued to the control arm, to retain the control arm, but allow it to pivot freely.

[MIA Micro-FLIGHT (Mario I. Arguello)]

Construction - Radio Installation

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The servos and receiver are attached with 3M Industrial Strenght, double sided foam tape. I use my own, specially picked rubber like tubing connectors, for the couplers from servo arms to carbon control rods, they are not fuel tubing or heat shrink tubing, but you can use similar rubber tubing so long as the tubing is flexible and not stiff, and these serve as "servo savers", I have not broken a gear on the servos which are Blue Bird 4.3 sub micro. I also don't use the screws on the servo arms so that in case of a crash,the arms and couplers simply snap out and can be simply snapped back in place for continued flying. The ESC for the motor is simply inserted in the pocket in the front end of the main frame with a bit of servo tape to hold it in place. All wires are tie wrapped neatly. The battery is underslung between the landing gear strut wires with double rubber bands. I drilled two 2mm holes through the frame and CA glues 2 2mm x1-1/2"L carbon rods to be used as rubber band grips for the battery.

The battery I use is an Apache 450 mah 2 cell pack. It balances the model perfectly, installed as described, since all prelim balances and ideal location for the battery had been worked out from previous prototypes.

[MIA Micro-FLIGHT (Mario I. Arguello)]

I was so busy yesterday that come 7 PM, I got the itch to go flying, just to release some tension, so I took this litte autogyro out again, and grab a few battery packs, transmitter, roll of fiberglass tape and a small hobby scissors and dashed out the door, in a hurry, and while running to my car trying to catch a few minutes of the sun's last western rays, I accidently busted one of the blades entering the car.

Darn! @#$*~!, but I was persistent and wanted to fly, regardless!, nothing was going to stop me. No way!

So I headed out tot he field anyway. When I got there I simply spliced the broken blade with fiberglass tape, bottom as well as top with about 2 inches long strips, around the broken area and thought, maybe it will fly, maybe it won't, but it was not that rigid, as the original one piece blade, but the tape griped it very well, so I said what the heck! .

The wind had rested and the sun was setting quickly, so I started the typical sprint to get the rotors going ,and in about 20 ft, I could hear that nice sound of the rotors spinning, gave it throttle and out it went nice and staright! towards the sunset and red and purple coated western sky, I set my mixing switch to rudder/aileron (Had prreviously set this mix so I won't have to do the mixing with my ffingers) and it flew ssssweet! control was easier but because it is an Autogyro, and anyone who has flown one, probably knows what I mean by this, I still had to keep in mind proper power/control management. Made some low passes and then tried figure 8's again (smaller field this time) so it was a bit more challenging I thought, but the programmed mixing helped a lot.

3 packs later came home so satisfied, relaxed and with a huge smile on my face. I am so happy, I had to write about it. Now I am going to try to figure out a way to rig a videocamera to my transmitter or perhaps to a hat so I can film my model when I can't get someone else to do it for me.

September 2, 2007 Flights at Chandler Bowl. Thanks to Craig for the camerawork. It was a windy day nevertheless the MIA Trainer Autogyro flew great!.

[MIA Micro-FLIGHT (Mario I. Arguello)]

Back to Present Day

I flew the MIA Trainer RC Autogyro again this w/e but did not do a video because although as tough and easy this autogyro is to fly, I have been spending most of my time designing and testing some new ones which are a little more stylish than a simple pod and boom. I have also been experimenting and innovating.

Please stay tuned for my newest invention in RC atutogyros. It is going to rock RC Autogyros, as we typically know it.

Edited By MIA Micro-FLIGHT (Mario I. Arguello) on 16/07/2013 08:39:16

[MIA Micro-FLIGHT (Mario I. Arguello)]

Photos of the original model before making it pretty with the yellow fins and the ply boxy cabin.

[MIA Micro-FLIGHT (Mario I. Arguello)]

Tapered Blades on RC Autogyros

A revisit of the old MIA Trainer Gyro in two parts.

The MIA Foamboard profile DIY version complete with blades made from foamboard was based on the original MIA trainer idea, but I wanted to simplify it further by making it super easy for the builder to assemble. Cutting a foamboard shape is super easy and making blades also from such is another time saving step (See my DIY videos on making your own DIY Auto G blades, a similar process in making the foamboard blades). Foamboard is great, nice and stiff and able to take more abuse than blue foam or depron un-reinforced.  But I knew I could do better by  making it more 3 dimensional and with some awesome blades! 

I revisited some of my old methods of making lightweight model rotor craft blades and thus these two following videos talk about this interesting and perhaps not so new but maybe so, approach for RC autogyros (I have looked all over the internet and have honestly not found a single video of a similar RC autogyro with tapered blades, at least not in the way I making them).  I do know that some old time designs have had tapered blades, but we see more of the straigth rectangular blades in almost every modern design as well as in real ones.  Well there is a lot than can be gained with a properly designed tapered blade. This is my story in this area, in a nutshell.

A boxy construction done in one night after sketching it up on CAD.

This is tentative a DIY Plan build, not for sale and for personal enjoyment only.

 

Edited By MIA Micro-FLIGHT (Mario I. Arguello) on 25/02/2014 11:05:24

[MIA Micro-FLIGHT (Mario I. Arguello)]

Addicted to RC autogyros. If could keep flying I would... Caution: long video, but it has some interesting maneuvers that are easier to pull of with a lighter model. Quick and on the dine almost 90 degree turns,.

 

I have developed some new rc autogyro flying terms, as the MIA MTG model is showing some interesting abilities.

 

MIA RC Gyro Flying Terms:

 

90 Degree Sliders: When the model slides into a sharp 90 degree turn.

Donuts: When the model skids around in circles, not to be confused with natural turns and circles.

Wind Teasers: When the model fights with the wind to establish airspace authority.

 

 

 

Edited By MIA Micro-FLIGHT (Mario I. Arguello) on 02/04/2014 02:17:52

Edited By MIA Micro-FLIGHT (Mario I. Arguello) on 02/04/2014 02:23:33

[MIA Micro-FLIGHT (Mario I. Arguello)]

Recent flights with the MIA MTG. May 04 and 08, 2014. Also appears in this video the MIA Breeze "box construction" RC autogyro a much earlier "trainer intended" design that I flew in profile form with dual blades many years ago.

I got so many designs that sometimes just sit on the tables or shelves waiting for the right mood or time, hard to decide which one to let go next.

Edited By MIA Micro-FLIGHT (Mario I. Arguello) on 13/05/2014 01:28:03

[MIA Micro-FLIGHT (Mario I. Arguello)]

More fun flights with the MTG...May 02, 2014 Mesa, AZ USA.

This model also flies consistently and predictably awesome! with the unique MIA WMT (TM) Blades.