Autogyro Blades from AJ Blades

[John AJ Blades]

Hi All Autogyro enthusiasts.

We are AJ Blades LTD and RC model enthusiasts who have spent most of this year perfecting the equipment to produce our Autogyro blades. We are pleased to announce that our Web Shop is now open and we are already shipping to most world wide destinations. The blades are priced in sets of three or, as required and packed with bubble wrap and, shipped in a strong cardboard tube. We have started this thread to share your views and ideas with other enthusiasts.

John and Alan **LINK**

[Tom Wright 2]

I received my blades for my Panther this morning and am pleased to say they are beautifully made . I had previously test flown several pre production samples and found they flew very well despite the less than perfect finish ,so I expect the production examples will really cut the mustard and, I look forward to flying them on the Panther and Crane Fly Major . I hope John and Alan will not mind me saying that the web shop site is very basic and, I suspect like me that information technology is not their thing but , the site works well when placing orders , and as long as they continue to produce high quality blades then that's all that matters . The photos on the site do not do the blades justice so I will try and get some photos done later .

Tom.

[Tom Wright 2]

r

[Big T]

I have just ordered a pair of blades 660mm long by 70mm wide to convert my RPG V1 to 2 blade configuration. As this is my first go at a 2 blader, I thought it best to remove as many issues as possible regarding blade quality. I will post the results when I get the blades.

Tim

[Big T]

By the way the flapper plate for the 2 blades set up will be available here  http://www.coolwind.co.uk/

Edited By Big T on 15/09/2013 13:59:02

Edited By Big T on 15/09/2013 14:00:05

[Tom Wright 2]

Tim

As a matter of interest what us the AUW of your RPV1? I ask as instinct suggests that a 660 mm two blade will lift 4 to 4.5 lbs and could feel reasonably light in the air , it will be interesting to hear how things go.

Tom.

Edited By Tom Wright 2 on 16/09/2013 15:52:45

[David Ashby - Moderator]

Excellent news, well done John and Allan.

[Big T]

Tim

As a matter of interest what us the AUW of your RPV1? I ask as instinct suggests that a 660 mm two blade will lift 4 to 4.5 lbs and could feel reasonably light in the air , it will be interesting to hear how things go.

Tom

It is around the 4lb mark. I got the blade dimentions from Rich E who has tried various sizes and came down to this one which I believe Ian and others have used. Rich tried a thicker plate but reverted to 1.5 fiberglass. Picking the blade blanks up today so might have them done for next weekend.

Tim

[Tom Wright 2]

Tim

I hope you have the same success as I did with the large blades , they fly very well at 550 mm on my CFM three blade which weighs in at 4 1/2 pounds. I feel confident the latest set received will be fine on my Panther which will have an extended nose and no dead weight . I will also be using a Coolwind plate and a ball race rotor shaft. My flights with the CFM fitted with the AJ blades resulted in good lift with a 0.4 shim ,which also gave very rapid spin up .

Best off luck with your two blade project.

Tom.

[Big T]

I received my blade 660mm x 70mm blanks today from AJ Blades Ltd. They are extremely well finished and have less than .01mm difference in thickness along the whole of the length, which could easily be due to the high humidity following yesterdays heavy rain. In any case, much better tolerances than I could manage with a David Plane and Permagrit block! The finish is superb, even on the Spruce leading edge which in notoriously difficult to machine due to the nature of the wood. I will report further when I start the finishing process.

[Europa]

Received my 45cm blades today and they sure looking good. Can somone tell me the angle between mast contra tailboom is on most autos. Crane Fly Lite has only 5 degrees but Auto-g has more. Whats the optimum angle?

[Tom Wright 2]

Hi Europa

Welcome to the forum ,glad you like the look of the AJ blades having used them on all my Crane Fly models, and others I can confirm they fly very well .

Your post suggests you may be designing your own Autogyro ? If so and assuming it has elevator for pitch control then the mast angle must be set to suit the rotor loading , The Auto - G will have a little more back rake as it is heavier than the CFL .If the design is configured to ROG then the mast angle is also related to the amount the under carriage raises the nose above ground level . Should the design have a dual axis head then the rotor loading will determine the pitch trim angle irrespective of mast angle .

Hope this helps , let us know how things go.

Tom.

[Al - AJ Blades Ltd]

 

It has come to my notice that rumours may be spreading around that Tom Wright of Crane Fly fame has a financial interest in our company. I can state quite categorically that Tom has no financial interest whatsoever in AJ Blades Ltd. He has given us countless hours of his time quite freely test flying our blades on the Crane Fly variants and other models and I hope he will continue to do so in the future.

Tom’s quest is to bring more people into this hobby and, sees homemade blades as a possible stumbling block and reason for not doing so. His feedback and advice has been a great help in establishing our blade production facility so I’m sure I speak for many enthusiasts when I say thanks Tom and keep up the good work!

 

Al - AJ Blades Ltd

Edited By Al - AJ Blades Ltd on 02/10/2013 00:34:02

[Tom Wright 2]

Al

Thanks for the kind words , and confirmation of my none commercial involvement in your new venture. Modelling for me these days is all about helping others out and flying models that are often prototypes or new builds.

Flying the A J Blades on many of my models has really highlighted the importance of uniformity as a key to efficiency and repeatable performance to say nothing of the significant time saving compared to hand making these vital components. This gives me more time at the field which is on the door step , and allows me to get 300 hours or so a year that can often involve three or four trips to the field in one day when testing blades or new designs . I do tend to have bursts of feverish activity when the mood is right , and then periods of contemplation during which other stuff gets done.

All the expense and hard work that has gone into establishing A J Blades should be of great benefit to expanding the interest in Auto gyros as much of the uncertainty and guess work has been removed by the availability of your blades and other vital components available from sources that have recently been established in the UK to serve the Auto gyro constructors market .

I wish you every success for the future and look forward to flying the latest blade design that I understand you will be producing for several popular plan built models.

Tom.

[Al - AJ Blades Ltd]

Tom

No problem.

John and I have lots more in the pipeline for the forthcoming weeks/months and your input and advice is as always very much appreciated.

Al - A J Blades Ltd.

[Al - AJ Blades Ltd]

Hi guys,

After many requests for various 61mm chord blades we are pleased to announce that we have manufactured sets of 61mm x 700mm blades and these will be available for sale from week commencing 4th November. The extra length has been provided so as to cover a wider range of popular models and can be cut by the modeler to suit requirements.

Al - AJ Blades Ltd.

[Jeffery Barrington]

I have fitted the coolwind GF conversion kit and I am using AJ blades with a 0.4 shim as suggested. On full throttle it flies okay but when you drop to half throttle the model goes almost vertical and comes to a stop, which results in a tail first crash.

I have tried the head on 2 Auto G models, both react the same, but both fly okay with standard head/blades. Any ideas?

[Al - AJ Blades Ltd]

Jeffery

When you drilled the mounting holes were they on the CG of the blades?Also check to see how much slop you have on the head bearing as that can cause some weird elevator problems I believe.Mine has excessive play in the bearing and it is brand new (G1) so will need sorting out.

Al - AJ Blades Ltd

[Tom Wright 2]

Jeffery

Great to see you over here welcome to the forum.

Try the 0.8 mm shims 6 mm back from the bolt hole centre, and a some down elevator trim as required , also check that the bolt hole is at 1/3 chord and 12 mm from the blade root , and note all my flying has been with the G1 using a 10 x 6 two blade prop .

Tom

[Jeffery Barrington]

Thanks for the input Al and Tom.

I have checked my blades, the bolt hole is 7mm from the root and 11mm from the leading edge. The total blade length is 410mm. I copied the root end by placing the stock blade on the top, which means I have a more acute angle, could have been a mistake I guess. As these blades produce a lot more lift perhaps I have a total rotor diameter which is to large, it might also explain why the shims are not working as they should. I have sorted the slop in the top bearing so that is not an issue. I am using the standard 3 blade prop at the moment.

[Tom Wright 2]

Jeffery

From the info you give your blades seem to be 7 mm longer than the set fitted to my model so I am surprised you get clearance to the rudder. I have not yet suggested you reduce blade length as there may be other things to consider. Your blade bolt is at 25% chord which will result in the wrong the blade COG unless you have added weight to correct, so in theory the blades could become unstable. I f you wanted to move the bolt hole to the same position as my model we would then have a direct comparison to work from.

One more point with regards to the receiver / aerial location, I did some time back get violent interaction between throttle and elevator when the aerial got inadvertently buried close to the esc ,since then I have located it underneath the model and the problem has not reoccurred. Are you using 2.4 G gear?

I am assuming that the pitch up occurred when the throttle was reduced progressively, as closing the throttle abruptly is not a good idea with any Autogyro, the other factor that seems strange is that you described the pitch up as not recoverable so I assume the model was low, or on a landing approach ?

Tom.

[Jeffery Barrington]

Yes I was on approach for landing and I know that abrupt throttle inputs are not a good idea. I have now cut the root end of the blades and drilled in the correct position as you suggested - 12mm from root and 15mm from leading edge. My blades are now shorter (395mm) but I would think not to short to affect things to much. I will fit them with a 0.6 to 0.8mm shim and see how it goes. I am guessing that having the bolt holes in the wrong position would have a major effect so I am hopeful that my next flight will be good. Just a suggestion for AJ blades - would it be a good idea to put a note in with the blades with guidance as to bolt hole position? As the natural thing to do is place the stock blade over the new one and copy it. Anyway thanks for all the help and I will report after my next flight.

Edited By Jeffery Barrington on 19/11/2013 10:37:33

[Al - AJ Blades Ltd]

Hi Jeffery

You have a very valid point as regards blade balancing and we will be taking action to correct this.Lets hope that your problem is nothing more serious but if you have taken Tom`s advice then you have a good starting point to work from.Best of luck and please let us know how you get on.

Al

[Big T]

Hi Jeffrey, take a look at this video of how to balance a blade. It is the correct way to establish bolt holes and balance. The only option you have is to balance and drill before or after covering.

[Al - AJ Blades Ltd]

Rich Harris trial flying his Le Cruiser 600 on AJ blades

Edited By Al - AJ Blades Ltd on 24/11/2013 10:58:34

Edited By Al - AJ Blades Ltd on 24/11/2013 11:04:34