MIA Stabilitor - A Design Story

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

Given that RC Autogyros are still in a very small niche of the RC Hobby Market and in light of keeping the RC Autogyro spirit alive, I've decided to share this bit of history on the MIA Stabilitor, a unique design that was born out of an unorthodox idea to further stabilize the RC model autogyo beyond the already known and more typical ways via tail vertical and horizontal stabilizers. I am not fond of electronic stabilization systems, that, in my book is cheating!

It is very easy to design a model RC autogyro once you know how they work and although the design can vary in appearance, all RC model autogyros share the same basic structural and dynamic principles. This can get a bit boring at times.

In my continued search to do something different to suppress personal boredom and so that my audience also has something new to ponder upon, I decided to do a bit of extreme creative thinking and this is reflected in this particular MIA Stabilitor model.

If I were to have mentioned to someone that I was going to make a sail boat float on air, they probably would have thought I was experimenting with Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds or talking about making a kite or a blimp in the shape of a sail boat. Well, not exactly, but almost, the latter , I mean.

I had looked at many RC Autogyros, in particular the ones that you will not find in RC forums or the internet, as these are often too repetitive in appearance, but in pages of old aircraft magazines to see if perhaps the idea had surfaced at some early time. Not finding similar I decided to put the idea to the test.

The under belly dorsal fin stabilizer idea came about from looking at a model rc autogyro from a sail boat point of view, the effect of dreaming with eyes wide open a safe way of partying with Lucy in the Sky. Using logic and following basic rules of equilibrium, I came up with the particular working under belly fin.

I realized that the MIA Stabilitor unique fin is not that aesthetically pleasing but the trade off in higher stability was worth keeping it.

The Stabilitor was designed as a simple park-flyer, ultralight rc model autogyro, made from bluecor, some spruce and my own design unique universal, rotor head and blades. It is equipped with 3 servos for rudder and mixed direct control (pitch and roll), but I ended up not using the rudder and so the model is flying on DC (2-servo) directional with throttle for elevation control.

Flights, as can be seen on the video are super easy and the model has a tendency to self stabilize itself. A feature well desired for a first time pilot or someone wanting a more relaxed and docile model.

I did this model early 2013, but since that model I've moved on to more refined designs using the same MIA Stabilitor design principle.

As I mention in my Stabilitor video(S) anyone is free to try this type of stabilizer on their own models provided it is for self enjoyment and not to make a product with such for sale.

I could have kept this model to myself but in lie of all the other RC Autogyros I've been doing I decided to make this public because it works so well.

NOTE: this is not an intent to make any type of sale. Please consider I have just given you another perhaps small option to do something different for fun! Something to break the routine and keep the RC autogyro spirit alive! 

Cheers.

Mario

 

Edited By MIA Micro-FLIGHT (Mario I. Arguello) on 01/04/2014 07:17:37

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

This is a follow up to the MIA Stabilitor prototype, an attempt at refining the overall look but still keeping the most important element "under belly fIn area" integral to the fuselage. These models were built for pure self enjoyment, and are much lighter than some others I have done. Because I hate crashing heavy models and having to repair them, just eats a lot of my time, the smaller and lighter stuff is ideal from many respects.

For comparison, I've attached two follow up videos so viewers not familiar with what I am talking about can have an Idea of how a floater like the MIA Stabilitors (tractor design) compare with a high performance model of very similar size such as the MIA EZ Gyro 1.0 (pusher). Both have high stability features.