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The Atom Special


Richard Harris
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Posted by Gyrocopter on 10/02/2015 17:14:36:

Atom XL (twice size) at Old Warden today

Chasdscn0047.jpg

Hi Chas

Your OP was so understated I was not sure if the model was your creation or built by another gyro nut, now its clear that you have a new hanger companion for the fleet may I offer my congratulations and will look forward to seeing the model at Winterton.

Tom.

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Posted by Richard Harris on 10/02/2015 22:50:00:

Nice one Chas thumbs up

What does it fly like?

Rich

Thanks for all the kind words . Rich, The rudder is pretty much ineffective on the ground and it will need a steerable tailwheel. In the air its one of those sort of planes where you can put the transmitter down, pour a cup of tea, and then get hooked up again.cool

Chas

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posted by gyrocopter on 11/02/2015 17:03:54:
lodged by richard harris on 10/02/2015 22:50:00:
nice one chas 
thanks for all the kind words . rich, the rudder is pretty much ineffective on the ground and it will need a steerable tailwheel. in the air its one of those sort of planes where you can put the transmitter down, pour a cup of tea, and then get hooked up again.
chas
This is encouraging a 200% version is on my todo list I've even earmarked the Irvine Q40 as the umph provider
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I must be losing the plot for having completed my build (less the painting) I cannot find Rich's throws in this thread and have only his build article to go on.

On my Firefly and Cranefly builds I have adopted the approach of setting the fuselage such that the mast is vertical in pitch and roll planes and in this way the various settings can be documented and applied without the need to allow for the mast angle since this is (almost) always fixed.

With this simple approach I think Rich’s settings are:

Tilt back 5 degrees.

Tilt forward ? degrees

Roll neutral offset left 1 degree

Roll + - ? degrees

Can anyone please confirm/modify these values and fill in the blanks?

Peter

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David, thanks - I had spotted these throws a week or two ago, posted by Steve Jones.

Bear in mind that I talk about settings relative to the head plate as in my post above.

With his roll settings this gives 17 degrees left/right which on my Firefy is way too much for me. I use 8 degrees and find it flyable.

The tilt up is 17-7.5 = 9.5 degrees against Rich's value of 5 degrees.

The tilt down is -2-7.5=-9.5 degrees which Max 2 commented was 'noticebly more' than expected.

I am still not certain where this leaves us?

Peter

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Rich,

thanks for that, very helpful.

Always the engineer I had hoped for some numbers to crunch but this is clear and I will do my setup and be ready for a first flight on Sunday.

My French friend Sam should be ready as well so we will have two Atoms at the field.

Interestingly there is a two seater autoogyro based on the airfield and apparantly the pilot offers demo flights. We often see him taking off and doing circuits from our patch which is only 300 metres from the big aeropland runway. Imagine that in UK.

Peter

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Another one has flown!

My buddy Sam flew his Atom yesterday for the first time here in Brittany. Almost no wind so initial attempts were tricky as we could not get the blades up to speed. Then after a run the whole length of our 'piste' off he went for a twitchy flight. This on +-16 degres of roll which was clearly too much. The wind was gusty just 20 metres or so up so he did well to keep control. Landing in a bundle in long grass with only minor damage.

My Atom needs some decals and the blades covering and I will be ready so looking at next Sunday for my maiden.

Peter

Edited By Grasshopper on 23/02/2015 19:03:20

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Hi Tom,

I am surprised to see that your autogyro is missing a rudder, or am I missing something? I am finding that I am steering my Atom primarily with rudder, in particular at low forward speeds, and I am using the roll control mostly to keep the banking angle in check. It is slightly different when I am letting myself be tempted to do some hot-dogging around, I admit.........cheeky

Max.

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Hi Max

Your observations are quite correct .smile.

Although my model is inspired by the Atom and is also scaled up I consider it to be a new design . As with all my new designs I approach things in progressive way that often involves proving the model uncovered and in the most basic form possible . One of the flight characteristics I insist on is the ability to achieve easy turns using roll only, at this stage I also insist on a smooth turn without any dig in, if these points are addressed along with others then ground steering and rudder will be added .

The initial flight trials have been very successful so this will be anther model joining the fleet the all moving tail and simple roll head are proving to be robust and give good results against the design aims.

Tom.

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Max

Thanks for your advise on the upper surface blade colour. I opted for gold yellow underside and dark blue tops thinking it would help visually whether it was flying away from me or towards me. If this doesn't work out as planned I will recover..

I also took on board your comment  on turning with use of the rudder, this was going to be my approach .

Thanks again.

Terry

Edited By Terry Whiting 1 on 27/02/2015 17:22:52

Edited By Terry Whiting 1 on 27/02/2015 17:30:43

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