Sky 40 fitted with gyro

[Keith Evans 3]

Following the article in RCM&E re flight stabilizers ,I decided to fit a Hobbyeagle A3PRO to my trusty Sky 40 trainer .

I duly purchased one from Amazon , downloaded the instructions and fitted it on to a new platform in the fuselage .Plenty of room here .

My Futaba 14sg was linked to a Futaba R2008SB Rx .This is an 8 ch.Rx. However I still needed a further ch.as it will be supporting ; ails ; rudder ; elev ; thr ; 2 inputs from the A3Pro together with an on board voltage detector a condenser and battery supply . So I modified a "Y" lead to incorporate a third lead ."is this a W lead?" . I also changed the 4.8 volt supply to 6 .

Following the very good instructions and watching a few Youtube videos eventually had it set up together with some help from Malcolm Holt .

The fist flight , today , was in ideal conditions ,lovely weather with a gusting wind of about 10 mph .I set the Sky up with 50% rates the gyro mode and gains to off and zero .

After a few circuits I switched the gyro mode to on .All O.K.

Then I gradually increased the gain until I was happy with how the plane was reacting. A few laps like this to gain confidence , lowered the flaps for a nice trouble free landing

The second flight saw me take off with gyro and gains on the A3pro left as the first flight .Tracking was dead straight for take off and after a few more circuits I switched the Sky's rates to 100% .no hiccups and she flew as if on rails .Flaps down and landed uneventfully .

Flight 3 saw the Sky on full rates and the A3pro left as per the previous flights . Dead straight tacking again and with a bit of flap took to the skies with no hassle .

So feeling a job well done .the next things to do are to celebrate with a good bottle of wine tonight and order a few more A3pro's .