one of the videos from some flights had today..

Auto G flight (1 min 43 sec)

Good news - I maidended the AG today. Bad news - Flight lasted 5 seconds.

As others had suggested I opted for a hand launch. The wind was blowing 5 - 10 and I turned the nose up and the blades really spooled up to where I could hardly hold it. I moved the throttle up and let go. It immediated rolled right and hit the ground. Tooth picks saved the head but lunched two blades. Good thing I have extra. I know there was sufficient head speed. The only thing I may not have done is giving it enough throttle. All controls were double checked for proper movement and trimmed to neutral. I didn't want to give it too much throttle thinking that if it began to sink on takeoff I would have time to give it more.

Oh well, will give it another go tomorrow.

Sorry to hear..


You said... I turned the nose up and the blades really spooled up to where I could hardly hold it. I moved the throttle up and let go.


-did you let go withe nose pointing up?, if so that's a nono..

we need about half throttle or more on launch, it depends how windy it is, and the nose at about 10 deg up max, see how I launch it on clip above..

Take into account that when the model is level the rotor is tilted a fixed10 degrees back already.

everything being well the model heads straight ahead no problem, launching like this is by far safer than ROG till you get the hang of this model.

That was strange as I have found once you hear the blades whirring a bit of throttle and off it goes no tendency at all to roll, just double check the ailerons/bank control are going the correct way.

Originally Posted by joseico90

You said... I turned the nose up and the blades really spooled up to where I could hardly hold it. I moved the throttle up and let go.

-did you let go withe nose pointing up?, if so that's a nono..

we need about half throttle or more on launch, it depends how windy it is, and the nose [Ba]t about 10 deg up max[/B], see how I launch it on clip above..

everything being well the model heads straight ahead no problem, launching like this is by far safer than ROG till you get the hang of this model.

After the head spooled up I lowered it to a slightly nose up attitude, added about half throttle and let it go. It just rolled over to the right as soon as it left my hand. It was just never flying.

I have three more blades. I wonder how many it will take until I "get the hang of it." Looks like the USA whse is out of stock.

If it is whirring and you will really hear it, it will fly away with a bit of throttle, just check the basics it is easy to make a mistake, check the head tilts right when you move the stick right viewed from behind.
Check your rudder & tail are straight, check your head is level with stick in the middle, there is something wrong as they all want to tilt left not right.

sorry for bothering you guys, have fun

Originally Posted by dacaur

Did you actually just "let it go", or did you toss it to give it some forward airspeed the same as you would an airplane?

If you just literally "let it go", that's your problem. when it comes right down to it, an autogyro is more like an airplane than a helicopter, it needs air flowing over (and through) the rotors to fly. The spinning rotor disk literally acts like a wing. Imagine trying to launch an airplane like that, it would do pretty much the same thing.....

Actually this machine will go up by itself when the rotors reach full speed, no need to toss it forward at all. what we're doing is just letting go when it wants to go up!

Auto G, a more agressive flight (2 min 49 sec)

Originally Posted by joseico90

Actually this machine will go up by itself when the rotors reach full speed, no need to toss it forward at all. what we're doing is just letting go when it wants to go up!

To me it felt like it wanted to fly and I didn't chuck it but I gave it a moderate toss. I didn't even have enought time to get to the right stick before it rolled right.

I am thinking now that I didn't give it enough throttle. More throttle me thinks is better than not enough. Too much me thinks it will just pitch up which is easier to recover from than pitch down lawn dart.

I think it depends on the wind velocity. If the breeze is pretty good then about 2/3 throttle is ok to let it go. If if is calmer than more throttle and a good toss is required to get mine to fly. I tried a half throttle launch like Rick and got the same result, a roll to the right and crunch!
This might be heresy to the expert AG flyers but at my age, arthritis and dexterity I cannot steer with my left thumb and mostly just fly 3 channel gliders and such. I did notice that one of Tom Wright's Crane gyros doesn't even have a rudder! Copying the idea I added outboard 2 foam vertical fins canted at 45 degrees to the tail of the AG and it allows me to fly with just my good right thumb. Success! The tail follows thru nicely and I can make turns right and left with no problem. This will allow me to fly when otherwise I was going to give up on ever mastering these neat flying machines! Happy gyro-ing Aero

Originally Posted by Aeronut41

I think it depends on the wind velocity. If the breeze is pretty good then about 2/3 throttle is ok to let it go. If if is calmer than more throttle and a good toss is required to get mine to fly. I tried a half throttle launch like Rick and got the same result, a roll to the right and crunch!
This might be heresy to the expert AG flyers but at my age, arthritis and dexterity I cannot steer with my left thumb and mostly just fly 3 channel gliders and such. I did notice that one of Tom Wright's Crane gyros doesn't even have a rudder! Copying the idea I added outboard 2 foam vertical fins canted at 45 degrees to the tail of the AG and it allows me to fly with just my good right thumb. Success! The tail follows thru nicely and I can make turns right and left with no problem. This will allow me to fly when otherwise I was going to give up on ever mastering these neat flying machines! Happy gyro-ing Aero

I like the tip on the added tail fins. I see no negatives in trying this.

Originally Posted by Aeronut41

I think it depends on the wind velocity. If the breeze is pretty good then about 2/3 throttle is ok to let it go. If if is calmer than more throttle and a good toss is required to get mine to fly. I tried a half throttle launch like Rick and got the same result, a roll to the right and crunch!
This might be heresy to the expert AG flyers but at my age, arthritis and dexterity I cannot steer with my left thumb and mostly just fly 3 channel gliders and such. I did notice that one of Tom Wright's Crane gyros doesn't even have a rudder! Copying the idea I added outboard 2 foam vertical fins canted at 45 degrees to the tail of the AG and it allows me to fly with just my good right thumb. Success! The tail follows thru nicely and I can make turns right and left with no problem. This will allow me to fly when otherwise I was going to give up on ever mastering these neat flying machines! Happy gyro-ing Aero

I like Calvin.....

SteveT,

Originally Posted by Rickochet

To me it felt like it wanted to fly and I didn't chuck it but I gave it a moderate toss. I didn't even have enought time to get to the right stick before it rolled right.

I am thinking now that I didn't give it enough throttle. More throttle me thinks is better than not enough. Too much me thinks it will just pitch up which is easier to recover from than pitch down lawn dart.

You're right, I think you're on the right track and next time you'll have it flying.

Also the rotor on these needs about two degrees LEFT trim looking from behind.
I set mine flat on maiden... then in flight it wanted to turn right all the time, so a bit left trim is required for normal flight.

J.

Yeah, Calvin makes a good pilot and HHR totem I had him up on top but he got shredded in the tree strainer incident! The three tails help me a lot and are an easy addon to experiment with! Best, Aero

Originally Posted by Aeronut41

I think it depends on the wind velocity. If the breeze is pretty good then about 2/3 throttle is ok to let it go. If if is calmer than more throttle and a good toss is required to get mine to fly. I tried a half throttle launch like Rick and got the same result, a roll to the right and crunch!
This might be heresy to the expert AG flyers but at my age, arthritis and dexterity I cannot steer with my left thumb and mostly just fly 3 channel gliders and such. I did notice that one of Tom Wright's Crane gyros doesn't even have a rudder! Copying the idea I added outboard 2 foam vertical fins canted at 45 degrees to the tail of the AG and it allows me to fly with just my good right thumb. Success! The tail follows thru nicely and I can make turns right and left with no problem. This will allow me to fly when otherwise I was going to give up on ever mastering these neat flying machines! Happy gyro-ing Aero

Cool!

This model turns very well on "aileron" only (in the air), the rudder helps on the ground and flying, but good use of throttle, banking and elevator works just fine.

One thing you could do is mix the rudder channel with "aileron" as slave, that works very well indeed, you could start say at 40% (rudder)

I preffer to work all four channels manually (while I still can)

Cheers and happy landings