Some of you have been following the building of my Clancy Lazy Bee as an Autogyro, and after some weeks of work and preparation, the maiden flight took place this past weekend!
Click Here : The Building Thread

Wind was between 8 and 10 mph, which allowed a nice transition into autorotation. After practicing a few times getting the feel of the rotors spinning up, it was time to take the next step. Double checked the surface throws, directions, and the hang angle, and then faced into the wind. The rotors spun up nicely, and I added throttle, walking into the wind. A nice launch, full throttle and she was climbing away nicely. At about 50' up, I began a shallow left hand turn. The rotor initaited the roll nicely, and then I coupled in the rudder to bring it around for the downwind leg. I still needed to maintain full throttle on the downwind leg to keep a consistant altitude, but I can run about 3/4 for a good cruise speed into the wind. After a few passes, I brought it in for a landing. Wow, this was great. Slow the throttle down, and the approach is nice and steady. A little steeper than a plane landing, but much slower. Added throttle and a flair, and it was down with a little bounce. Not bad for the first flight.

Setup: Magnetic Mayhem, 3.3:1 Planetary GB, 14x10 APC EProp, 8x1900 SCR NiCads. Hitec HS-81 MG rotor servo, HS-81 Rud/Elev, 555 Rx, and Flash 4 Tx. Jeti 35 Amp ESC/BEC

Pros: Amazing to Fly, Slow Controlled Flight, Very Addicting. Flexible landing gear design helps those bumpy first landings.
Cons: Power system seems "doggy", needs full power a lot, could use some extra punch, Maybe try 10 Cells? Any help here appreciated

Here are some photos. We only have a few now of the flight, because everyone was amazed it was flying. We'll get more photos and video shortly. Last one is my Standard 48" Lazy Bee, coming in on landing approach.

*Edited by Moderator only to shrink wide pictures*

Congratulations! She looks really great. Here is one possible consideration: if you replace those NiCads with some of the new 4'th generation NiMh cells, you can get the same power in a lighter package. Edogfight (see link below) sells Sanyo and their own brand "HECELL" that both work well. With these you can probably use the same charger while avoiding the $ of taking the LiPo plunge (TRUST ME!!). Great work on the GB!

http://www.edogfight.com/Catalog_pag...eriesCells.htm

Way to go Rob! Yes it does indeed look terrific.

Have you given any thought to the HR-4/5FAUP 1950 39g NIMH? You'd drop ~25% of the pack weight and the're good for 40 amps continuous. Many of our jet pilots use them at full throttle the entire flight.

Rob:

Great Job! It will be terrific to see the AGB in action at the Sizzle in three weeks and there will be some pretty experienced sport plane brain power available to offer up suggestions for your power questions.

Can't wait.

Gary

change gearbox to GD600 with 10 tooth pinion (4.6 ratio), 14X10 APC E prop, 10 cells. Can also use 3S1P of the new thunder power cells to drop a LOT of weight(I've used the older ones with that setup, but it's pushing them hard). Only roughly 200 watts,..20ish amps (18 to 21 depending on pack I've used), but thrust is incredible. pitch speed is only in the 38~40 arena, but that's about double what the gyro will ever do in the first place I played with the mayhems a bunch, and this was my favorite setup,..even worked much better than when I pushed them to 300 watts with different gear and prop.

Thanks for the comments, it was a great experience. Seems like the consensus is to try 10 cells, and possibly switch gearboxes. I'll shop around for some of those 1950 NiMh cells, and put together a 10 cell pack. Combination of a little more battery power, reduction in weight, should help. I'll then see how it flies, and if I need more help, I'll check with people at the Spring Sizzle on Memorial Day weekend.

Rob:

I have a spare of the GB that GaryW is recommending, but don't have the 10T pinion. I will bring it to the Sizzle and let you take a look at it.

Gary

Hi Rob
See you at the Sizzle! Hope you can fly on the Saturday - I'm off to the Pro Cycle race over the river in VA on Sunday, so will be photo'ing phuriously on Saturday.

Without lots of fancy numbers to back this, second going to ten cells. If you keep the amps the same, the MM will run 10 fine and you basically up the power by around 25% for a weight increase of some 8% in a model this sort of size.

Next step up is find someone chasing fashion and selling off an Astro 035G with the Superbox cheap. This will run 10 cells / 30A for years - I use a Superbox with 13T pinion for 3.6:1, with above and a 14 x 7 or 12 x 10 APC-E in my Puts-E. This setup wouldn't be too far off for your WhirlyBee

Regards

Dereck

I'll only be able to be there on Saturday, so hopefully the weather will be nice and the conditions right to fly the GyroBee. I ordered a 10 Cell, HR-4/5FAUP 1950 NIMH Brick pack last night from Cheap Battery Packs, and hopefully that will be on its way shortly. Putting the same setup in PCalc, but changing the battery, the Amps are up to 34 Amps to the motor, but my thrust is up nearly 10oz, which should make a nice difference. Even going to 10 Cells, the Battery weight is still 2 oz less than what I have now. My ESC though is rated at 35 Amps, so it is close depending on how accurate PCalc is. I'll have to get one of those Astro Whattmeters or borrow one to check for sure. If I re-prop to a 14x7 or 12x10, I the amps reduce, but I loose the thrust I gained by going to 10 cells. After a little playing around, I'll be sure to find the write combo for the power I am looking for.

Thanks for all the tips and comments guys.

Congrats on the maiden! Very neat looking craft!

Watts aren't everything,.. just like horsepower isn't everything in a drag car,.. it has to be "hooked up" to the pavement, and geared correctly,.. so must the watts be utilized correctly. I've ran mag mayhems from 100 watts to 350 watts, and found if you push current much over 25 amps they aren't happy,.. and you can actually see diminishing returns (efficiency drops so quickly that more power in become less power out). I found 28 amps to be about the absolute max I could use, and 25 as a realistic max if I wanted life out of the motor. The 4.6~14X10 APC "E" combo on 10 cells would hover a 3 lb plane and it was only 200 watts. I've flown various gyros, and you need a large disk out front with absolutely no concern of pitch speed. Something I didn't try was a 15X8 on the above setup, which might be right on for this (could be way off,.. but logically thinking it should be very good, just have to try and see). I have dozens of GD600's and spare spur gears, and 10 tooth pinions, and will bring them all and offer some up for the sake of "experimentation" , as I enjoy testing and optimizing things. The only issue, is that you nedd a reverse rotation mag mayhem, not a forward or "standard" one like you use with the planetary gearbox. I don't currently have any of those.

you have been a great help, and I greatly appreciate the generosity of helping me "Fine tune" things at the Sizzle weekend.

My 10 Cell, Sanyo HR-1950 FAUP NiMh pack arrived today, and I found a buddy here on the EZone who is closeby with some electronic gadgets, like the Whattmeter. We'll be trying to get together this weekend sometime to see what my current setup is, with the 8 Cell and 10 Cell Batteries.

Maybe I'll see if I can find a MM Reverse before the Airshow weekend, and attach a ESC to it so we can "plug-n-play".

Thanks again.

Busted. This weekend I got together with another local EZoner, David, and ran the GyroBee with my current setup through the Whattmeter. With the 8 cell pack, we measured 25 Amps and 220 Watts, fresh off the charger, with 23 A, 193 W , 30 seconds later. Next, I plugged in the 10cell 1950 pack, and we measured that change. Fresh, 30 A, 305 W dropping to 28A 270W at 30 seconds,... and then all broke loose. The Gearbox stripped the outer ring gear, and put us out of commission. I guess we found out the hard way that the gearbox doesn't like 300 Watts pumping through it. Just glad it wasn't in the air instead.

So, with that adventure behind me, I am in desperate need of setting something up and flying prior to the upcoming Sizzle weekend. David was kind enough to let me have his Mag Mayhem (standard that was adjusted for reverse timing) and the GD600 Gearbox with a 12T pinion (3.8 Ratio). Using ECalc, we determined that this setup, with the 10x1950 pack and 14x10 prop would put me at 27.9A, 290 W, with 59 oz of thrust. By ECalc, this seems to have some advantages over the 4.6 Ratio using the 10T, but we forgot to check using the 15x8 Gary Recommended. I think I'll try this later this week, and then experiment at the sizzle.

FWIW, the Goal is, use the 10x1950 Pack, keeping the Amps to less than 35 for the controller I have, provide 3lbs thrust (Recommended value for Autogyro). I can buy a motor, pinion, and prop if necessary, but would like to keep costs down to a minimal if possible.

Here's the blown GB and the setup David is letting me experiment with.

Bummer, and it was a planetary box too! Which GB is the one that stripped?

Your Gyro-Bee should do just fine on the MM motor. Have fun!

(The top photo is the one that stripped)

It was a nice aluminum MPJ 3.3:1 Planetary from Hobby Lobby. I always made sure to slowly run up, and be smooth with the throttle changes, it just couldn't handle the power through it I guess. So, I guess I'll loose the sleek look and put the offset GB on there, once it's flying, no one will care or notice anyway!