Other People's LiteSTICKs - Ed Couch's GyroStick
Ed followed up his previous successes with a gyroplane version. In case you're not familiar with gyroplanes, they are a somewhat weird mix of airplane and helicopter:
The helicopter-like motor makes lift once it starts to turn, but it is not turned by the engine directly. Instead the gyroplane's motor is used to move the craftforward and the oncoming airflow starts to spin the rotor. Once the rotor starts to spin it also starts to produce lift. If you watch a gyroplane taking off it will look like it's just slowly driving down the runway with not much happening, until the rotor starts to work and the whole thing all of a sudden leaps into the air.
As with Ed's GyroStick, a lot of early gyroplanes were built on converted "normal" airplane fuselages and only used the regular airplane flight controls.
Some full-sized gyroplanes have a PTO (power take-off) to spin the rotor. This is an arrangement where power from the engine (normally used for forward thrust) is temporarily diverted to help spin up the rotors. This is only used to help get the rotor up to speed quicker - all power is returned to the propeller before take-off. Even though this will be too complicated for model use, you can cheat a little bit by giving the rotor a few spins before takeoff.
If you want to learn more about gyroplanes I've added a few links at the bottom of this page.
Here's Ed's GyroStick flight report:
New bird that also flew perfect out of the chute. An easy modification, about two hours. Neat as hell in air, it will fly on the wing or on the rotor.BTW, it flies fine without the rotor, quicker than a standard model, but quite controllable.
On the first flight the rotor slapped the wing's trailing edge and got stuck there. I made a couple of laps around the rink in that configuration with no problems until it eventually slipped off and it went back to rotor lift with no problem.
The rotor was rigid but it really needs to be flexible to fly smooth. The blades are flat and are simply two pieces of 3/32" x 3/4" closed cell foam (Guillows) with a 3/32" x 1/4" hardwood spar. The foam is glued to either side of the spar leaving a 1" stub to insert into the hub which is simply a couple of pieces of 1/32" plywood 1.25" in diameter which traps the stubs of each blade.
Due to the flat plane of the blades, you will need to add a few degrees of pitch in each. The mast will also need to be slanted to the rear about 10 deg. The bearings and shaft are from a GWS motor/drive assembly. The shaft is slipped into an appropriate-sized carbon tube. After a bearing hole is drilled in the hub, two bearings are pressed in the holes maintaining alignment. A drop of CA here and there holds everything together. The rotor assembly is slipped over the shaft and a small piece of plastic tubing is slipped over the end of shaft to hold it together. I use simple air line from rc retracts for this and it works very well.
Ed's mishap early on may lead you to consider another type of mod:
If you have the skill and the room to deal with faster speeds, you can "zip up" your Stick by slicing off the wingtips. This will make your Stick faster, more maneuverable, lighter, easier to carry around, etc, etc (basically all sorts of good things provided can deal with the higher speed). Also you might be able to use a smaller prop which will get you longer flight times. (You can get an idea of how much Ed removed by counting the trailing edge scallops but you can also do this gradually by slicing off a little at a time and seeing how you like the changes).
R/C model Autogyro Stuff
Jim Baxter's R/C Autogyro page If you have any interest at all in building your own GyroStick be sure to visit his R/C Model Gyro Technical ArchivesRick's Gyro Page - with pics and info all dedicated to what he calls (ahem.. ) "Peeling Back the Foreskin of Science".
Full-Scale Autogyro Stuff
GyroCraft.com - the homesite for the Gyroplanes Web-Ring
Groen Brothers Aviation - manufacturers of a sophisticated modern gyroplane
Rotabyte - a website dedicated to ultralight gyroplanes
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