Ozgur Sar

Your welcome Pete, I fly both helicopters and planes but autogyros are different than both. Yes, you have to use rudder a lot but you will get the feeling quickly after a few flights. By the way, take off was the hardest thing to get used to for me because you have to pull elevator to get the blades turn faster during take off run, but you have to get the elevator back to neutral position as soon as you are off the ground. If you do not do that model flips back so quickly ending with a possible broken mast. Also make sure that blades have enough headspeed.

Hello Peter, I didn't read how others are turning but I'm turning how you described. First I start the manouver with rudder then use counter aileron to balance the left or right bank to flatten the turn. If you use only aileron to turn like an airplane it causes unwanted movements or just isn't enough.

My blades were extremely bending in air so I doubled my plate. However I am sure some that flexing is required for proper flight

Rich, Thank you for your comment. Yes it flies well but currently very inadequate power due to the excessive reinforcements I have made on the model. I guess it is close to double the weight it should be but I don't have time to build a new light one. But in spring I'm looking forward to building a pusher model from scratch 1.5x size of atom.

My latest Atom Autogyro flying of this year... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Dp3Sk6KeRs

Check out this video

Looks like an exciting new model

Mark, you don't need to play with the elevon mixing settings. Just release the control rods on the servo heads and adjust the head angle mechanically. If you want to increase the travel limits, go to end point menu of your radio and increase them for aileron and elevator Regarding trim I don't have any experience with Taranis. But I'm sure there should be videos in youtube Edited By Ozgur Sar on 10/06/2015 09:59:45

Yes Mark, I permanently set the head to that position by adjusting the control rods. My travel limits (end points) are set to 150% so that I can pull or push the elevator or aileron to the limits in case I need. Expo settings are 15% to keep controls smoother.

Posted by Mark Stringer on 09/06/2015 22:26:48: Not sure if I have too much throttle ...she takes off so quick and easy but then heads for the sky ... and yet Rich flew her from a hand launch at the weekend... any ideas which technique I am missing?!   Hello Mark, I had the same problem in my very first take off attempts and I noticed that CG was not front heavy enough so I added approx. 50 grams near the motor. Also I adjusted (tilted) the head in elevator axis to the front around 5-10 degrees which made blades almost parallel to the ground. But make sure you pull the elevator all the way back when running and release it to the neutral position as soon as wheels are off the ground... After making these adjustments I was able to take off just like an airplane otherwise it was behaving just like you have mentioned due to too much positive angle on the mast and blades. Getting high headspeed before running is also critical. So make sure one of your friends tilt the autogyro backwards in the wind which will quicken the headspeed gain and release it. Hope that helps...   * One last modification that helped me a lot was shortening the length of the mast by 1 cm. By doing this I lowered the vertical CG of the gyro. It helped falling to left during take off and greater control when doing turns in the air. Edited By Ozgur Sar on 10/06/2015 07:43:40

One of my friends captured my atom landing this weekend    Edited By Ozgur Sar on 08/06/2015 07:41:15

Hello everyone, I would like to share the results of my latest modifications. My atom got heavier due to reinforcements to several parts of the body and blades. So blades were flexing more than before. This caused blade strike a few times and even broke the triangular head plate once. So I cut two new head plates and placed them over each other (doubled them). This has solved the extra flexing problem and made the head stable. Other problem was the vertical CG being so high that caused the gyro unstable both on take offs and during flight. So I cut the mast approx 1 cm to lower the head towards the body. This has dramatically improved flight characteristics during my test flights today. This also fixed the gyro to roll to left during take offs. Rudders were also not effective as I wanted to be so I cut new bigger rudders which improved my tail control in low speed flights. I hope my modification results may help some of you that may have faced the problems I specified above.   Edited By Ozgur Sar on 06/06/2015 20:10:10

Rich, Thanks for your comments. I just want to give it a try this way and see what happens. I had a couple of minor crashes that forced me to strengthen the body and this caused weight increase overall so blades flap up much more than normal in my last test (which also caused a strike as well) Original plan rudders were not enough as well (one was broken half) so I increased the rudder lengths this time. Hopefully I will make a new test flight this saturday and will share the results here. I hope it won't create unlimited lift as Mark's head plate modification. So, why do we need the natural blade "flap up" actually?

Hi my blades were stretching too much and even once i had a blade strike so i cut a second triangle and placed it on top of other like in this picture. Will it cause any problem? Head is pretty rigid now compared to sluggish bendings with one triangle. http://i61.tinypic.com/23kospi.jpg

David, I had the same problem as well. So I made the following modifications / adjustments: - Moved the battery further to the nose (almost all the way) - Changed 0.4mm shims with 0.8mm shims - lowered the head angle a few degrees (down elevator towerds the nose) it still has a tendency to nose up during take off but its better compared to initial setup