Twin autogyro

Dave Ek, retired USMC, has been toying with an "Osprey" sort of model. With a .40 size motor pulling a profile fuse with stub wings and two three-blade rotors(freewheeling), twin rudders and standard elevator, he took to the skies. Some thought it would vibrate apart, others were betting it would only taxi. But it simply rolled twenty feet and took off. Quite stable. Bill Wilson noted it sounded like a Cadillac rolling on its rims in gravel. To my knowledge, this is the first and only twin rotor C/L to have flown. If so, it is unique. Best regards, PS- this post is also a test to see if my computer has malfunctioned. Are there any reports of SSW being other than normal today? thanks,

Dale,
That sounds really neat!
As to the SSW Forum, I had about an hour around 6-7 pm EST that it wouldn't load. (???)
Bill <><

Bill,

I had a twin rotor Piaseci that I flew in the late 60's.

That's the "banana" shaped helicopter isn't it? Was it a control liner? That sounds like a complicated model. Dave's has a .40 on the nose and the rotors free-wheel. Did your Piasecke have a gear arrangement of some sort to power the rotors? This thing that Dave has is the ultimate "sport" ship and might be the killer balloon buster that serious competitors have been seeking. NOT!

Yup the Bananna special is what I called it. It had a Roberts control system and the elevator was on the front. I wrecked it all the time as it was a real bear to control. The rotors were made from knot free fir. Rotor bearings were brass sleeves with piano wire through them. Rotors were two bladed instead of three and not really scale length about 2/3rds as I remember up and done were more a function of motor speed than elevator control. The Pit guy had to give the rotors a whirl then let go. Initially had to give full up elevator to rotate after it left the ground I let off the throttel and used mostly throttle to control it.

Hey how about some pics of the thing at least i would love to have a set of plans even for it

I knew it was coming to this. I've got a few pics of it static but none of the inflight pics came out with my new digital cam. Operator error, I'm sure. But the pics I have are too large KB-wise(175) and I don't have the software to reduce the size. (Yet) I doubt if Dave has plans, this thing was sort of by guess and by golly. Envision a Bell V22 Osprey with a propellor on the nose. The beam,er, wing that the two rotors are mounted on is airfoiled piece of pine. The rotors consist of a wooden hub to which are affixed the three blades, made of 1/8th plywood. Weighs 60 oz. Trike gear. Best regards,

Model Airplane News published plans for this model some years ago. They still offer the plan on their website. Dennis

Skip Mast's FA-61 appeared in Model Builder (as an R/C job) many years ago. It makes a pretty easy conversion to C/L if you want to bother. The full size one was actually a helicopter and the prop on the nose engine was only used as a fan to cool it, but it still looks pretty neat.

Send me the pictures, I have the software.

Mr. Clean- Elwyn made the same offer and I sent the pics to him. So we'll see what happens. Thanks for the offer- best regards from somewhere in Texas,

I would love to see pictures.

Roy Clough built the Tan - Giro.

It was in Air Trails, September 1955

There is a scan of it on the yahoo control line group.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/controllineflyingforum/
The scans are in the files section.

It is single .049 powered. The rotors are tandem.

The Osprey configuration sounds interesting. Did to rotors spin in the same direction or were they opposed?
Does it have a 3 line system?

I am going to build one of these some day.

No throttle control- two lines for elevation. Rotor blades have limited travel within the hub and the rotors turn opposite rotation. The construction is a lot of hardwood held together with woodscrews and CA. Dave holds a lot of down elevator to maintain level flight and will be changing the AOA of the rotors somewhat. C/L takes place on a small portion of the SouthWest RC field (carved out by Bill Wilson, Dave and the late "Mr. Whizkers" Monte Lawrence) and when Dave's machine took to the sky all the RCers stopped what they were doing to watch. But all it does is go around in circles and make a strange sound. When Dennis Slater, scale guy at Ned Brown Field in Chicago sees this, he will surely build one true to scale! Guys have offered to post some pics so I think they are forthcoming. Best regards,

Posted for Dale

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and

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Mike Lauerman

That is Extraordinary! SEMPER FI from California