Gyrocopter/Gyroplane Vtol (Rotary wing) with Arduplane
I plan to build a gyroplane Vtol with arduplane firmware, anybody has experience building gyrocopter/gyroplane here?? I am still thinking about the best configuration/ mechanism of autorotation rotor. The drone will take off like a quadplane and then will fly like a gyroplane. I know that regular gyroplane has a free rotation rotor, but in my case, I want to use a low kv motor to rotate this rotor (for efficiency purpose) for take off and hover. Then during Fbwa mode, this lift motor will be off (above stall speed) and doing free rotation…Unlike regular gyroplane, I plan to install a big servo to move the rotor to achieve good angle of attack during Fbwa or cruise mode. So in hover mode the rotor will be vertical, but during cruise mode, the rotor position will be about 15-20 degree to achieve good AOA. I need advice from anybody with Gyrocopter/gyroplane experience, especially about “cyclic pitch” mechanism…
Thank you.
The rotor must be free or it would be an helicopter and need a tail rotor. A motor can be used to spin the rotor before takeoff but must be uncouple before the gyro takeoff.
To make a gyro that fly well is not easy, CG position, mast length, blade airfoil and weight, blade pitch relative to rotor disc, thrust axis are some important parameters. There is no Cyclic pitch except if you want to use an helicopter rotor with traditional flybar. This is a solution I have experimented which is simple and fly very well. Other solutions are not easy to describe.
Hello Iosawing, thank you for your response. Yes I understand that the rotor must be “free” that means free to rotate, but my question is: how about axis of rotation? Is the rotor axis must be free to move toward back? How many degree the rotor axis will tilt (there must be s stopper to limit this tilt movement correct?) . How about if I install a servo to control this tilt? The purpose of the tilt servo is to control tilt angle of the rotor. I know this is not same as regular gyroplane, because I want this Rc gyroplane will take off vertically like a Vtol plane. Like normal Vtol (or quadplane), after take off, it will do transition to fly in Fbwa or Cruise mode . Then the rotor will free to rotate (or to continue the rotation without power) and the pusher motor will be the driver for gyroplane to move forward. The autopilot will use Arduplane firmware with Quadplane enable. The key issue is how to design the rotor hub with tilt mechanism. The purpose is to build a safe and reliable Vtol drone with autorotation capability. I know this is not easy, however I believe this is possible with support from gyroplane expert here. Your advice is highly appreciated. Thank you.
The best way to control a gyro is to tilt the rotor disc for left or right maneuver and increase the rotor disc pitch to gain altitude (of course you also have to increase throttle). You normally only need an additional ruder. I still have an old gyro with my own design rotor. I will make a picture this evening to see how rotor disc is controlled and how blades are articulated.
Takeoff vertically with a gyro suppose you spin the rotor at high rpm while on the ground then uncouple motor and suddenly change blades pitch. I know it has already been done but that seems to be very complicate. I dont know if you are familiar with collective pitch helicopter but obviously the solution to do that is to start from a helicopter chassis with a traditional rotor head with fly bar and paddle. In that case the control is not done by rotor tilting but with cyclic pitch. With an helicopter chassis you can keep main gear and motor to pre-spin the rotor and thanks to the one way bearing the rotor will be free as soon as you stop the pre-spinning motor.
A first photo to show the angulation of blade articulation. This is a well known trick to decrease blade pitch when blade face relative wind.
A second photo of rotor gimbal, rotor tilt ± 10° for pitch and roll. You can see the small brushless motor used to pre-spin rotor. The motor can slide toward front.
If you want to see gyro vertical takeoff, google autogyro jump start.
I think you can fly a gyro with arduplane but I am not sure if quadplane feature will help.
Letpi, Thank you very much for all your effort for this issue. I really need to learn gyroplane especially the Rotor hub mechanism, coupling and decoupling the rotor with motor for prerotation, etc. Unfortunately I can not open your pictures, there is error message. So would you please email me those rotor hub pictures and also coupling-decoupling of rotor disk and the motor for pre rotation… Thank you… Tony. My email: prodes5@yahoo.com
Hello Letpi, Thank you very much for your help. However I can not open your picture and got error 410 . I did check that this is because the files are still locked. So please try to unlocked the files for me… Thank you
Great, finally I can see your pictures. May I know how big is your Gyrocopter? I mean what is the take off weight? What is diameter of the main blade? Any youtube video? Again, thank you very much…
sorry, I do not have video for this model. Weight with battery is 1300g plus 70g*3 for blades. rotor diameter is 108cm. Blades are S6042 airfoil, this kind
They also supply a gyro kit that seems to fly very well.
Hello Letpi, I appreciate for all your information… How long this typical gyrocoter can fly ? Can it fly for about one hour or more? I saw you use Nylon gear on the rotor hub. Can you share where can I buy this big nylon gear? Thank you…
hello tony,
the gear is the main gear of a 450 helicopter (trex 450 or any clone).
I think the flight efficiency is comparable to a helicopter, so not as good as a fixed wing plane. The one hour target is already a big challenge if you chose electric propulsion but with a gas engine it should be easier.
Letpi, my main purpose of building this gyrocopter is to have anti crash drone, because of it’s capability to do autorotation. So is the autoration really working like expected? I mean when the pusher motor fail, can the gyrocopter land safely without crash?? Regards…
If main motor fail, autorotation will continue. However the descent rate will be high. I think you need to build one with full manual control to get experience.
Can we do landing safely with main motor fail? What is typical descent rate in that condition ? I think if decent rate more than 4 m/s is too high… What do you think? Regards…
I have no idea of the typical descent rate and I think it is very dependent of design and tuning. Obviously maned gyro does not fall and crash in case of engine failure.
Did a great job Tony.