Microlighters

It would be nice to know what the hang angle of a sycamore is with a rotax ? if anybody could help



According to the Mass and Balance Report, part of the Flight Operators Handbook for my Sycamore, 12.5deg min and 16deg max.

Direct from the book:

I have been following the Gyro talks for some time. I seem to have a liking in the Sycamore, but I have a lot of questions before "committing" to one.
There seems to be good and bad comments about the Subaru powered Sycamore, any comments from actual owners????

Jetranger wrote the following:

"Keel Angle with Stick Neutral

And 75kg Front Seat : 12.5dg MIN and 16deg MAX"

Additional Note

The above limits are checked with the aircraft suspended from the main teeter bolt and loaded the the specified maximum all up payload (250kg). With the joystick pitched in the neutral position the keel angle relative to the horizontal should be within the limits specified above"

This is for a New Generation Sycamore Eagle, Advanced Kinetics 31ft Rotor with a Rotax 914F so ignore any weights, these will be different for different machines. Angle should stay the same though.

What is the actual empty weight of a ROTAX powered Sycamore???
and the empty weight of the Subaru 2.5 liter model???

Sycamore Eagle: Rotax 914F: 115hp @ 5 800 rpm

According to the Flight Operators Handbook: Empty Weight 380kgs.

I have never actually weighed mine.

I have no info on the Subaru but find the Rotax to have ample power although it is rather expensive yes. Reliability (and peace of mind) comes at a price. C'es la vie.

Rgds

Len

I have a sycamore with a 2.5 subarru with a link engine management system
I like my sycamore very much
My partner unfortunately had a blade flap on his second confident solo
flight and am in the process of building it up
awaiting rotor and head with solid drive prerotator
my experience in gyro is not vast have flown in magni mt03 and helithruster
I like my sycamore very much
I have made a few changes to the sycamore
free castering front wheel
differential hydraulic brakes
new front window angle
inspection hatch at battery
big 8" wheels
its red now

I hope to be flying by february

Thanks for the reply, some very interesting mods you made. Sorry to hear about the bladeflap mishap, hope you get her into the air soon.
What is the empty weight of the Subaru Sycamore?

crashtestdummy....sounds like a really interesting "callsign". Is there a long and interesting history behind this callsign??

thanks

I dont know what the empty weight is but will be weighting it before we fly

Crashtestdummy comes from me helping the test pilot on the intitial stages of the subaru to check out the performance of the engine ie watch temp chts oil press etc while he flies - was not allowed to fly then - just sit and give feedback all the time - Valuable experience ito learning the systems ems etc
we also used cables on the sycamore which we had to keep an eye on while flying

CTD

What brakes did you use on your gyro?

If it is the one thing that I have to change, it is the drum brakes on my Sycamore - no balance when taxiing. Keeps on pulling to one side, and it is sticky. Cleaned and ajusted it several times - no luck.

Pictures and some more info on the other changes???

Have you had the CAA approve any of your mods before you takkled them ? Very often they don't understand what you are doing therefore ground you or request from you the NASA check list before a launch, which of course nobody will read.
I had a nasty experience where I was grounded for 2 months for changing the brake lever of a Magni, which component, if they had more knowledge on gyros, is never used in flight nor landing !

Hi
Would like to know what the fuel consumption you get on that 2.5 Subie best and worst case.

thanks Coen.

I used mountain bike hydraulic brakes
with the 160mm disk
they operate from the throttle control lever as the old brakes do
but the lever was split to enable diff braking
My reasoning for disk were because I could not get the drum brakes to work properly i even had new pads put on which were meant to be more effective but no luck
used special disk pad cleaning fluid no luck
so now i have hydraulic
and will give feedback
expect my head by end of january
new solid drive prerotator
I have not specifically checked the fuel consumption on a long trip as I have not gone on any cross countries as I only have 4 solo flights
from the circuits we do it is anything between 18 - 25 litres per hour
I have to add that I have set the engine management system to a rich mixture especially in the early days when we first had cooling problems
but with the right radiator that is all sorted outr and we set the mixture back
the engine management system allows you to adjust your mixture at any give manifold pressure or RPM so it is fairly easy to adjust it lean in the high revs
and richer lower down

Crashtestdummy: I like my sycamore very much

Great slogan for the manufacturer!

I echo "I also ike my Sycamore very much!"

Prerotator and brakes could be improved though.

If there were anything at all that Gyro's in general could have improved its the brakes and prerotator. In my limited experience in Gyro's (I may stand corrected) but most have shit brakes and lousy, sentimental prerotators.

I also envy your engine management system! Bit above me technically but awesome to have. I therefore encourage your endeavours Crashtest and believe that you are working with the factory, which is good. Hopefully your efforts will contribute to the imrovement of Gyro's into the future.

I wish you all the best and many many happy hours of flying, (as I am fortunate to be experiencing at present) so hang in there and good luck.

Len

By the way... I think your Gyro is going to be called "BigFoot" with those big wheels... we all know its for the 'temperature problems' you experience constantly over the beach quite by chance

How about posting some pictures of the progress ass you go and letting us follow the story?

Len

thanks len

will take some photos this weekend and put them up
we are working with the factory and they will be coming down to check it out hang angle etc

expect my head by end of january

regards

kallie

Thanks for the detail feedback. It is really good to hear about some experimentation within the Gyro community. Who was the Test pilot you mentioned? Dis you fill in all the forms for CAA yourself or did you get somebody to assist you, I hear it can be a real mission to please "them".

Please tell us more, we are drooling this side...

I am waiting and looking for some more info nearly every night. Any small bit will be soaked up with pleasure.