Got my Yaesu FTA-720 radio this week. I was able to play with it and get the feel for the functions. I got the PTT (push to talk) wiring from CPS and I removed the red PTT button switch and temporarily connected the wires to the PTT wires on my Gyro stick. It works! However, I still have to figure out where I'm going to route and mount the wiring, and the radio... This is going to be a tough one. I just may clip the radio onto my belt or seat belt and let the wires hang.
July 15, 2015
Made a new throttle lever and knob.
Getting really excited now that I am almost finished!
June 22, 2015
Bought and mounted a new Sport Copter rotor head! It is a thing of beauty! No more trim spring needed!
Put on the muffler. I used the existing clamp bands for now, but will be changing them to a set up similar to what Curtis Lund's Gyro has.
These pictures show my trim set-up I made and installed. The trim set-up is the spring assembly. In order to set the trim properly, you have to fly it and see if it needs more or less tension. It's a trial and error deal with this this type of set-up.
N.O.V.A. Copter
N90135
March 10, 2014
Sanded the rudder and horizontal stabilizers, and new instrument panel and got everything set to prime.
March 11, 2014
I prime painted the pod, rudder, horizontal stabilizers, and the new instrument panel. The painting went very well.
June 27 - July 3, 2014
Made a mount for my Throttle tube assembly, and I decided to change my fuel pump mount, lowering it, and mount the pump horizontal instead of vertical.
Feb 18, 2014
I just got back from a trip to Mesa, Arizona, visiting family. On my way back home, I picked up my Son In Law's 2o gallon air compressor and cup gun. I did an assessment of my air frame parts (not the new CLT kit parts), and found that the ends of several tubes had been squeezed by being over tightened, some by as much as .050 of an inch. As I thought about what I can do to fix this problem, I came up with a solution. I took 2 saddles and put them on the elongated ends. By squeezing them in a vise, I was able to get the tube ends round again (within .005 of an inch).
March 14 - 15, 2014
Top coat painted in candy gold (3 step process - Base coat, pearl coat, and clear coat) the rudder, horizontal stabilizers, and pod. I painted the instrument panel hammered black.
The shims for my engine mounts arrived, and I installed them. Now everything lines up perfectly!
Mounted an OAT (outside air temperature) Probe to the RADC mount as well. The EFIS came with the OAT Probe, but I didn't know it until just yesterday! The OAT is that aluminum bullet like object.
April 28- May 3, 2014
Put on the wind screen.
I needed a way to mount my MGL RDAC (the box where all the wiring goes to), so, I made this bracket that attaches to the wind screen bolts and to the front strobe light mounted on the pod floor.
March 3, 2014
I noticed some spider cracks in the gel coat that I need to fix.
April 9-11, 2014
These are the rear keel pulleys that mount under the keel for the rudder cables to go through. The manual says to drill out the pulley's pop rivets and re-mount them at the lower end. Because there is no room to re-mount them at the bottom end, I made new mounts that are 3/4 inches longer. I took cheek plate material from my extra air frame and made new mounts.
Mobile Hangar
November 24, 2015
Since November 4, I have been able to fly 7.5 hours in Airgyros MTO Sport! It is awesome! I still need more flight time, and may not get it until a few months into 2016, when the MTO gets is annual renewed.
December 18, 2015
Changed my radiator mount from upright to mostly diagonal for less drag.
The pull starter housing cover had a dent in it when I bought my gyro. Although it's not a huge dent, it's there and it doesn't look good. I took an aluminum rod that I had and pounded it out from the inside. The cover had some scratches and chips in the paint, so it needs to be painted as well.
Next, it was the radio antenna. What was a huge road block for me, ended up being a rather simple fix, once my CFI Mike Burton looked at my dilemma. He suggested that I mount it near the front bottom steering pivot mount. We did a test and it worked great... So here it is! Also, in the picture you can see a mount that has a rope attached to it. This rope is connected to a sleeve that fits over one end of the rotors to keep the rotors parallel to the Gyro. Otherwise, the rotors can start to turn in a slight breeze and whack something... like someones head!
September 12, 2014
The NOVA Cop-Ter flies! Today was great weather... Just what was needed for a test flight. Mike was able to make 3 takeoffs and landings. We made minor adjustments to the stick controls, but still need a few more flights before it is just right. It was a great experience to see the NOVA Cop-Ter take off and soar!
See the YouTube videos at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1OUy-7NvuUo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1RqpZ6lcRI
September 17, 2014
Today, Mike made 3 more flights. From this we were able to complete the stick control adjustments.
September 19, 2014
Today, Mike finished test flying my Gyro. All is good to go!
Here is a video of the latest test flight:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5VW9Zp16Bo
There are several more things that I'm modifying on my Gyro. The first is the instrument panel. The one I made out of a sheet of aluminum is too tall. As such, the stick hits the panel at the bottom. I've been meaning to make and install a new one, but didn't want to until the test flying was completed. Now that it has, I made a new one. It is 3" shorter and the stick won't hit the bottom of it anymore. I will install it this week.
Problem #2. Put the inside guts of RK 400 clutch on the tapered drive shaft just fine, but when I went to mount the clutch drum to the inside of the gearbox housing, it was binding because it was seating too deep into the housing. I looked at it and looked at it, but could not figure out how to fix this problem. I went to bed a bit perplexed, thinking I needed to do some grinding on the inside gearbox housing to fix the problem. I woke up and called Air Tech to get some advice and was told a tech guy would get in touch with me. At 1600 hrs., Beaver called me and I explained the problem. He couldn't figure it out. However, as I was looking at the gearbox and explaining it too him, I realized a bearing didn't look like it was seated all the way in. I took an aluminum rod and lightly tapping the bearing, it seated in place moving about 3/32" deeper. I then put the clutch drum back in and it worked perfect! I then was able to finish mounting the gearbox to the engine.
Time for the tear down!
Jan 13, 2014
Removed the seat tank and the (2) 1 gallon auxiliary fuel tanks that were mounted on each side of the mast. I will not be putting these auxiliary fuel tanks back on.
Feb 1, 2014
Took off the instrument panel. I decided to get all new instruments and a new panel. I have a transponder to sell. I also removed the muffler.
Mounted the seat support tubes. These tubes were the last air frame parts to put on!
Decided to make a "J" hook to hang my pull starter handle on. Doing so keeps the handle from flopping around while flying.
The results were:
1) Thurst test - 340 lbs. thrust... using a 582 gray head, with a C gearbox with a 2.62:1 gear ratio, 68" 3 blade Warp Drive props, with 10 degree pitch at 6250 RPM.
2) Hang test - Dry weight of about 335 lbs. without rotors or fuel, with a -2.5 degree mast angle, and about a +2 inch center of gravity.
NOTE: This is without a lower unit prerotator and flex shaft attached. With these items attached, it would make mast angle and center of gravity slightly better!
June 24 - 25, 2014
Decided to sell my new Yaesu FTA-720 handheld radio, and get an MGL V6 in the dash radio instead. The main reason for this switch is that mounting the V6 radio in the dash will make it a cleaner install, and I won't have to worry about mounting a handheld with wires all over the place. Besides, my MGL Xtreme EFIS was getting lonely all by itself in the dash!
The fiberglass instrument panel I put on was way too flimsy for my taste, so I decided to make a new one out of a sheet of aluminum. The picture with the blue tape is holding a precision template I made onto the panel so I can drill the 4 mounting screw holes for the V6 radio. The radio hole needs to have a clean and precise hole to mount through as the hole will be seen. However, the bigger upper hole for the MGL Xtreme EFIS doesn't need to be clean and precise as the EFIS covers the hole so you don't see it. I painted the panel and will wait a day before mounting it to the pod.
For the engine, the last order of business is: Put on the Carbs; Attach the throttle cables to the new throttle block assembly; Attach the Oil Injector cable and adjust it; hook up the fuel and primer lines.
The engine work is done. Now for the engine test! Cross my fingers!
I set the prop blades to 10 degrees just for a test run.
Took my Gyro outside and gave it one final look over. I made sure nothing was loose and that all things were good to go.
I gassed up the tank with 91 ethonal free with a 100 to 1 premix for the first tank. I primed the carbs, turned on my MGL EFIS, and turned on my mag switches.
I pulled the starter cord and nothing... I pulled and pulled and pulled... Nothing! I pulled off and on for 5 minutes. Nothing. My mind was going over everything... I could not think of a reason why it would not start. Then the thought occurred to me to flip the mag switches in the opposite direction. It started right up!
I tested the parking brake feature and it works beautifully! I still need to play with the idle adjustment a bit, but in the end I have a running Gyro!
I was surprised how smooth the engine is at 2700 to 3000 RPM.
Check out the engine test start-up on YouTube!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5hPN91DsCw
May 26 - June 2, 2014
It was a slow week for rebuilding for me as I was waiting on parts.
When I put the tail on my Gyro, I found out that the rudder cables would rub on the brake lines :( Because of this, I put the Tee that feeds the wheel brakes lines under the rear keel instead of on top. This solved the problem.
For the rudder cable connections, I ordered turnbuckles from CPS (California power supply). I didn't have a crimper, so I made one. I bought a bolt cutter from Harbor Freight for $13, then I used a round file and filed a round crimping slot on the cutter. It worked great!
Put on my new seat cover. I filled my tank 10 gallon tank and marked the 1/4, 1/2, and 3/4 fill lines. I put in one of those Bear Perkins red fuel float indicators too.
Here is the Rotor brake set-up installed. I like this system soooooo much better than having to push the stick forward to apply Rotor brake as with the older rotor head!
My Black Max wheels and brakes came in!
Here is where I am at right now, mast cross over tube mounted, as well as the main gear axles and wheels mounted.
November 5, 2015
New Sport Copter Hub bar and Rotors! 25' Diameter with 7" cord.
Put on zip tie standoffs on my fuel lines, cables, and wiring.
Made a new battery box. I took a sheet of aluminum cut out the sides, folded them up, and had a welder weld the sides. I filed the welds, painted it black and put on my Gyros Aircraft plate on the side. Just to let those that don't know, the person who first built the Gyro used his name as the Make of the Aircraft. This then will follow this Gyro forever, even though I re-built it.
Though you can't see it very well, I connected new wires to the water temperature sensor (just to the left of the 2 yellow spark plug wires on top) and am routing them to the EFIS in the pod. I connected new wires to the duel ignition that will go to the magneto on/off switches on the control console. I also connected new wire to the engine RPM sensor that will be routed to the EFIS in the pod.
I mounted the voltage regulator on the back side of the mast (the blue box under the engine tube cheek plates), but will need to remount it as I learned that it should have rubber dampening mounts on it to reduce vibration.
After mounting the coolant tank on the right side of the mast, I realized that my push tubes will interfere with it. Looks like I'll have to adjust the position of this tank later on.
I was thinking of routing the wiring going to the pod inside the left seat tube as was the original route, but have now reconsidered. If I need to access the wiring, it would be too difficult. I plan on running it on the outside of the tube instead for easy access.
My Gyro has a new home! I now have my Gyro hangered at Airgyro in Spanish Fork, Utah. This is at the Airport that I will be flying my Gyro out of. There are 5 Gyros there now, with one more to be build (the red one).
Cut a rectangular hole in the bottom of the pod to receive the stick block that mounts to the front keel, and attached the other end of the stick assembly to the lower cheek plates. Notice the stick grip... I'll be changing that out shortly.
Mounted the seat tank frame and attached the control counsel and seat tank. I put in the mag switched, light switch, and hour meter. The throttle handle is custom made by me out of Ebony. I didn't like the cheap plastic knob that it came with.
Here is the folding mast kit mounted. Yes, the folding mast is anodized gold to match my pod and tail colors! Thank you Sport Copter for the beautiful folding mast kit!
June 13, 2014
Went to the Rotors Over The Rockies fly-in from June 12-14, 2014, at the Brigham City Airport. It was great! I learned a ton of stuff from other Gyro pilots and builders. While there, I was able to get my Gyro thrust tested, hang tested, and find it's center of gravity. Glenn Kerr, who was in charge of the testing, hammed it up a bit in the picture! Much thanks to Glenn and Curt for their help in doing this!
N.O.V.A. Cop-Ter I N90135
On December 5, 2016, N90135 had an inflight engine seizure and was forced to land. The pilot, me, was able to land safely, uninjured, in an open field, however, N90135 suffered some damage to its rotors, rear keel, and mast. Due to the cost, I have decided not to make repairs, thus ending all future flights of N90135. She will be sorely missed. On the bright side of things, I am pleased that I was able to capture many wonderful flight videos with her, that I will be available to reminisce for years to come!
Now for the good news! She will fly again in the near future, but in a different form! I have decided to build a Tandem, 2 seat Air Command Gyro, and will be using much of N90135 for the build! I will call her N.O.V.A. Cop-Ter II , and she will get a new N number.
See this new adventure on the N.O.V.A. Cop-Ter II link at the top of this page!
When I painted the CLT air frame parts, I was expecting the paint to be as smooth as glass. Obviously this was not the case. I got a bit of an orange peel texture instead. At first I thought that I would just live with it, but the more I look at it, the more I don't like it. I also used a gloss paint when I should have used a matte finish paint. The painting system I used was the Preval system as I don't have a big enough air compressor to do it with a cup gun. I thought it would work, but obviously it did not. I have a brother-in-law who is a painter, and he is going to come over next week and show me how to do it right. Next step... sand out the orange peel, and repaint it matte black. I'm learning.
Made a control cable mount and attached it to the back of the C gearbox in the 10 and 11 o'clock position. Now that I have the lower unit attached and the control cable mount on, I ordered and am waiting on my pre rotator flex shaft and control cable. Once I get these items, I'll just about be finished!
A frustration I had for quite some time, was that the wiring inside the pod was a mess... Hanging all over the place. I tried several times to bundle it and get it out of the way, but no matter how it did it, it just didn't look good. Again, CFI Mike Burton to the rescue! He took one look at the mess and said, here is how to do it... 15 minutes later, here is what we ended up with... Nice and neat!
A lot of my time this week was taken up by the mounting bracket for my Coolant and Oil Injector reservoirs. I ended up buying new tanks as the original ones I had were custom for an inverted engine and I just could not mount them because of that. I followed the Rotax manual and bought an expansion tank. Pricey little things! I made a prototype of the back to back mount, and here is the final product.
Jan 28, 2013
Removed the windscreen and black molding. I found that the windscreen had been mounted in 2 different places. The (2) black ball mounts are coming off too. I will be doing some fiberglass work, filling the holes. I will repaint the fiberglass pod and tail.
Here is a YouTube video of them flashing:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KATFRLWAcM
April 7, 2016
Today is my biggest Gyroplane milestone! I Soloed in Airgyro's MTO Sport today!
After 4 months of not being able to get any training, 2 days ago, I flew for an hour... Then yesterday, I flew for another hour. Today, after some practice takeoffs and landings, CFI Brandon Winters gave me an endorsement to solo the MTO! I did a low pass and 3 take offs and landings in the pattern! It was awesome!
This picture was taken after my solo.
After this fix, Mike took N.O.V.A. Cop-ter back out again. He did another pass and we came back in to give the rudder some more left rudder. Back out again for another pass. This time Mike said that the steering is a bit too sensitive. He suggested several ways to fix this, but in the end we decided to call Air Command to hear their suggestion. We also wanted to know what offset angle to set the rudder to.
On August 27, 2014, I called Air Command and talked to John. He said to set the rudder offset to 10 degrees. He also said that steering on Air Command Gyros is a bit sensitive, and that some adjustment in the rudder pedal springs might help.
On August 29, 2014, I loosened the tension on the rudder cables a bit to see if it would lessen the steering sensitivity, and I set the rudder to 10 degrees. I took N.O.V.A. Cop-ter out for some taxing and found the steering to be less sensitive... maybe just a bit too much so.
On Tuesday, September 2, Mike was able to do some more test flights. Mike said that he was able to get N.O.V.A. Cop-ter completely off the ground, but that we needed to adjust the rotors to give the stick more right stick and back stick.
My new re-designed rotor RPM sensor mount worked perfect!
On the final pass of the day, Mike was able to do some good balancing on the mains, and get completely off the ground several times. I took videos, but only captured him balancing on the mains as I was not in a position to see him fly off the ground (the runway is just a bit under 1 mile long).
September 3 - 8, 2014
I took Mike's suggestion to put on a step to make it easier to climb up into my Gyro. I think it turned out very nice.
Attached the shock mount tubes that go from the axle to the engine mount tube.
Lastly, I attached the engine to the air frame, and installed the engine support tubes! This is the first milestone I've been waiting for! I did some pre-measuring, and was trying to set the engine mount tube height so that the prop blade to rear keel clearance would be between 1 1/2 to 2 inches. I ended up with 2 1/4 inches. I think I will leave it right there. No more air frame and engine hanging from the ceiling!
Feb 10, 2014
Removed the pod, the front steering assembly, and totally removed all of the air frame. All that is left is the engine. I was able to flip the engine right side up and hang it from the ceiling.
March 27-29, 2014
Attached the lower front keel angled support tube and then attached it to the front of the front keel using angle brackets. Of all of the parts I got for this CLT mod kit, I was disappointed in these front keel angle brackets. These brackets have (4) pieces, and were cut to different lengths, and didn't line up nice and clean as I expected. Because the brackets were of different lengths, (2) of the bottom pre-drilled holes were unusable. I had to drill different holes in better locations. Also, the (4) 3/4 inch bolts used to bolt them together were missing from the kit. I Loosely mounted the front seat tubes that I will attach later. Though it's hard to see, I put on the (4) rudder cable pulleys (2 on each side) on the bottom and lower mast through the cheek plates. There are suppose to be (4) brackets that attach to these pulleys to keep the rudder cables from slipping off, but I was only send (3). I had to made the 4th one. Lastly, I loosely mounted the engine mount tube and cheek plates.
Feb 28, 2014
Fiberglass work completed.
Got the prerotator drum from Tom Milton and put it on. I still need the adapter for the prerotator lower unit before I have a working prerotator.
I got the graphics for my Tail, and pod and put them on. I think it turned out great!
After getting all this done, I took my Gyro out on the street and did some driving on the road. This was the first time I actually rode in my Gyro! I had my Son-in-Law follow my just to make sure that no dogs/cats/kids would get close. As it turned out, there was only 1 kid watching and 2 adults so it was safe.
My Air Command 582 Rebuild
My Air Command 582 Gyroplane, as it was the day I bought it January 3, 2014.
My 2 year old Grandson Grant (#8 of 14 Grandchildren) flying at an altitude of 4765 ft. in Orem, Utah.
Made a mount to tie the right side coolant hose to.
Home Of
N90135 - N417PC - N395SC
On September 8, 2014, I changed out my landing lights. I had been wanting to do this for several weeks now, as the back upper mast light was glitchy, and together, sometimes the front and back light would trip my circuit breaker. So, on goes brand new LED lights and all is well!
March 24, 2014
Attached the rear axle tubes to the rear keel, and the tail wheels to the rear keel.
Then I ran into a couple of unexpected problems.
Problem #1. I decided to change out the B gearbox to my new C gearbox and put on the clutch. After taking off the B gearbox I noticed that the pre rotator drum will not fit on the C gearbox as the drum is too long and makes contact with the outside of the gearbox. I half expected this problem as Chris S. (CLS447) from the Rotary Wing Forum informed me that he had this problem. I thought this would be an easy fix, but after spending 6 hours online, I found it was not as easy as I thought. I found a post about this fix, and saw Chris S's mod and boy does it look sweet! I also was able to make email contact with Tom Milton, the owner of the company that makes the Wonderlich pre rotator system that I have, and it looks like there are parts I can buy from him. Currently, I'm waiting for Chris to contact me and to give me details on his mod, and I'm waiting for Tom to give me further info on his parts so I can decide which way I want to go with this.
Bought a new, slightly bigger wheel and tire for the front gear. It is a pocket bike front wheel and tire I got off of ebay. Gary Weaver from Florida, gave me some advice on this and I'm giving it a try. These wheels come from China, so the bearings are metric sizes, and my axle bolt is standard. There is about a .015 inch diameter difference between a 3/8" bolt and a 10mm metric bearing hole so it is a wee bit loose. Gary suggested that I use a pop can for a shim and it worked great! If you look closely, you can see the shim I installed. A pop can thickness is .005 inch, so with just one layer thick wrapped around the bolt, it takes up .010 inch for a great fit.
On August 19, 2014, I had an FAA DAR, Jim Gilchrist, come to inspect my Gyro. He reissued me an Airworthiness Certificate, and did an Annual inspection. He also issued me an Experimental Operational Limitation document allowing me to re-enter Phase 1 testing for a 5 hour period! However, before I can actually start testing (flying) my Gyro, I needed to call another FAA inspector to inform them of the major modifications I had made. I did so, and on August 21, 2014, I was informed by the FAA that I can officially start Phase 1 testing that requires 5 hours of test flying to complete and then I can move onto Phase 2, which is flying outside of the Limited test flight area.
I put on my rotors for the first time, and pre rotated them up to 140 rpm as a test. All went well! Notice that my "N90135" is bigger... I needed to make it bigger to pass FAA regs..
Next, I worked on wiring. I bought all new wiring and connectors. I could have used the old wiring, but there were just too many places where connectors were used to connect 2 short wires together to make them longer instead of having just one long wire. Also, the connectors needed to be replaced badly. I put in my new EGT (exhaust gas temperature) sensors and connected the leads. These leads go to the EFIS in the pod.
April 14-19, 2014
Attached the radiator to the engine support tubes. Then, I made a bracket for the Rotary Valve oil tank and mounted the tank to the ignition mounts. After that, I made a bracket to attach the coolant tank to. I bought all new hoses and hose clamps and attached coolant and oil hoses.
Went flying with my Instructor today. We flew over BYU's Jerusalem movie set in Goshen, Utah. I took this video. Isn't Gyrocopter flying cool!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhY9l_ay2-s
June 11 - 12, 2014
Finished my rotor blade trailer wall mounts. I was planning to use 4 wall mounts, but found them too close, so I used 3 instead. As I mentioned early on, using these mounts was Glenn Kerr's idea.
I also cut and welded up a wench mount for getting my Gyro in and out of my trailer. It works great! I need to put a coat of paint on it.
Jan 18, 2014
I bought and mounted snowboard rack forks on the left wall so I can the rotor blades in the slots for traveling. My trailer has barn style doors, so I bought (3) aluminum ramps and covered the steps with 3/16 plywood.
The next thing I was able to do was to make and put on a seat to mast bracket.
Looks like I will need to buy new head gasket seals for my 582 as I have some coolant seepage coming out. I guess that what happens when the engine sits for 2 years without running. I took off the head nuts, one by one in the pattern as stated by Rotax, re-greased the nuts and put them back on, one by one, torquing them to spec thinking that would fix the problem, but it didn't.
By the way, if you don't know what N.O.V.A. is, visit www.novaprinciples.com and find out!
June 3, 2014
Road Test!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=1twRd3VdBgk
June 6, 2014
Changed out the exhaust gaskets and the head gaskets due to leaks. No more leaks now! Sorry, the pictures were taken after I put the gaskets in.
May 12 - 17, 2014
This week I took my Gyro outside for the first time since I put it in the garage to work on it. We are having good weather, and it was refreshing to work on the Gyro outside for a change.
I cleaned up the rotor head and upper prerotator unit and mounted them on the mast. I connected the rear light wires and now I have both lights working.
I made a bracket and mounted the rotor RPM sensor to read the ring gear teeth. You can see it mounted at the 7:00 position on the below left picture. I turned on my MGL EFIS, spun up the rotor head and got a reading!
I made a wooden support piece to keep the rotor head off the engine when the mast is folded. This wooden support keeps the rotor head at a height that allows me to get my Gyro in and out of my garage and enclosed trailer. I will also make another wooden support that is 6" taller that I will use when my Gyro is inside the trailer. My idea is that I want my prerotator flex shaft to be folded the least amount as possible.
I also finished up the upper push tubes assembly. I had a set of pivot joints made and installed them so the upper push tubes could fold when I fold the mast.
July 5, 2015
Mounted the Rotor RPM sensor... Works perfect!
Rebuilt the steering/front fork assembly as part of the CLT mod kit. The piece of tubing that has 2 holes drilled in it is part of the fork stiffener kit that will go on later.
August 5 - 22, 2014
I've heard that the last 5% of a Gyro build is the longest and slowest... I believe it now!
Over the last 2 weeks and several days, I have been doing some detail finishing work on my Gyro. First, I did replace my long EGT's with shorter ones. This fixed the problem of having them run into the pre rotator flex shaft and causing problems. I also fitted the radiator hose on the right side with a 2nd brace as the Expansion tank was still too wobbly for my taste.
Feb 21, 2014
Today is painting air frame parts day. I spent the morning sanding and prepping the parts for painting. The automotive paint store sold me some flattening agent that makes the paint I was using become a matte finish. Kevin, my Brother In Law came over and set up the borrowed air compressor and cup gun. He showed me how to spray on the paint and I was able to finish 3/4's of the air frame parts before it got too late. The paint job turned our great! It's amazing what the right equipment for the job can do.
In order to keep the pre rotator flex shaft in position, I made a ring holder mount and attached it to the Mast. The flex shaft goes through the hole. The flex shaft in this picture is my old one that is too short.
May 5-10, 2014
It was a busy week for me, and a bit of a slow week for Gyro rebuilding. However, I did manage to accomplish my 3rd milestone, by putting on the folding mast kit! With this kit on, I can now get my Gyro out of the garage and into my enclosed trailer.
I was a bit nervous to do this mod, so I decided to do a practice run on my old shorter mast first. I learned a few things that helped me out a lot when I did it for real.
First off, I must have measured where to cut the mast at least 50 times to be sure that I would cut the mast as high as I could with a margin of safety so it wouldn't be too high. After scribing a line all around the mast where I wanted to cut, I used a hand held hack saw to cut it as I wanted a nice, clean, careful cut. I clamped (2) aluminum 1-1/2" straight edge pieces to the front and back side of the mast on the scribe lines to use as a guide for cutting. The cut was easy, fairly quick and quite straight. I took an angle grinder and cleaned up and squared off the top using a square. I squared off the cut off piece of the mast on my 12" disk sander. While sanding, I let the aluminum get a bit too hot and I ended up with some paint peeling at the grind area. I touched it up with some spray paint.
For the folding mast kit, I needed to drill (2) 1/2" holes on the bottom part, and (4) 1/4" holes on the top part. Being that the bottom part of the mast is attached to the Gyro, I could not use my drill press, it would have to be drilled free hand. After measuring where the 2 holes needed to be drilled, I drilled a 1/4" hole at these locations using (2) 1-1/2" angle pieces of aluminum as guides and drilled all the way through. I found out that even though I had a good angle guide to drill the hole, no matter how careful I was, I was not able to drill a hole straight enough all the through to my liking, it was close, but not close enough. I would need to use a slightly different means to do this for real.
Once the 1/4" holes were drilled, I used a 1/4" to 1/2" graduated step drill to drill the 1/2" holes. In doing so, I found that the step drill worked effortlessly, but it wandered easily as well. Where I had once drilled the 1/4" hole on target, the step drill was moving off target as the hole got bigger and bigger. I found out this problem when I stopped to check the hole when it was about 3/8" diameter. To remedy this problem, I found that it was easy to direct the step drill back to center by simply pushing the drill in the direction it needed to go while drilling. I step drilled one side of the mast to the center, and then drilled the other side to the center. After both ends were drilled, I used a 1/2" bit to drill through the center. In the end, I was fairly satisfied that the holes lined up decently through the mast from one side to the other. Now to do it for real.
I put layout marks (the scribed box lines) where the 1/2" holes should go. Being that the top of the mast was ground square, I measured from the top of the mast down to get the correct height, and from side to side to get the middle. I did this for both sides. Then, I mounted the angled pieces of aluminum as guides to make the initial 1/4" holes, drilling one side half way through the mast, and then drilling from the other side half way through as well. This worked out very well. When I used the step drill, I could not use the angle guide pieces, This had to be done by eyeball. As I used the step drill to gradually enlarge the 1/4" hole to 1/2", I made sure to "Drill within the box" scribed lines. Doing so worked out great. I assume everyone knows that this is a redundant mast (a mast that is 2" x 2" using (2) 1" x 2" rectangle tubes placed together), so once I drilled the outsides of the mast with the step drill to 1/2", I put the (2) angle guide pieces back on and used a 1/2" drill to drill the center of the mast.
This method worked out very nicely.
For the top short piece of the mast, I simply used my drill press to drill the (4) 1/4" holes and was finished in less than 2 minutes.
February 19, 2016
Decided to buy a new Warp Drive Prop Hub.
Feb 25, 2014
Started working on the pod. I was able to patch up the the drill holes, and level the seam down the center of the pod. I also shortened the pod a bit more so that there is about 4 inches length from the joy stick hole to the end of the pod. There are 2 cracked holes in the fiberglass where the instrument panel mounts. I was able to do the fiberglass prep work to fix these holes, as well other areas that I will fiberglass as well. I decided that the hole in the bottom where the joy stick goes through is way too large. I will fiberglass the hole and re-cut a new smaller hole.
Hey, it looks like a Gyro! I put on a custom stick grip that is contured to your hand and has a PPT (push to talk) button. I thought I would get a bit of flying in before it got too late. It was a smooth flight!
April 11, 2016
After another 3 practice runs of takeoffs and landings, CFI Brandon Winters let me Solo again. This time I did a low pass, 2 landings, a go around, and left the pattern for about 10 minutes.
April 18, 2016
Today is the day I have been waiting over 2 years for! Mike Burton took my Gyro for a very short test flight and then he gave me an endorsement to solo my Air Command!
I took off and went around the pattern several times doing a couple of low passes and landed. It was wonderful!
I also soloed on April 20, and April 21, and April 22 as well. I is such a wonderful feeling to fly my Gyro!
April 23, 2016
I have been wanting to replace my fuel pump for some time. The first one I bought didn't have a weep hole, and I mounted it on the engine. Both of these things is not recommend by Rotax. So, here is a picture of my new fuel pump, with a weep hole, and the other picture is showing it mounted on the mast.
August 25 - September 2, 2014
On August 25, my flight instructor, Mike Burton, took my Gyro, the "N.O.V.A. Cop-ter" (that's her official name), onto the runway at Spanish Fork Airport for a ground test. He took 2 passes down the runway attempting to balance on the mains Mike said that we needed to adjust the rudder cables to give it more left rudder. I made the adjustments and then we noticed that the rotor RPM sensor was not anywhere close to the ring gear for it to give an RPM reading to my MGL EFIS. Upon closer inspection, we noticed that the rotor RPM sensor mount had been knocked out of the way and the mount was totaled. We were able to determine that it was an inside rotor hub bar bolt that had whacked the sensor mount. I took the sensor and mount off, and was easily able to finish breaking the mount. As for the sensor, I was very lucky. The only damage was to a small area of wire insulation. I wrapped the wire with electrical tape and it was a good as new. Now to make a new sensor mount, this time a lower profile so the bolt will not hit it.
Here's my control panel. From left to right we have: The Master switch (turns on the EFIS and allows the strobe lights to get power; Front and back light switch; 5 amp pop up circuit breaker for the lights; 2 Mag switches (connects directly to the 20 amp pop up circuit breaker); 5 amp pop up circuit breaker for the EFIS; 10 amp pop up circuit breaker going directly to the voltage regulator; the 20 amp pop up Main circuit breaker; and my hour meter that connects to the first Mag switch (the bottom one), and turns on when the Mag switch is on. The hole on the right is for my primer which I will install later.
Much thanks to Gavin Perry, from Vernal Utah, who suggested I use the Klixon pop up type of circuit breakers! They are absolutely the best!
March 10, 2016
Here is a YouTube video of Mike Burton flying my Gyro after I did all of the modifications since last year.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2sYCjvfPt4&ebc=ANyPxKq7QW5QQBG_rLexmgS4u11ZvP0YFoHF4TWNoXk7lbvZGwPaCsyke
FqcSUGs7e10ypnjzW7_353GshWaW1TtuYHCR2nDUg
April 2, 2016
Installed Red and Green Navigation lights. They flash really nice!
Attached the lower push tube rods and connected them to the scissor assembly mounted behind the seat on the mast. I'll connect the upper set of push tube rods after I install the folding mast kit and attach the rotor head assembly. The flexible wiring conduit in the picture houses the wiring that goes to the rotor head (rotor rpm and strobe light).
Jan 31, 2014
Removed the prop blade assembly. My CLT (center line thrust) kit arrived and I primed the bare aluminum air frame parts with self-etching primer.
April 21-26, 2014
Spent most of this week trying to figure out wiring. I made quite a few phone calls to Gavin Perry, up in Vernal, Utah. He was a huge help! From our conversations, I was able to buy, and order everything I need to do it right! I'll be posting the final wiring next week, as I'm waiting on parts.
It was a good week for building!
Took off all the switches and throttle control parts and repainted the control console. It turned out really good, and I can't wait to start putting in all of the goodies!
Put on the steering assembly. I did this without the pod to make sure that it would all go together and work properly. I had problems with the lower fork brace. There is a strap that attaches under the front keel angle bracing tube that attached to a pivot mount to the back of the forks. The pivot point did not line up with the steering pivot assemble above it so the entire unit had a hard time turning. I re-made a new lower pivot mount, putting both the upper and lower pivots in line and it worked perfect!
July 4 - July 22, 2014
So, what has been happening since my last post on July 4th? Not too much.
1. After getting my MGL V6 radio mounted in my instrument panel, and wiring and powering it up, I now have to figure out what kind of antenna to use. Problem is, this is not a simple thing... Period! So, for the past 3 weeks, I have been investigating and learning about antennas. There is a lot to learn, and much is not easy to digest. Little did I know. So, as for an antenna, I'm still not sure yet what to do. I have been communicating with Paul Plack, a Chapter 2 member here in Utah, and if anybody can help me out, Paul can. Though this is a problem I need to eventually work out, I do have my handheld Yaesu that I can use until I do get it worked out.
2. I have been looking over my Gyro, making sure everything is set. One thing I have been doing is safety wiring. Safety wiring is done on certain things to prevent them from coming off and going through my prop blades.
3. I'm waiting for Pre rotator parts. If you remember, at the end of March, beginning of April, I ran into a problem with my pre-rotator set up. My pre rotator drum did not fit on my new C gearbox. I contacted Tom Milton who makes the type of pre-rotator set up I have, and to make a long story short; I ordered the necessary parts; I received a new drum back in May, and put it on; Now, I have been told by Tom that he has my adapter (the adapter is what holds the lower unit onto the engine) ready to ship out to me! Once I receive this adapter, I can measure the length of flex shaft and the length of control cable that I need, and then Tom should be able to get these items to me in about a week.
July 23 - July 29, 2014
Received my pre rotator adapter, and lower unit. First thing I did was put it on. It fits!
What I'm holding on to is the the lower unit. The adapter is the bar that attaches to the C gearbox.
The N.O.V.A. Cop-Ter is finished!
July 30 - August 4, 2014
Happy Day... The rest of my pre rotator parts came! I was able to put on and connect the Control cable, as well as put on the flex shaft. I ran into a problem with my EGT probes that come down off of the exhaust manifold being too long and interfere with the pre rotator flex shaft. I knew this last week, so I ordered shorter EGT probes and that should solve the problem.
The instrument panel. All of this will be completely re-done.
March 17 - 19, 2014
The final step in painting was to "cut and polish" the clear coat on the pod, rudder and horizontal stabilizers. Though not a perfect paint job, I am happy with the results.
All told, the painting part of my gyro re-build took just over a month more than I had accounted for. That's par.
Now it's finally time to put things back together! Yes!
I mounted the mast and rear keel to the bottom cheek plates; I put on the lower cheek plates and mounted the front keel to it; then I attached the lower cross over angle piece just below the lower cheek plates.
I guess I should mention that I bought all new AN nuts, bolts, and washers for my re-build.
I made a bracket to mount the fuel pump onto the mast.
It took about an hour and a half and I had a new sensor mount made. I put it on and made a test. Still not low enough... the bolt made contact with the new mount.
Another hour and a half later, I had another new re-designed mount made. This one worked great! Below are 2 pictures of the new re-designed mount. I also decided that the 2 inside rotor hub bar bolts would have the bolt heads down. This will make sure that the bolt will never hit the
Took off the 60" prop blades and put on the 68" blades. I have them fitted loosely until I get the new C gearbox prerotator drum.
May 19 - 24, 2014
I was able to re-do and modify my muffler clamps. I like this set-up a lot more. While I was at it, I bought new bolts and nuts and changed them out on the ball joint muffler mounts.
My next order of business was to install my brakes. I decided to mount the brake lever under the left side of my seat. I made a mount for it and installed the parking brake valve feature as well. It works great! I am very happy with this brake set up! I will fill the brakes with ATF fluid later.
Disassembled the steering to put on the pod. Another milestone that I was excited to do! I had 2 neighbors come over and help me position the pod as I put on the bolts, washers, and nuts and re-assembled the steering unit. I mounted the rudder peddles and attached bolts from the outside of the pod to the foot rests of the rudder peddle assembly.
Mounted my instrument panel and put in My MGL Extreme EFIS glass cockpit. I connected the cable wiring from the RDAC to the EFIS and lighted it up! I'll get to the EFIS programming later.
Made a mount and put on my shoulder safety straps. It turned out very well!
Feb 5, 2014
Prepped the primed CLT air frame pieces for final painting. I hung (3) J hooks from the ceiling above the engine. I will hang the engine from these hooks when I take off the old short mast.
Feb 7, 2014
I painted the CLT air frame pieces. The automotive paint store asked me what I wanted to name the paint color as they are going to keep it on file for me. I told them "Gyro Black".
May 5-10, 2014
It was a busy week for me, and a bit of a slow week for Gyro rebuilding. However, I did manage to accomplish my 3rd milestone, by putting on the folding mast kit! With this kit on, I can now get my Gyro out of the garage and into my enclosed trailer.
I was a bit nervous to do this mod, so I decided to do a practice run on my old shorter mast first. I learned a few things that helped me out a lot when I did it for real.
First off, I must have measured where to cut the mast at least 50 times to be sure that I would cut the mast as high as I could with a margin of safety so it wouldn't be too high. After scribing a line all around the mast where I wanted to cut, I used a hand held hack saw to cut it as I wanted a nice, clean, careful cut. I clamped (2) aluminum 1-1/2" straight edge pieces to the front and back side of the mast on the scribe lines to use as a guide for cutting. The cut was easy, fairly quick and quite straight. I took an angle grinder and cleaned up and squared off the top using a square. I squared off the cut off piece of the mast on my 12" disk sander. While sanding, I let the aluminum get a bit too hot and I ended up with some paint peeling at the grind area. I touched it up with some spray paint.
For the folding mast kit, I needed to drill (2) 1/2" holes on the bottom part, and (4) 1/4" holes on the top part. Being that the bottom part of the mast is attached to the Gyro, I could not use my drill press, it would have to be drilled free hand. After measuring where the 2 holes needed to be drilled, I drilled a 1/4" hole at these locations using (2) 1-1/2" angle pieces of aluminum as guides and drilled all the way through. I found out that even though I had a good angle guide to drill the hole, no matter how careful I was, I was not able to drill a hole straight enough all the through to my liking, it was close, but not close enough. I would need to use a slightly different means to do this for real.
Once the 1/4" holes were drilled, I used a 1/4" to 1/2" graduated step drill to drill the 1/2" holes. In doing so, I found that the step drill worked effortlessly, but it wandered easily as well. Where I had once drilled the 1/4" hole on target, the step drill was moving off target as the hole got bigger and bigger. I found out this problem when I stopped to check the hole when it was about 3/8" diameter. To remedy this problem, I found that it was easy to direct the step drill back to center by simply pushing the drill in the direction it needed to go while drilling. I step drilled one side of the mast to the center, and then drilled the other side to the center. After both ends were drilled, I used a 1/2" bit to drill through the center. In the end, I was fairly satisfied that the holes lined up decently through the mast from one side to the other. Now to do it for real.
I put layout marks (the scribed box lines) where the 1/2" holes should go. Being that the top of the mast was ground square, I measured from the top of the mast down to get the correct height, and from side to side to get the middle. I did this for both sides. Then, I mounted the angled pieces of aluminum as guides to make the initial 1/4" holes, drilling one side half way through the mast, and then drilling from the other side half way through as well. This worked out very well. When I used the step drill, I could not use the angle guide pieces, This had to be done by eyeball. As I used the step drill to gradually enlarge the 1/4" hole to 1/2", I made sure to "Drill within the box" scribed lines. Doing so worked out great. I assume everyone knows that this is a redundant mast (a mast that is 2" x 2" using (2) 1" x 2" rectangle tubes placed together), so once I drilled the outsides of the mast with the step drill to 1/2", I put the (2) angle guide pieces back on and used a 1/2" drill to drill the center of the mast.
This method worked out very nicely.
For the top short piece of the mast, I simply used my drill press to drill the (4) 1/4" holes and was finished in less than 2 minutes.
N.O.V.A. Cop-Ter "Before", as it was when I bought it. N.O.V.A. Cop-Ter "After", after I modified it.
I bought this enclosed trailer to haul my Gyroplane in. I took off the 2 bottom leaf springs from each side of both axles to soften the ride.
April 4-8, 2014
Ran into another problem! As I was getting things ready to mount my 582 engine onto the engine mount tube, I realized that the pre-drilled holes on the engine mount tube did not line up with the engine mounts. I checked the build manual and found that the rear engine mount was backwards. I reversed this mount and found that it would not mount because the engine has things in the way. I guess this is why it was mounted backwards in the first place. I called Doug at Air Command and found out that there is suppose to be 3/4 inch spacer blocks between the engine and the mounts so it can be mounted as per the manual. Another delay!
Here is a picture of the underneath side of the engine where the spacers are suppose to go... Between the engine and the black engine mount bar.
Feb 3, 2014
I rough cut the pod to make it a shorty. First of all, I don't mind the look of the full length pod, it's just that I like the look of a short pod better. Second, the back part of the pod encloses a lot of wires and things that make it really difficult to get at. I also believe that it will be easier to get into with a short pod after I make the CLT modification.
I removed and drained the coolant tank, coolant hoses, and radiator. I removed the Rotor hub assembly, the rotor trim, the pre-rotator, battery, voltage regulator, and the wiring inside the pod.
March 22, 2014
Installed the brace tubes that connect the lower mast cross over piece to the rear keel mounts.
March 31 - April 2, 2014
I was not happy with the front keel mounting brackets so I decided to do a fix. I took them off, ground and filed the brackets to a uniform length and size, and put them back on. They look really nice now.
I put on a new rope, re-assembled the pull starter and mounted it on the front of the engine.
March 20-21, 2014
Ran into a snag! As I'm putting together my air frame, I was about to re-install new Insta-Bushings when I realized my order from Air Command did not include the Insta-Bushings end caps. Not a big deal... so I thought. I called Air Command and talked to Doug and found out that there are no Insta-Bushings end caps in supply. In fact, they don't know when they will be getting any more in. They also said that they don't know of any sources for the end caps either. Oh boy, my progress just came to a screeching halt!
Doug did mention that I could use an "easy-out" and re-use my existing ones. Bingo! I realized I have a gold mine of end caps sitting in a discard pile. When I bought my Gyro, it came with an extra full set of air frame parts! I went to work, and 3 hours later... I had a good supply of end caps.
The saddles should have a fender washer on them and then the end caps hold them in place. However, the washers were popped off. I removed the end caps using 2 easy-outs and most came out fairly easy. Some were very tough!
Feb 4, 2014
Removed and drained the large and small oil tanks. Removed the carbs, fuel pumps, and push rods. I also drained the B gearbox. Because I'm putting on 68" prop blades, I bought a C gearbox with a clutch. Part of the CLT kit includes putting on a new tall mast as well.
Mounted and wired up my radio onto my new instrument panel. I also put in my headset jacks, and hooked up my push to talk. It works! However, though I can turn the radio on, I need to figure out what kind of antenna to use. This will take some time.
March 4, 2014
Sanded the fiberglass, put on the finishing compound, and completely sanded the pod. The pod is now ready for primer.