This past month or so I have been working on the Gyrokite project. Today I put the finishing touches on it and am happy as usual that it turned out as well as it has with all the tinkering that needed to be done to design and build it. First off for those of you that have not been following my blog for that amount of time this gyrocopter is a remake of an old design from the 1960's I came across and decided to update and build. It is a kite so the name Gyrokite was born. (My idea). The finished gyro stands 19 3/4 inches tall and has a 19 inch long fuselage. The dual counter rotating main rotors are 36 inches from tip to tip and the tail structure is 9 1/2 inches across.
The fuselage is constructed of fiberglass and it has at least fourteen coats of primer on it. This was primed and wet sanded, primed and wet sanded over an over again before five coats of banner red paint was applied. As you can see from the photos it was worth the effort to get this kind of finish on the Gyrokite.
Doing the final assembly of the Gyrokite turned out to be a comedy of errors. I had assembled the main rotors and top vane on to the main rotor shaft assembly only to find out that the top rotor hub was assembled upside down. This caused the top main rotor to tilt down instead of up and collide with the bottom rotor. Not a good idea at all. Also the top wind vain was completely backward in the assembly. I had to remove the main steel 3/32nd rotor shaft and had to make a new one to replace it to correct the problems. This only took about ten minutes or so but at least everything was made right very quickly and it is now ready to fly.
For more information about the construction of this little beauty go back to the blog here over the past month as I have posted all information about how the Gyrokite was put together from the main rotors to the landing skids. I will have to get a good windy day to test fly my latest project and hopefully I can get a hand with shooting some video of the maiden flight. If I can I will post the video here when I do. My brother who was visiting me over the weekend hopes that it will fly as good as it looks. I wish for the same but even if it does not turn out like I hope and believe it will this project will in no way be a failure in my eyes if it does not fly well or if at all. (But I am still keeping my fingers crossed for the first flight!) I learned a lot about finishing fiberglass so that I can get a near perfect surface for painting because of this project. That alone was worth the effort and something that I will carry forward in future fiber glassing projects. Your never to old to learn new things, especially here at the Tinker's Workshop.
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