Gyros!!! Help....!!

[Foz2]

Hi,

I'm doing my ATPL's at the mo and have just started on Gyros. I just cannot understand how they work. What I'm after is an idiots guide to the very basics of the way gyros work. Does anyone know where I might find one?

If I can get a picture in my head of the physics of they way they move then that would help a lot.

Does anyone have any advice?:confused:

Cheers

Foz


PS. Is Instruments regarded as one of the harder ATPL subjects?

[Andy_20]

How deep do you need to understand how they work!?

A gyro is basically "a spinning mass which always points to a fixed position in space". so if you are facing the way that the gyro is spinning i.e. in front of you, and you bank, say right 90 degrees, then the gyro will still be spinning in the same direction that it was originally, so therefore it will be spinning 90 degrees to your left hand side! the amount of distance it has travelled from the way you are heading is shown on the display on the instrument!

Sorry its quite a mouthful, im an avionics tech but i dont use gyros that often and thats what i learnt through training!

On way of thinking of how it moves, would be getting a bike wheel, tieing a piece of string to a bolt, then spinning the wheel quite fast, and see how it stabilises itself. To make a gyro turn, you have to apply pressure(i think) 180 degrees "out of phase" to the way in which you want the wheel to move!

hope this helps a little!

[Lee Frost]

Andy - I think you mean an applied force will precess through 90 degrees.

Foz there are quite a few good threads on gyros - if you use the search option, you will be able to pick and choose what you need.

For a basic intro, you might like to try http://science.howstuffworks.com/gyroscope.htm

Good luck,


Lee :)

[Foz2]

Cheers guys,

Thanks for your help

Foz

[Straightandlevel80kt]

I also advocate holding a bike wheel horizontal by the axle (one hand on top, one underneath), getting someone to spin it and then see how hard it is to tilt it. You'll get the feel for precession.

I personally think Trevor Thom explains things brilliantly in all his manuals, but specifically gyros are dealt with in The Air Pilots Manual Book 4, - The Aircraft - Technical. It's back to basics, but if you just don't get it, that's a great place to start.

Hope that helps.