Originally Posted by
Ascend Charlie
Oh boy, this is getting tedious.
Indeed it is. Phase lag has almost nothing to do with gyroscopic effects nor with forces and their delayed effects. It is almost entirely an aerodynamic effect - a result of flapping to equality of blade thrust in a cyclicly varying aerodynamic environment. In an ideal scenario, with a freely articulated rotor responding to cyclic control input, is is 90 degrees.
Anything more complex will perturb that, but not grossly. I am not at all sure about teetering rotors. ;-)