Bug, Have any of the previous bugs flown?
I watched a homebuilt hover around a field a few years ago. I seem to recall it had a Yamaha 2 stroke bike engine and flew well till it lost a tail rotor blade!
- no one hurt. I dont know if the builder was a Ppruner - I think he might he may have been called Julian. He might be able to help if anyone on here knows who he is and can put you in contact.
Like others I am curious to know why belts were chosen over shaft and gearbox for the TR when youve got the power to lift the extra weight. That said, I dont think the Rotorways have too many problems with a belt drive TR.
Cheers.
BTW, I have flown a few machines over the years straight after major overhauls, rebuilds, crash repairs etc. (certified only). I do it from concrete to reduce the chance of a skid digging in if it starts to go pear shaped. I'd rather rotate or slide sideways than roll over. Spend some time with it at flying rpm and no collective pitch, check the disk moves as expected with cyclic input. Check the tip plane of the blades is not split. Pedal inputs should cause the aircraft to move slightly, again as predicted. You can feel the thrust just twisting the aircraft a bit. When happy,apply a little collective to get light on the skids and check the pedals make sense again. Check the tip plane of the MR blades. If they split with added collective pitch expect vertical bounce in the hover. This is best checked with a strobe and tip targets. Be very careful with cyclic inputs when light on the skids. Be prepared to dump the lever. When happy, go light on the skids to get TR thrust balanced and pull into a low hover. Be prepared to dump the lever. Take it carefully. Probably best to practice this quite a bit and get it hovering right before moving on to any other tests.
Over the years, I have come across assembly, rigging and tracking and balancing problems with aircraft straight out of maintenance. So far the above technique has worked and nothing has got damaged. Its pretty obvious if its not right. The test is aborted and the problem solved. Others may do it differently but this works for me.
Are my balls big enough for the bug? I might hover it but after that you're on your own.
Best of luck.
Phil