Rotoruta (oz6240)

About this Plan

Rotoruta. Single channel RC autogyro.

Quote: -"For swinging singles, try this twenty four inch span single channel autogyro. With a total rotor area of 552 square inches, this Half-A machine is definitely for the sport flyer looking for something easy to build and out of the ordinary.

ROTORUTA - For Swinging Singles. By JW Headley.

I hope that you were not misled by the title of this article, and are now expecting to read something that's more appropriate to a magazine like Playboy. Sorry about that, but after all, this is a family magazine despite some of the covers we've been seeing lately. No, the swinging singles we mean are single channel pulse radio models, and we hope that this article will be of interest to all who enjoy this type of flying.

First of all, maybe I should introduce myself. The name is printed above, so we don't have to go into that. I've been a modeler for innumerable years, and have made all types of models - contest types, free flights, Ukies, PAA loads - you name it, and I've probably tried it. However, one of my main interests

has always been sport and offbeat models, which could explain my fond-ness for single channel flying.

Maybe before we get too far along here, we should discuss exactly what this ''single channel flying" is that we've been talking about. Pick up an old magazine and you'll find that it used to be the only way to do any radio flying. Innumerable articles were printed, all with ingenious little diagrams to show how you could do consecutive barrel rolls after a complicated series of setting up maneuvers, using rudder only control.

Other articles showed how to couple up an auxiliary elevator control, and other subsidiary functions, and there was probably one somewhere that showed how to control a B-29, with full motor control, a retracting gear, and also with bomb dropping capability, Don't think that l'm making fun of these efforts, far from it. Anyone who could do all of this with only one channel deserves much praise.

But all this was then, and now we have multi-channel radios to take care of all aerobatics, or dropping bombs from a B-36, so what's left for the single channel fan?

Well, it's really what was there all the time, and that's fun flying, with small and compact models that can be flown locally..."

Direct submission to Outerzone.

Supplementary file notes

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