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| My compiled builder's notes. This is a list of the notes I made while building the Gyrobee.
Take them as they are; personal notes. Please don’t take them as the gospel truth. I
could be wrong about many of these conclusions, but I do encourage you to check your work
against my notes before you do anything that’s not easily reversed, I think you could
save some time and aggravation if you do!
Many of these notes have recently been addressed by Ralph
himself on his web site; Click here
to see his comments on these and other notes.
Ralph has posted a revision of his documentation. If you
downloaded the Gyrobee construction documentation prior to May 15, 1998, then you need the
revisions! This is a must-have file! Click
here to jump directly to Ralph's revision page.
By all means, please let me know if you feel any of these
are wrong, or if they helped you out, and if you’d like to add to my list.
Here they are, in no particular order.
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|
| Tail
boom length |
|
When you put your tail section
together, you'll notice the boom looks shorter than in all of Ralph's pictures. It is!
Ralph explains: "First, it makes the
boom a bit stiffer - lest prone to take a set over time of you are a guy that likes to
drag the tail on the ground! Second, it makes for more efficient use of material in that
you can get both the mast and the boom cut from a single piece of 12 foot extrusion. From
everything I can tell, it should not impact handling in any negative way." |
| Axle
saddle fittings |
|
You only need eight of these
unless you plan to use the motorcycle throttle. |
| Seatbelt |
|
Aircraft
Spruce's Seatbelt (G6573-5) and Shoulder Harness (E-2884-1) are now known as: Seatbelt
(13-00201) and Shoulder Harness (13-00701). |
| Washer |
|
In
Spruce's catalog, they apparently refer to the AN960-316 washer as AN960-10. |
| Large
bracket for axles |
|
LEAF's "large
bracket", (E1520) has been discontinued. I had mine fabricated by a machine shop, but
they are now available from Aerotec. See the Aerotec catalog on this site. |
| Seat |
|
|
LEAF also told me
that their fiberglass seat (J7155) and cover (J7156) have been discontinued, and
"There are no replacements at this time." Ralph has stated that there are
several alternatives to the seat he specified, and that the critical factor is the seat
back angle in relation to the seat pan; The back angle should be about 112-113 degrees. |
| Hardware |
| |
On page 25 of the Gyrobee docs,
(Phase 3) the hardware list shows (8) AN960-318 washers are needed. This should read
AN960-316. |
| Footpedal
brackets |
| |
It seems that my prior
conclusions about the width of the footpedal brackets was wrong; There was an error as to
where the hole for the bracket should be drilled, and that lead me to think that the
bracket width was a typo. This error is covered in the revised Gyrobee documentation. Get
the revisions today! |
| More
footpedal notes |
| |
I first thought (and I have
built it this way) that the distance between the outer edge of the "long brace"
and the holes that go through the "pedal web and "arch brace" (as well as
the short brace opposite it) should be .6875" instead of the marked .675", but
Ralph has informed me that it should *actually* be .625". |
| Hole size-
*important* |
| |
Here's an important note! On
G1-2 (mast), the hole at the 20" mark is listed as 3/16. This is the hole for the
diagonal engine mount strut. This hole should be 1/4"! It should also therefore, be
9/32" from the wall! Unfortunately for me, I had drilled this hole as was called for
long ago, and only just recently made the engine mounts, and realized something wasn't
right. The diagonal strut hole is 1/4 inch, and the bolt for that hole is 1/4". I was
able to *carefully* re-drill the existing hole out to 1/4". This is covered in the revised documentation. |
| Large bolt
for nose wheel assembly |
| |
AN8-27 bolt for the nose wheel
assembly is too short! Ralph has stated that an AN8-30 bolt is the correct size; however I
have found that an AN8-31 works for me. |
| Drag strut
length |
| |
My drag struts as specified in
the Gyrobee docs were too long! Even with both the bearings screwed all the way down,
struts were about 3/4" too long. After I had taken 1" off of each strut, length
was acceptable, but still required bearing ends to be screwed down quite a bit. Ralph has covered this in his revisions. |
| Rod-end
inserts |
| |
AN490HT8P rod-end inserts are
too short at the insert end! The inserts I have are 5/8" long measured from the base
to the bottom of the lip. If you drill the struts as directed, the hole would be at the
very base of the insert, leaving almost no metal for the bolt to grip! I chose to drill
the struts at 3/8" from each end, this worked out fine. Ralph has covered this in his revisions. 3/8" is
correct. |
| AN115-21
Shackles |
| |
AN115-21 shackles have
3/16" holes in them! Ralph has verified that you have to drill out the holes to
1/4". I had no problem doing this. |
| Lap-belt
ends |
| |
Ralph has verified that 2
lap-belt ends are needed, and it's covered in the revisions. |
 
Last updated: 02/13/99
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