George (jojo) Chaulet's Synchrogyro Giro Copter-Autogyro

Modified SYNCHROGYRO Model Airplane as published in Model Builder Magazine in September 1979. Designed by George Chaulet to be flown with 2 channel RC control for the engine and rudder and said to be simple to fly. This is not what I have found. I managed to get into the air on one windy day but, found that I could not control it. The ship climbed away in an ever increasing right hand turn that eventually developed into a spiral dive when I throttled back because I was fearing the inevitable. Since that time I have increased the rudder area installed elevator control and added a headlock gyro to add some directional stability on the ground and hopefully in the air should that occasion ever arise again. Taxi testing proved that the headlock gyro will hold a heading, now I have to train myself to keep my hands off the rudder stick and let the headlock do it's job before attempting to fly it some windy day.It seems strange for an RC flyer to be hoping for a windy day to fly..... Maybe I can figure a way to spin up the rotor mechanically or use an electric motor perhaps. Watching my video I learned that I was hand spinning the rotor in the reverse direction during the ground trials. I have to keep reminding myself that this is not a helicopter, it's an auto gyro.....it is supposed to auto rotate in order to develop enough lift to fly. The rotor takes energy form the air like a windmill or a sail boat.

Testing continues as the wind speed increases from 5 to 15 kph. The copter manages a takeoff during ground trials but, a blade strike on landing caused the testing to be suspended while design changes are contemplated.I have come to the conclusion that maybe Cierva was right when he stated that the rotor must be of the articulated type for successful controlled flight of an autogyro aircraft. Initially I believed that since the Synchrogyro had two inclined rotors, it would be capable of controlled flight in the same way as a fixed wing airplane with high dihedral was rudder controllable. Now I am beginning to look for a simple way to modify the Synchrogyro rotors to articulating type.