One of my students sent me this article about the impact of bugs on rotor blades. The study was done in Europe on MTO gyroplanes. While it contains many good bits of information, I would use a bit of caution regarding the absolute accuracy of its conclusions. I do not argue with the actual conclusions themselves, rather the scope and accuracy of the range of result numbers.
What concerns me is several factors that would significantly impact the actual numeric results were not provided. Items such as test altitude, density altitude and most important, percent load. Percent load is particularly important, because a gyro flying loaded at 60% of its useful load capacity will react very differently to rotor disruption, such as bugs, than a machine that is loaded to 90% of its useful load capacity. Since these data were not provided, I must assume they were not considered in testing and a more controlled test must be done to get reliable numbers.
The test data that were provided is for a very specific airfoil. The blades you have on your own machine and rotor load will most likely make the impact of bugs on your rotor set different than the results in the study.
What is clear is what we all should know. Bugs, dirt and debris on a rotor are a problem.
Click on the link below to view the article.
