Thanks for the lesson Dave. I barely remember the older mechanical gyros but this video brought back the memory of older days. They’ve definitely come a long way with the digital age and miniature electronics.

so dang cool! My dad had flown Hirobos and Schluters in the 80s and had a few of these around when I was growing up. we're so spoiled these days with our single chip 6 axis gyros+accel+baro+compass. :)

The gyro wheels tend to stay in one place, and when you turn the body, they move a pot and that moves the servo in the opposite direction. Simple and effective. Thanks kindly for watching and subscribing.

I had one of these on my Raptor 30 when I started out, someone from the United States sent it over to me in Canada just for shipping costs. Back in 2001 anything RC was expensive so I flew with that thing for quite a while until it started kicking the tail every once in a while for no reason. Thanks for bringing back some memories Dave!

Its amazing how quiet it is without the cover on it.

Thanks for the video Dave. Yes the good old days. My Kalt Baron Alpha 30 had the same gyro :)

Pretty neat piece of equipment Dave! I've not seen an actual mechanical gyro before,only heard about them.I'm learning to fly my T-Rex Dominator 450L with the MSH Brain 2 Mini .It used to have the Spartan VX1-E before the upgrade.I must agree that the modern electronics make learning to fly today's choppers much easier! When the gyro was spinning up ,it sounded just like the rotor inside of a DC electric turn coordinator and a vacuum driven attitude indicator!

Thanks for another awesome video Dave. I have a faulty 401B gyro on my homebuilt 600 electric, makes it fun to fly when the gyro can stop working without warning. Very busy thumbs and a massive adrenaline rush usually ensue.

Hi Dave, In it's day that Futaba gyro was the cats meow. Have several of them. Had them setup to a rotary pot on the transmitter so that I could adjust the gain in flight. While cleaning out my storage unit, came across some plans for an all aluminum rc helicopter called the SSP, distributed in 1972 by American Aircraft Modeler, that used an aluminum ring on the tail rotor mechanism as the gyro. You and Ilea stay safe.

I remember the multirotor days with a bunch of heli heading hold gyros barely able to keep it in the air. Would be crazy to do it with one of these

Wow always wondered how they worked. Thanks for sharing

God bless! i love this Btw i have been a subscriber for over 10 years and you have taught me so much THANK YOU for always being there for me when i need it your videos are inspirational and ur truly the one that got me up and going with what i do now a days THANK YOU!

Great job on the video Dave!

2:22 I still remember the sound of that gyro! When my uncle had it on helicopter back in the day when got his concept 30 back in 2005 he swapped out that gyro and replaced it with a 401 gyro which made the tail response miles better IMHO.

I too had the Futaba 154 and latter 153 gyros, and people would always ask what the noise was. I still don't like flying in heading hold mode and much prefer the feel of rate mode. 🙂🇦🇺

Yep, the Iconic gyros kept the proverbial, 'spinning-dog' from chasing his tail. Thanks, Der Dave for the inside look at the magic behind the rotor torque balancing act of early choppers. Oorah, Bud

look up MEMS oscillators, i believe that’s what they use in the rate sensors for phones and maybe rc gyros now. it’s amazing how far technology has come

Very interesting stuff as always👍😊

Thank you for this gem !! 👍

Thanks for your fun

Nice video!

I have at least three of these in basement, and one of them on my 500 size heli

This is cool

I wonder how many RC heli pilots there are left in the world who can fly without a gyro? Which makes me think of a screenplay for an SF movie: The helo-aliens have destroyed all gyroscopes with a selective electromagnetic pulse, all aircraft are grounded and things are looking grim for Earth... until someone remembers a generation of RC- pilots who flew without gyroscopes... Hollywood, I'm on my way!

I had one of those back in the day 🤣

I always wanted to fly a heli without tail gyro, well the only heli I have is a 450 and I just re built it well. The gyro failed because it got disconnected from the RX along with the rudder servo, that did not end well.

I bet that thing draws alot of power, I remember the video when You took the Kraft gyro apart.

Thank you. Videos are very helpful. Could you please answer my question, on old real helicopters (eg UH1) is the job of keeping the tail anti-rotation completely done by the pilot without the gyro's assistance? (sorry, I use translator)

Verrrrrry interesting! I'm having tail problems with my Trex 250 Chinese clone (HK250-GT) and I have NO IDEA what's wrong with it. It has a cheap-o HK piezo gyro which DID work OK years ago, but now I can't control the tail--it keeps drifting SLOWLY side to side. I THOUGHT it just needed a gyro value adjustment in the radio (DX6i), but it flew so erratically that I lost control (PANICKED!) and drove the main rotor into the ground cuz I was too close to the ground. I probably couldn't have gotten it safely back onto the ground anyway cuz it was drifting too much, and constantly. It makes me wonder if THAT was what it used to be like to fly WITHOUT a gyro, back in the day. If so, that would've been HORRIBLE to try to overcome! As soon as I lifted off, the tail would drift one way, I would counter the movement, and then the tail would drift the OTHER way ... and so on, ad infinitum! It was HORRIFYING! Needless to say, I don't wish to fix my heli and try it again for fear that the EXACT SAME crash will occur again--there's ZERO reason to believe that ANYTHING would be different next time, since I don't know WHY the tail is doing that. ASSUMING the gyro is NOT somehow screwy, it MUST be a mechanical issue, but the tail "SEEMS" to work freely and properly on the ground. Any suggestions? Thx for the vid!

If you are able to find one how much do one of these gyros or similar cost? I would like to have one just for the old school cool of it we really don't realize how spoiled we are with modern RC

Where to find this???

Preferred no gyro lock ..seeing the first one i learned to fly o had no heading lock people say im crazy for not wanting one..

I worry if I fly a heli without a gyro, as it works in the olden days....it will too.

Once you get the intertial mass up and spinning, it probably doesn't take too much current draw to keep it spinning. fpv.air-war.org