This is the PT PROFILE Autogyro kit made by Flying Balsa.  It is powered by a Scorpion 3014-18 electric motor that was hand wound by MicroDan, a well known designer and builder of custom electric motors.  The motor is controlled by a Castle Creations Thunderbird 36 ESC and swings an APC 11 x 3.8 prop.  Power is supplied by a Polyquest 3S 3600ma 12C LiPo battery pack.  The radio system is a JR9303 with a FrSky 2.4 transmitter module installed.  The receiver is a FrSky 4 channel parkflyer model, which while not a full range receiver, provides much greater range than the autogyro could be flown and still maintain orientation.  HiTec 225MG servos are used to control the pitch and roll axis of the rotor and a HiTec 85MG is used to control the rudder.  Installation of the roll and pitch servos was simplified using servo frames purchased from Soaring USA.  This will make maintenance of the servos easy without disturbing the actual mounting position of the servos.  The fuselage was painted with Krylon spray enamel while the rotor blades and tail feathers were covered with Ultracote.  Overall length is 28” with a rotor diameter of 38” and an all up weight of approximately 33 ounces.  

    The model has been flown now a total of 4 times and is quite stable in the air.  I’d fly the gyro more often but so far every time I’ve brought it with me to the field there was no wind to speak of.  Usually this is great but for the gyro having wind is better.  The hardest part of flying the model is takeoffs as the rotor head has to come up to speed before you break ground.  Failure to do this usually results in a tip over, which I’ve done lots of times with no damage.  With a no wind situation the length of our current field is barely enough distance for the rotor to come up to speed, however, with a mild 5 mph wind, takeoff rolls are about 50 - 75 feet.  Once in the air the autogyro flies pretty much like an airplane.  The hardest part about flying it is maintaining proper visual orientation.  However, once you get use to it, this becomes much less an issue.  Flying close in to yourself at first is pretty much a necessity till you get use to the unusual profile.  Landings are pretty much a no brainer, line it up and reduce throttle just enough to let the model drop at a reasonable rate.  I do like this model.  It was easy to build and is easy to maintain.    Flying Balsa has retired the PT Profile but has replaced it with a similar size model called the SCOUT with many improvements from this design.