Uploaded December 2011 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
This is kind of an obscure point but might be interesting to some "scientists-at-heart" out there.
I performed this experiment in response to a repeated assertion made by a certain popular YouTube RC channel that gyros must be mounted actually on the the axis of rotation to be effective. Although this is absolutely incorrect, it is a common misconception and one which I myself held for some time.
Because I am especially frustrated by intentional misinformation I made this demonstration to hopefully help the small handful of guys who wish to dig a little deeper and understand this principle of gyros and their application on RC aircraft.
Gyroscopes of all designs measure or respond to angular changes in orientation that need not be on an axis that passes physically through the gyro itself. That a gyro must "twist" on axis, ie: about the CG, is a fallacy that is easy to believe but also simple to disprove as in this demonstration.
PS: FliteTest originally mis-stated this as well but then retracted it. Those guys are awesome in my opinion. They were not the culprit.
This is kind of an obscure point but might be interesting to some "scientists-at-heart" out there.
I performed this experiment in response to a repeated assertion made by a certain popular YouTube RC channel that gyros must be mounted actually on the the axis of rotation to be effective. Although this is absolutely incorrect, it is a common misconception and one which I myself held for some time.
Because I am especially frustrated by intentional misinformation I made this demonstration to hopefully help the small handful of guys who wish to dig a little deeper and understand this principle of gyros and their application on RC aircraft.
Gyroscopes of all designs measure or respond to angular changes in orientation that need not be on an axis that passes physically through the gyro itself. That a gyro must "twist" on axis, ie: about the CG, is a fallacy that is easy to believe but also simple to disprove as in this demonstration.
PS: FliteTest originally mis-stated this as well but then retracted it. Those guys are awesome in my opinion. They were not the culprit.
