Ron Stahl

My Feedback: (12)

At the Mid Atlantic rally this past weekend I was able to almost stop my R54's forward motion in a how slow can you fly contest between myself and an Andy Fenisio who won the Top Gun award with his Kingcat which we all know flys real slow; Andy gave in and said "you win" then said now lets see who can fly the lowest inverted and I gave in and said you win.

rcpete347

My Feedback: (251)

Well we comfirmed it today, the Reaction 54 will take off in 110 ft. of crushed limestone runnway.
Rcpete

tahfiet

Hi guys!

We had a pair of drop-tanks lying around in the work-shop and played a bit with them . luckily we put a few blind-nuts in the retract-plates during the build. Made a pair of rails that are screwed to the wing and the tanks are slid on via key-holes. I think it looks great and will be much better ones everything is painted.

A center-wing-tank is in the works, which will hold a 0.75l pop-bottle for a smoker or possibly to be plugged in series with the Dubro-tank. The bottle is half the volume of the Dubro-tank which will increase flight-time by another 3-4 minutes.

David

tahfiet

Me again!

Here are some inflight-shots:

afterburner

My Feedback: (18)

David,
Very cool. I'm very interested in your centerline tank if you do it as my P-60 is a real gas guzzler and I get about 5 minutes of flight time with maybe one go around and she's empty after landing. That's with the dubro 50 oz, sullivan 16oz. and the 4 oz in the UAT. If you do the centerline tank, please take some pics of the assembly. Thanks.

Marty

TommyWatson

My Feedback: (1)

Yes, I would like to see the centre line tank also, I would like to add smoke to my R54. the wing tanks look great.


Regards

Eddie P

My Feedback: (4)

Looks great!!

tahfiet

Hi!

Thank you for the kind words. i will post a few pics of the Centerline-tank later today. It is almost ready to go under the belly and test it (without paint). It is not perfect, but it's getting there...

BR,

David

tahfiet

Alright, here we go:

First of all I was looking for the right size of a bottle. Finally found that 0.75l water-bottle, which is very strong (not that flimsy coke-style).

I measured everything and cutted three rings of 3mm lite-ply. ID=75mm OD=85mm

Took a sheet of 2mm Balsa and glued the rings to the balsa to form a tube.

The rear of the tube has two 10mm balsa-rings to form a nice and curved end.

The front-end was made from a piece of blue foam glued to a round ply-plate. I put a 5mm screw in the middle of the ply-plate, put it in the drill for easy shaping. Two layers of glass give enough strength and after the resin cured, we cut a hole in the ply-plate and removed all the foam.

tahfiet

Next step was glassing the balsa-tube to get a strong surface.

After some brain-washing we came to a method of mounting the tank to the wing that seems to be good enough.

We will glue a piece of gr10 with a key-hole in the middle of the tube and made a support for the front end. The mainplate is made of gr-10 and the former is 3mm lite-ply. That will be screwed to the wing with two nylon-bolts.

We use brass-inserts with M3-thread to hold the screws.

The tank-fitting is from Markus Richter in germany and perfect for pop-bottles. No drilling through the plastic, no leaking seals, no nothing. Machined alloy with a viton o-ring to seal the cap permanent. We will have fill-valve and vent inside the tank and a 4mm tubing that goes to a Festo-fitting on the bottom of the fuselage.

Br,

David

Eddie P

My Feedback: (4)

That's GREAT! I've been thinking about making a functional centerline tank for smoke oil.

Don't forget, a 75 ounce tank is available for purchase (but I'd bet you'd make your own, right?) That would be an additional .73 litres I believe over the 50 ounce tank. It fits in the same place as the 50 ounce tank, in case you really want to raise your airborne endurance in combination with the external tank.. or use the external tank for smoke instead while having good endurance off 75 ounces (2.2 L)

tahfiet

Hi Eddie!

Guess what? We have made a few fiber-glass for different jets. It is very easy, so I would never buy a $100,-+ tank for a "bud-jet" like the reaction. We made tanks for the Mecca-Models Tango, Grumania P-59 Airacomet, Rödel/Jetwelt Canadair Tutor and Facet 1200. Just give me another week or two . Well, we've got the JWM comming and I still have to pimp my Cougar for the australian team. And the first thing after the JWM is painting the Reaction, because it looks a bit ordinary in plain grey.

BR,

David

BalsaBob

My Feedback: (24)

Thanks guys for the info/recomendations on which struts to use for the mains (a while back I had asked which struts people were using). I went with the Robart 660's ..... as some had suggested. Only mod to the wing was to cut a notch for the strut scissor-arm. (I also had to cut/shorten the struts). Will be giving them a test this weekend. Bob

maxvertical

That's great Bob, looks even better. I think you'll be happy with that setup, I know I am. I had to make the same little cut lfor the mains, and it all works great. Everything went well with the nose I take it? Sure hope so, that was the hard one.

Chris

BalsaBob

My Feedback: (24)

Chris, I actually left the nosewheel as is ..... with the stock wire setup .... it really has not given me any problems. Bob

afterburner

My Feedback: (18)

Bob,
I just changed mine out when they finally came off backorder. Tested them out at the the Mid Atlantic Jet Rally on Memorial day weekend. Very nice not having to bend back the wire struts. I even had one of the hoppidy hop landings and they held up great. Actually it was a hoppidy hop -hop -hop-drop[:@] landing.


Marty

maxvertical

Well Bob, leaving the nose stock just saved you a ton of work! LOL It's nice, but... Man, there's a bit of work to get the nose strut in.
Sure am loving this thing, can't wait to go fly again! If I keep flying it, I'll never get it painted!

Tahfiet, the picts with the hard points look really nice.. Hmm Has me thinking again..

JohnVH

My Feedback: (38)

dangit, I gotta get my R54 done.. anyone in washington wanna finish it off for me?

afterburner

My Feedback: (18)

There's some guy in Rogue River Oregon that's put one or two of these together. Maybe he could help you. I think his name is Bruce.


Marty

JohnVH

My Feedback: (38)

LOL! If he reads this maybe he will be game hehe

BruceTharpe

My Feedback: (1)

Read it. Not game C'mon John, you've got a few months before Jets Over Whidbey. Focus, focus....

Tahfiet, that is some impressive work you are doing with the external tanks. Thanks for sharing it here first, but I encourage you to share it with all the jet guys out there. I really think the topic deserves its own thread.

I just got back from the Idaho Jet Rally, which has become a real gathering for R54 pilots. We had five - would have been six if not for a crash a couple weeks earlier. It's probably the most laid-back jet event going; everybody flew one-at-a-time and had the skies to themselves. It was great!

JohnVH

My Feedback: (38)

lol was worth a try Cya at JOW!

causeitflies

Some pics from the Flying Aeros Jet Jam of two Reactions, Dave's little rocket and my heavy lumber[8D]

rcguy!

My Feedback: (69)

Mark,
Come think of it...Maybe Dave and Mark should have shown Jim and Joe how formation flying should be done! :-))

Nice job on the R54! GREAT job flying it too!! I'll be at Winamac next with the R44. Anybody got a good radar gun?

Dave Rigotti

Square Nozzle

My Feedback: (1)

I'm not one to make fast decisions without doing a lot of research (Engineers do that and it drives my wife crazy). In this case I've about researched myself into a whirling dervish. I'm building my R54 and trying to decide what engine I want. Here's what I know:

Jet Cat P60. 13# thrust, good rep, good service, reasonable price, good choice for the R54.

PST 600R. 14.3# thrust, good rep, good service, attractive price, good choice for the R54 with more poop than the P60.

Jet Cat P70, 17# thrust, good rep, good service, same price as the P60, heavier than the P60 but about the same as the PST600R, marginal in size for the R54 but will fit.

SimJet 1200, 18# thrust, good rep, service close by in PA., not available till late summer, Kinda hot for the R54 but will work with throttle mangement or derate through the ECU.

Wren MW54, top shelf stuff with big $$$$ tag. no USA service. I can get the kit and save a few $$ but the UK service only, worries me.

I know there are other turbines available that will fit the application but I am concentrating on the more popular engines, being new to the game and all that stuff.

So here I am, asking the R54 guys what their experience has been and looking for some guidance - please.