flyinfool1

My Feedback: (2)

Although I am not an expert on jets yet, of the 23 flyable aircraft that I have in my fleet, the only one with an intentionally bent pushrod is a Zagi.
I have made new students redo bent pushrods in a 40 size trainer.

BruceTharpe

My Feedback: (1)

Had some free time and a quiet house today (no kids), so I took the time to update the index for this thread. For those of you who don't know or are new to this thread, I've compiled an index with links to the most helpful, pertinent, and interesting posts. By all means, read the entire thread if you want, but the index comes in handy for going back and finding those little nuggets that you remember but can't find. Add it to your favorites!

http://www.btemodels.com/r54threadindex.html

Planker07

First flight on the Reaction 54. Had a very experenced pilot do the flight and it was awesome. Jetcat P60 fired right up and away we went .Our field is about 350 feet long and grass it used up about 200 feet with no flap. Needed up elevator and right trim and she flew like a dream. We put about 6 minutes on and then tried to land. As report she does like to fly so it took a couple of passes to get her down. When I check the time we had her up for 8 minutes 38 seconds. Main tank was empty and was starting to use the UAT. Next flight we flew 2 minutes less and the landings are getting dead on. The third flight I did some flying time and then we came in for a picture perfect landing. A little hot but still only used up about 150 feet 0of strip. Once this plane comes in it seems very solid and there was no bounce and sticks to the runway. Did 4 flights and had a large group of people watching. All were very impressed by the plane and how it flew. We were flying in about a 15mph wind and at one point headed in the wind we throttled back and it looked like it was hardly moving. There was no wing stall or nothing just sat up there and waited for the next command. What a great aircraft. Thank you Bruce another
HAPPY CUSTOMER!!!!!!!!

Molar mender

Bring your Reaction to Princeton this next week. There will probably be two or three others flying their Reactions. It's a four day event for only $10. Hope to see you there.

Roy

BruceTharpe

My Feedback: (1)

Congrats Planker07... sounds like all went well. The P-60 is a great little turbine that pushes the R54 around just fine. I still think it's a great choice for the R54, especially for new jet pilots. Oh, we need pics!!!

BTW, look for a kit review in the upcoming issue of Model Airplane News (Nov '07). Actually, this thread has been a pretty thorough review of the kit

Molar mender

George Leu did a nice job on his report in 'MAN'. I liked his Reaction color scheme also. Nothing but positive comments.

Roy

flyinfool1

My Feedback: (2)

WOO HOOOO
GreyHound gave me a big huge box on a Sunday.
Now I am just waiting for the nickel and dime pile of stuff to show up.

Planker07

I have some pictures but don't know how to put them on the web site. Maybe if some one could explain I will try.
Allan

speedbrake

Allan,
At the bottom of the message block...where it says Click here to upload images and files...well just click on that. It takes you to the upload screen. Click on Browse and look for your photo, where ever it is stored. You upload one picture at a time. Once a picture has been selected double click the image or click on the image and then click open. The program will return to the upload screen. Once all your pictures have been selected click OK and the program will let you know when they have been uploaded into your message.

Hope this helps,
Keith

causeitflies

You have to click on "POST REPLY" first. You can't use the"FAST REPLY" box.

Planker07

Hope this works

Allan

Planker07

Thanks for the help on posting the pictures. Pretty easy when some one helps you along.

Allan

TommyWatson

My Feedback: (1)

That should be easy to see in the air. You will love your R54

Regards

flyinfool1

My Feedback: (2)

Wow, I think even my old eyes could see that one.
Looks good.

Planker07

Yes It's BRIGHT but you got to see it to fly it

flyinfool1

My Feedback: (2)

OK, I'm after suggestions.

I have a R54 that I bought RTF.
There is a twist in the right wing with the trailing edge up about 1/4 inch at the wingtip.
The twist seems to be fairly constant from the center to the tip.
I have talked to Bruce and he has told me that he has seen this particular plane fly at a jet rally, and fly well as is.
I will do the maiden on it as is with the amount of aileron offset of 3/16 up on one and 3/16 down on the other as recommended by the seller.

I have tried to twist the wing by hand but it is way to stiff for that. Not to mention to big to get a good grip on.
The wing is way to strong to try to pull it out by reshrinking the covering.

Option 1) Make a diagonal slice in the sheeting top and bottom, and glassing over the slice with the wing weighted and blocked straight.

Option 2) To steam the wing or soak it with ammonia and water, and then weight and block it straight.

Option 3) If it really does fly OK should I just leave it alone and dial it out as much as possible with a throttle to aileron mix, ignore it, and just go have fun.

As I said Both Bruce and the seller have assured me that it flies just fine as is.

Is there an option that I missed.
For the remainder of this flying season, till the snow comes, I will be using Option 3.

Molar mender

Option 4) Build another wing?!

Option 3 seems to be the best, besides you can't see the trimmed ailerons from where you are standing when it is flying. Just burn a lot of kero before the snow flies.

RH

causeitflies

Just fly!! You'll forget all about it and it's too much work anyway

bobparks2

My Feedback: (1)

Option 1 and 2 probably will not work anyway. Its a really stiff wing once the skins are on. If you really HAD to do it, the best bet might be to peel off the upper LE sheeting and replace it. The diagonal slice thing MIGHT work if you did a diagonal slice in each rib bay, going from the rib to spar corner on one side to the rib to LE corner on the other side of the bay. One slice along the whole span still leaves the skin tied to each rib and that prevents the shear movement you need. Once you get the shape right (and you probably want to twist it a bit too far since it will spring back a bit), just CA the slits, and glass it later.

As for option 3, you probably do not even need the mix to throttle. The high speed trim aileron setting should be very close to the low speed setting. The effect of the warp will increase with speed, but the effect of the aileron offset also increases with speed. The warp may cause it to pull to one side when it stalls, but even then, it may not be that bad.

I would just put in the suggested trim offset and go fly it.

Bob

Redline7000

My Feedback: (2)

Almost there!
I've been building my Reaction for over a year now (I'm a very slow builder!) , and finally I can start smelling the Jet A1. Since I hate plastic coverings, I glassed the fuselage and empenage with the wings being covered in Koverall. It's been painted with automobile lacquers. I have no idea what it weighs ... yet. Power will be from a PST600. By the way Bruce, great kit!
Cheers...Mario Alvarez

flyinfool1

My Feedback: (2)

Well it looks like option 3 wins.
As I mentioned, I was gonna start there anyhow.

Eddie P

My Feedback: (4)

Outstanding work Mario [8D]

speedbrake

Attended the Super Jet South meet in Georgia. There were four R54s present. The weather wasn't the best...especially for the Reactions. But did get a half dozen flights in during the event. Lot's of "faster than mine" jets present. Had a good time, met a lot of people, and learned a lot. Bob Violet demonstrated his electric jet....very impressive.

tahfiet

Hi guys!

Just a few quick ones. I hpe you like em. It is not finished yet. My old man wanted an ordinary paint-job with all our left-overs. He didn't want the AETE-schem like on our Tutor, because he thught it was too much hassle. Well now he got my paint-scheme on it and asks for some more painting on the tail-feathers... Give em a finger and they take the whole hand

The red is semi-opak on a silver base. A few markings are made with differnt grain silver and bronze under the red colour. The yellow is semi-opak on a white base-coat. I think I will put some moe checker-boards on the horizontal stabilizer before the clear-coat is painted.

BR,

David Büsken

tahfiet

Me again!

In these pics you ight get an idea of the "holgrafic" effect of the different silver grains and bronze under the red paint. I like it, because the different angles of the light change what our eye will see....

All the paints, paint-masks and painting-ideas came from tailormadedecals.com. Ralle is just amazing with his ideas. I've got 4 different pearl-effects to get some more intersting colour-changes in bright sunlight.

Have a nice week-end,

David