maxvertical

Galen, There are four of us from Oregon that will make the trek up. It will either be at Shelton or up at Whidbey. We have a Bobcat, Skymaster Hawk, Skymaster F-16 and my R-54 that all need to be maidened. Probably be a busy day. We don't have anyone in Oregon that can do signoff's so we hope to fix that by this time next year. Besides, I think you guys up north are having way too much fun, so I need to see what it's all about

maxvertical

Ok, might as well let the cat out of the bag. Here are a few pictures of my project and the changes I made. Each bay has it's own purpose, the forward section carries batteries and electronics, two 3800's that go to a smart fly turbo regulator then on to the power expander. The ECU battery is next to the nose gear in a protected box, covered by the Smart Fly electronics panel. So it's as far forward as is practical and won't get tangled with retracts or airlines. The mid section is the pneumatics bay, where I put the air tank, retract tank and associated valves, fill ports, and gauges. Also in this area is the nose wheel steering assembly. Made a servo box for that as well, so it’s nice and strong. Odd enough I found the simulated carbon plate takes to CA glue pretty well, so fabricating and bonding pieces was a simple task. The aft compartment, where the ECU is supposed to go, has been converted to a fuel systems bay. In the pictures you can see the location of the different services. May look like a bit of a mess but is really very straight forward, with propane coming in from the boat-tail hatch to the tank via 4mm line. It’s teed into a festo filter before going up to the electronic gas valve. The cool thing about this installation is the fill port is located in the boat-tail hatch area, secured with a Velcro strap to keep it from floating around. There’s a manual purge valve back in this area as well to bleed off propane after a day of flying. The propane vents via vent tube on the top of the fuselage, almost like a small APU exhaust port. The kerosene fill port will be located on top of the fuselage in front of the aft hatch. Fuel pump is located under the ECU shelf, along side the UAT and propane tank. I made up a UAT rack with rails that guide the UAT into position, and it does not move around at all. The same was made for all the tanks, and fuel pump. The pump rides in it’s cradle and is secured with zip ties. The picture that shows the fuel pump you may notice small pads on the fuselage sides. Yes, I am putting a removable hatch in this area so I can gain access to the fuel pump in case of problems, there is also a fuel bay drain just in case of a leak. The screw pads were made from small sections of dowl. Manual kero shutoff valve is secured on the servo tray along with all the electronic valves. I have two fuel filters, one before the pump, one after, just for my own piece of mind. Servo’s were relocated to the aft section of the boat-tail, on a very beefy mount. ECU will also live in the boat-tail area, far from the radio gear. So far weight seems to be pretty close to a wash on CG with moving most of the fuel components forward. We will see where it balances in the end, but don’t really expect to add much weight, but I could always be wrong. Hope this will inspire some new ideas on your next project, I can sure tell you I’ve had fun with this one.

Chris

TommyWatson

My Feedback: (1)

Hi chris,

Thats beautiful, Very well done. It makes me want to pull mine apart and do the gear install again.

Enjoy flying the R54

Regards

BruceTharpe

My Feedback: (1)

Very impressive installation, Chris, and very helpful photos and descriptions! You, and others, are making your equipment installs a form of art in itself!

tahfiet

HI Chris!

You are crazy . I like straight forward installations, but we went for a quick and dirty one on the reaction. We did change the turbine twice, so it is best to kepp everything simple (I know, it is just an excuse...).

You should go for a bigger turbine-battery and smaller radio-batteries. We have two Kokam 2S 1500mAh on Powerbox Sensor and we can do 20 flights on a charge with 35% left!!!!! Servos are 8411 everything, except the nose-steering. But the Kokam 2S 3200 on the kerostart P-60 is just good for 5 starts . That is somethig to consider.

Best regards,

David

maxvertical

Thanks guys,
I got my inspiration from many of you here on RCU, Bruce, Tommy, Dave R., just to name a few. I'm happy with the way things are turning out, especially since this is my first jet, and wanted it to be clean. If this bird flies as good as it looks, I'll be one happy guy!
As always will keep open to suggestions and new ideas.
Thanks for the nice comments.
Chris

maxvertical

Well, got the shock of my life!
Must be living right! LOL
Just put the bird on the scale and she's exactly 18#. I think that's very respectable, keeping in mind that the final paint isn't on either.
The most amazing thing, just doing the finger test on CG and it looks to be very close, and that's with no weight added to the nose! Those three batteries up front did the job!
CG has been checked four times, and all four times it's right in the ballpark. Very pleased to not be adding weight to the nose.

speedbrake

Very well done! Did the UAT have fuel in it? Regardless, it sounds as if you have a light R54...with no need to add ballast for balance.

maxvertical

No fuel in the UAT yet, almost ready for that, but wanted to see if I was going to be close to target on weight. CG will probably shift a bit with fuel in the UAT but I also did the un-official check without the rudder or elevator on the airplane, as they have yet to get hinged. So, it's going to be close. I'll be putting fuel in the UAT for the final CG check, but so far, pretty amazing to get this close to a target. I did not expect CG to be as close as it is right now without any weight additions.

Chris

rcguy!

My Feedback: (69)

R54's fly better than anything else! YOUR example is awesome! Time to light the fires!

Dave Rigotti

Eddie P

My Feedback: (4)

Chris your install looks great!

Everyone else, I thought I'd add a couple more pictures of my "Reaction 54 Extreme Makeover" project. Here is the canopy.

Woketman

My Feedback: (6)

Gorgeous!!!!

Eddie P

My Feedback: (4)

Here is the fuselage, final priming and then sanding it almost all off again. I glassed the vertical and horizontal stab after thinking long and hard about the glass to Monokote transition and re-hinged the surfaces. It was a lot easier a job than I thought, but was still some work

TommyWatson

My Feedback: (1)

WOW!!

causeitflies

[8D][8D][8D]

maxvertical

Hey thanks for the nice comments! Just hope it flies as good as it looks, guess we'll find out on the 23rd of this month.
Just kidding, I'm sure I will be impressed, I only hear good things about Bruce's designs.
That's an awesome job Eddie! Lots of work and will be one of the more unique R54's out there.

Tommy, have you had a chance to see more data from the Weaver? Wondering what speed you see in normal level flight, no dives, just normal rockin around the pattern. I hope mine will cruize in the 130 range but don't know if that's expecting too much for the P-70.
Chris

kx250f

The 23rd huh. Well Ramkin, make room, I'm coming on up, its hot down here.

myersflyers

My Feedback: (33)

Eddie P, outstanding work, can wait to see the finished product.

Well its been over a year and I still can't seem to get mine done.
I received the kit in Feb. 2006. Had everthing built and nearly completed
and painted, but things kept happening that stopped me from total completion.
Now its 2007 and I still can't find the time just yet. But, I think
I can have it done very soon, I hope. At any rate, here what I've got so far.
The mold for the intake were fairly simple and the perfect candidate to try
the sand mold method for the first time. Probably won't use it again unless it's a very small part.
I love bashing kits so here my take on the R54.

Eddie P

My Feedback: (4)

Myersflyers, great work! Keep at it, the best part is when it's airborne - it's a really nice flying airplane. If you dedicate a few weeks of hard labor on the chain gang in the garage you'll be done before you know it.

Your mods are very custom and will get you a really nice looking jet. It's impressive how much room for interperetation Bruce's amazing design gives us the ability to work with while still resulting in a very well behaved end product.

Eddie P

My Feedback: (4)

A few more pics. Paint is starting to flow I still have to get all the detail colors on. There will be a lot of red on the tail and of course the typical markings that go along with a stylized R54 military fighter/attack/recon bird My workshop helper likes the Reaction 54. She told me today her favorite toy is her Barbie set. And she told me my favorite toys are my airplanes. She's pretty close!

causeitflies

Eddie,
Where did you get the cockpit and pilot?

myersflyers

My Feedback: (33)

Eddie,
Thanks for the encouragement, sometimes that's all that's needed to get motivated.
Your absolutely right about Bruces' design. When he first introduced this kit years ago and
I saw it in "MAN," I just knew the design offered a ton of possiblities for those with imagination
and who like to create and embelish.

Yours appears to be getting better and better with each set of pics.
Amazing work and talent. You are definitely turning an outstanding kit into a masterpiece.
Keep us posted!
Keith

Eddie P

My Feedback: (4)

Hi Mark, I bought the pilot from Century Jets - it is a 1/8 scale jet pilot, full body. The cockpit is partially scratch built but some of the molded plastic parts (side panels and aft cockpit deck) are from a Top Flite Corsair 1/8 scale cockpit kit. The seat is scratch built from balsa. The forward instrument cluster is plastic card and wood, and the hood is what was left over from my non-scale cockpit from my Tam A-4 when I bought the scale cockpit upgrade. It could have easily been made from plastic card though. The aft cockpit equipment deck was supposed to be the floor of the Corsair cockpit kit. The clear canopy is a 1/8 scale Tam Composite F-16 canopy. It all starts to come together with a little imagination, paint, glue and some "odds and ends" supplies for everything.

Eddie P

My Feedback: (4)

I put six more flights on the Reaction 54 yesterday. What a sweet flyer. Everybody really liked the jet the most when I'd do slow flybys, because they could see it really well - the size has presence at eye level in slow flight and then a full throttle climb out teases all the senses - sight, sound, smell and vibration from the burst of power. Bruce you designed a nice flying airframe that everyone seems to enjoy no matter what they are "into". I've been pleasantly surprised with my P-60's ability to fly the jet with authority up here at 5000 feet in the warm temps. It's clear the R54 was designed properly to accept a 10 pound thrust engine, I've got more reserve power up here in the mountains than I thought I'd have.

One point of interest is that I believe my inlet mods move my airplanes center of lift ever so forward compared to a stock R54. I expected that when I plotted out the inlet design - but in quantifiable terms I'm finding the jet flys better at 6 inches CG aft of the wing leading edge (at the fuse bulkhead). That seems farther forward than many are using, and yet on most of my other planes I find I like a slightly aft feel.

When I first flew the R54 I had already made the mods. I was at 6.8 inches C of G and I inadvertently ran nearly all my fuel out of the UAT (it lives well forward of CG location in my R54 and it was due to a main fuel tank vent problem that was subsequently fixed). So on landing I was REALLY aft of CG and had an exceedingly sensitive aircraft. After fixing the tank problem and always landing with a full UAT, I still had a slightly sensitive pitch feel during the landing approach, round-out and flare. (I'm using 40 degrees of flaps).

After moving the C of G forward to 6 inches I don't seem to have the issue. In flight, 6 inches appears to be on the sweet spot - just a little forward of neutral pitch stability and control feel. I would not expect to see that being at the forward limit of CG. So, no negative effects, just a slight shift in center of pressure requiring a slightly different CG band than a stock R54.

For fun, here is a photoshop pic of my accent colors. I already have the decals ready to apply. Just a little red, white, yellow and black paint and I'm adding decals, weathering and a very light clear coat. BTW I'm using WarbirdColors water based paints for a post war 1950's era Royal Navy scheme.

Ed

causeitflies

WOW!! That's one sweet bird. I think you won the best looking R54 contest.

I hope to get another 10 or 15 flights on mine in the next few days before I take the engine out for another plane. I've been putting off pulling the engine causeitflies so well.