Where should I start....well, many of us know of or at least heard of the storm JetCat USA has been dealing with lately. We have enjoyed the reliability and power these engines provided through the years supplied by Bob Wilcox and no doubt there are those out there that have lost confidence in the product. BTW...Thanx again Bob for your contribution to this end of the hobby!
John Redman has had his hands full with extremely turbulent times where most probably would have thrown in the towel. He moved into the Left Seat at JetCat USA during very tough times. It has been one thing after another; supplier & inventory issues, employee changes, moving to another location, and oh yeah....competition.
The ROAD SHOW!!
Houston was the 3rd stop of the tour. John called asking for a KingCat and a relatiely dedicated flying site for testing wilth little to no distractions while he performed the acid test. Bob Brubaker, Pres. of Bomber Field RC Club agreed to allowing us to use the site. MUCHO THANKS BOB!! Ray Blair supplied the test aircraft, KingCat #1 and Kirk Jenson was on hand with the backup test bed KingCat #2...just in case. We had all bases covered.
We were worried about the weather as the forecast was looking very bleek. Thursday evening we gave John the discouraging forecast of Texas T-Storms to which John replied "PERFECT !" OOHHH KKKAAYYY
John arrived late Friday night and was on the road 10am - destination Bomber Field! About 11:30 there was a very brief meet & greet of ole friends and John went to work.
KC#1 went through an engine swap in less than a half hour. This involved tubing changes, engine replacement, and minor wiring changes. All the while John explained to us he plans to put these 3 engines thru the most rigorus test he can imagine hoping to expose any flaws. He wanted to simulate anything he can imagine that takes place in the hands of his customers.
ROCK STAR PERFORMANCE
Wait a minute!! For some reason I thought he would just feel out the plane for most if not the whole first flight. NNOOOOOO !!!!! He put his ear buds form his cell phone in his ears, gave the start sequence, motioned to Ray to put the hat on (canopy) and no sooner than Ray stepped back from tightening the bolt, John was taxiing to the runway! No runup, no GSU checking, it was like a NASCAR pit stop!! It sounds like he is talking to somebody though!
Advanced power and KC#1 was airborne in +\- 30' !! I tried filming the flight but haven't viewed it yet. Still to come. Power changes, full power passes, slow flight, unlimited vertical - wait...limited at times due to cloud cover, radical maneuvering, talk about yankin & bankin, turnin' & burnin!! This was a demonstration of the power and reliability of the P180RX and the performance the KingCat can deliver. Did I mention feeling the plane out? Never happened.
Landed, taxiied back to the pits. Ray and I proceeded to put the plane back on the bench in the pits and John said "STOP! I want to make a change and put it back in the air. Top off the tanks and let's go"! So we did and stood back. There he goes again....straight for the runway. I asked Ray, who was spotting for him, is he talking to himself, as we can here him saying something while walking behind the plane to the flight station? Ray said he is singing some kinda strange lyrics I never heard before. HUH??
Full power and straight for the clouds!! Kirk and I said to each other as we watched "Man this guy is good!! " He put the plane through more Gs and unusual attitudes with aggressive power changes and the engine did not skip a beat. As for the weather?? It was looking very threatening but John was on a mission. Landed and taxiied back to the pits.
He explained the first flight was under normal ECU parameters / settings as the engine comes out of the box. The 2nd flight was with the ECU set to Auto Tune. No changes in flight performance. The engine did not hiccup at all. Back to the NASCAR pit stop-changed to engine #2-topped the tanks-put the hat on-back out to the runway. DItto on the flight performance!! Landed-topped the tanks-changed settings-back to runway and airborne. Yank-Bank-Turn-Burn-slow-fast etc.
In between engine changing, John called back to the shop with performance details. He is happy thus far. Instructed us to charge the plane while Kirk went to get us lunch. There was just enough time to eat, charge, John gave us an education on the update to the engines and also how things have FINALLY turned around behind the scenes at JetCat USA. Well!! Break time was over pretty quickly!
Engine #3 performed flawlessly also. Put through the same rigorious performance routine and didn't miss a beat. Pit Stop after 2nd flight-reinstalled the P160 on the plane-reconnected all original systems-topped the tanks and off he goes agian.
Everything is back to normal. John is satisfied and if I can speak for the three of us we were very impressed. John left for Florida this morning to fly Harley's KingCat tomorrow with the rest of the BVM crew. He said at this point he is expecting the same outstanding performance as he is prett\y much convinced they have the problem corrected.
We flew until about 6:30pm, 7+ galllons of fuel, John recorded notes and recorded weather conditions between flights as we prepared the plane for each sortie. He called back to the shop each time also. John Redman is giving us his ALL guys. He has been to Indiana, Kentucky, Houston and final stop is Florida. He expressed his appreciation about his customers' patience . He has built a strong staff including Bob Wilcox and support network of reps. like Ray Blair and Kirk Jenson who had a lot at stake lending their aircraft to this testing, which speaks volumes in their confidence in the engine and John Redman.
There is a very noticable performance difference between the P160 & the P180 just as Jetkopter said these P180RXs are a Ferrari! Oh BTW... talk about multi-tasking....the ear buds from his phone was music John flies to while singing the words to Dos Gringos' Jeremiah Weed, I'm a pilot, Dogs of War etc.