If you are thinking of my post and photo allow me to offer a few thoughts on my experience.

My friend had given me his Super Reaper with a Simjet 13lb turbine. Knowing the airplane had a reputation as a floater, he engineered a split-flap speedbrake for it. I have flown the airplane several times with the Simjet. There was adequate power but make no mistake, the airplane is a major floater. The speedbrake helped. More importantly, the little Simjet had very little residual thrust which is a big plus, making it easy to slow down. Between the low residual thrust and speedbrake I was able to routinely fly the airplane off of a grass strip about 600 feet long.

Since then I installed a Kingtech K100. I put one flight on it. The airplane flew like a homesick angel but on landing, even with the speedbrake open, I floated down the runway and wound up doing a few hops and busting up the nose. Pure pilot error. If you build a Super Reaper with something like the K100 you will have to count on pilot technique rather than flaps or a speedbrake. I realized after the flight that I needed to fly the Super Reaper like I do my Hotspot, namely slow it down, get the nose up and establish high alpha flight before starting the approach. I thought the speedbrake would save me but it didn't. The K100 at 22lb of thrust is probably too much residual thrust for an 18lb airplane. I bought it instead of the K80 because it was the same size and I figured I could always use it in something else.

I emailed Mick Reeves about the speedbrake idea and he thought it was pretty neat but to my knowledge has not incorporated it into the kit. He offers a few other ideas for speedbrakes in his info.

If you build a Super Reaper, don't count on the speedbrake or flaps. The speedbrake on my Hotspot is basically useless. Pilot technique is the most important part of flying both models.

Bob Wilcox gave me an excellent piece of advice for flying the Hotspot. I never forgot it and it has served me well. He said, "On final approach, you better be able to see the bottom of the airplane or you will never get it on the runway." I would think that advice would serve the Super Reaper pilot as well.