What a day! Met up today with John Redmond, BVM and JetCat rep, to get my JetCat ground school and initial CD demo flight towards my turbine waiver. We met up this AM for breakfast at a cafe in Rosamond - John is an incredibly interesting guy with lots of fascinating stories about his RC and USAF/NASA experiences - and then off to the Muroc Model Masters field (dry lake, actually) on Edwards AFB. What better place for your first turbine flights? [8D]
Only downside is the temperature (high 30's) and the strong winds - it's about 20/25 kts, but steady. I assemble and prep my Hot Spot/P120 and we discuss turbine safety and flight procedures. Hook up the buddy box, fire up the P120, and we're off! John turns the Spot over to me and I fly some basic aerobatics. The Spot flies nicely - better than I expected - and it really cooks, even in the strong winds. We shoot some missed approaches, to get used to the throttle lag, AOA, and landing profiles, and then shoot some touch and goes. All goes well until the last landing - the Spot bounces and the strong winds (now up to 30) get under and roll the Spot, the tip grabs the lakebed and over she flips, burying the nose. Ouch.
A bit of glass and paint work now required.
Now the fun part - John is either the nicest guy in the world (yes), or nuts - as after that last display of my flying prowess, AND IN INCREASING WINDS, he proceeeds to prep his beautiful KingCat, so I can fly it! Whatta guy....
So off we go, John takes off and hands off the KC to me. I do some point rolls, a big loop, a horizontal 8, and then some appraoches and touch and goes. It's like the Cat does not even notice the winds - it punches right through the turbulence on final and ground effect/wind gradient, no problem. John then takes over and proceeds to HOVER the Cat right in front of us - zero airspeed, no bobble, no wing rocking, just hangs there. Cool! Then john demonstrates why he's a pro by making a perfectly smooth landing in these tough conditions. At this point, it's getting too windy and dark, so we pack up to go. Check out this photo of John and I, note the wildly fluttering windsock...(it started to rain just after this was shot).
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A big Congrats to Bob Violett for an incredible sport jet, and to JetCat for bringing such a user-friendly and reliable engine to the US market. I know what my next jet is, for sure!
And last, a big Thanks to John for taking the time to help this new jet jock - it is highly appreciated.