RE: Reaction 54 Jet Kit
That's some great info, Tommy. And your craftsmanship really shines in those pics. That's a fantastic bird!
Yes, I'm a worry wart about overpowering. Tommy sounds like he uses the proper restraint. But it's easy to imagine another pilot, with the same setup wanting more, more, more. Maybe our fictional pilot does a few straight and level passes at full throttle. The adrenaline starts pumping and the throttle gets pushed in early on the shallow dive for his next pass. Wow! Now let's see what she can really do... He climbs high in preparation for the next pass, the throttle is left at full, the nose goes down to near vertical. Pulls out ten feet over the runway and... incredible, nothing happens except an awesome high-speed pass. OR, perhaps, BAM! There goes an aileron. OR maybe it's not built to Tommy's standards and RIP! There goes some wing covering followed by a slow roll into terra firma.
This hasn't happened to any R54s that I know of, but I've sure seen enough crash and blooper videos of other jets shedding parts during a high-speed pass to know that it's possible. If you are truly a speed adict and want to push an airframe to its limit, the Reaction 54 is not your plane. There are other ships out there that are built for speed. That's not to say the R54 is a slug! In my book, 120-140mph top end is nothing to sneeze at.
This post isn't intended for anybody in particular. It's just some generalized ramblings of a lone model designer trying to bring some perspective to the matter. The R54 was designed when the 11 lb. RAM 500 was king. I knew the future would bring more power, so it was designed a bit bigger and beefier than needed at the time. I will admit that I did not envision these small turbines putting out 18 lbs. of thrust so soon. It's truly amazing what the turbine designers are doing!