Hey guys I'm looking at converting a bvm f-16 to turbine. I'm going to use a jetcat p-60. I have two choices of airframes. One is biult but not painted. The other is a fully finished flying ducted fan version. Not sure how much work is involved with converting one to turbine. Any help and advice would be great .. Cheers Andrew

BVM has a kit. Give them a call.

http://www.bvmjets.com/pages/kits/f16turb.htm

Hi Tisdall,

Like Skyhawknut I would suggest that you purchase the conversion kit from BVM. The F-16 is a pretty tight internally, and with the factory conversion, everything will fit into place plus you will retain the full flow ducting. This way takes all the guess work out of the install.

The best thing to do would be call BVM and talk to Patty. She can organise exact costing including freight to Oz..

It probably doesn't make much difference which one you convert if they are both fully built with all ducting and formers installed. BVM state 10-15 hours to complete the conversion, I think that may be way on the light side..

You are lucky to have 2 of them..

Roger

Thanks guys.. I havent bought one as yet. I know somebody who has two of them which he is selling. I'm just deciding which one to buy. That is why I was unsure which one would be better suited to the turbine conversion.

Is there anyone around who has any experience in doing a turbine conversion on the f-16?? I would love to hear some feedback about it.

Here is an article by Gordon Dickens that may help.

http://georgiajets.org/Library/Tips_...bvm_f-16n.html

I would go with the unfinished airframe as you have to install a new intake duct to mate up to the bypass. Its not hard to do but not having any equip in the airframe would make things easyer as you will have to remove everything to replace the duct. I went with the turbine inlet duct but did not use the bypass system as I was told the engine would run hot ( AMT 180). I also mounted the ail. servos
in the front of the wing roots and used a straight 5" turnbuckle instead of using flex conduit. This gave more room up front for electronics. I would also look into different fuel tanks. A turbine uses more fuel that a DF engine. As said above you are going to want to buy the turbine install kit from BVM as it has the carbon fiber pieces needed to upgrade the airframe. Theres a few pics in my gallery.

Thanks for the info.. How does yours fly?? If you don't run a bypass can you use the stock inlet?

I had a buddy fly it and he said it flew well. It is a little heavy at 18lbs dry. If i knew in the begining that I wouldnt be using the bypass duct I probably wouldnt have gone through the work of changing the inlet duct. Although now I'm glad I did as I need to install larger fuel tanks. Before you start I would figure out the flight time using the stock tanks with your engine. If you can use the stock fuel tanks than I might stay with the stock intake and rail mount your engine like I did. I would call BVM and talk to them about weather or not you should use a bypass with the engine you plan on using.