aehaas

I received my Jet Cat P60 SE engines and installed them. I am close to a test start:



The ECU's are under the main wheel wells to move weight up front. I am in the process of removing some of the supplied weight from the nose as they changed the CG and moved it back some as of a week ago. The dry weight of the aircraft is in the range of 42 lbs right now. This seems good for a plane of this size.

I put the fuel pumps close to the rear, near the engines. I also put the fuel fill tubes in this area. They are the yellowish tubes.

aehaas

aehaas

We now have the JetCat mini GSU modules installed next to the IO boards. We tested starting and stopping the engines individually by using the GSU's.

You can also start the engines simultaneously through the transmitter, and then shut them down as well.

We are ready for a taxi run. 'Will wait for good weather.

aehaas

Taxi run went well. We are ready to make arrangements on another (larger) field to maiden the airplane. We have access to a 1000 foot crisscross runway where cross winds are rarely an issue. Our own runway is 100 ft. wide and 500 long. This should be OK after we figure out exactly what we need and how the plane handles.

aehaas

patrnflyr

My Feedback: (7)

Any news? It's been two months

aehaas

Knee surgery. It will still be a little while.

aehaas

mugenkidd

My Feedback: (94)

Did this plane ever fly?

SECRET AGENT

My Feedback: (18)

I was just thinking about this jet today, any updates?

aehaas

OK, finally got the G650 out today for a maiden flight. Conditions were 80% humidity, 89 F heat and 50% sky cover. No wind. The flight went well, almost no trim needed, very close to true. It took only a few clicks to get fully trimmed in all flight modes. I am running twin JetCat P60 turbines. They have had solid start up and shut down performance in testing. I had the FOD screens in place that diminishes output a little. It took about 425 feet of runway to take off from a rolling start, no braking/revving at start off. Next time I will try this method and see if I can take off sooner. The runway is 500 feet long.

I have a true airspeed Pitot tube with telemetry that gave me a max speed of 130 MPH. I did not feel comfortable below half throttle, better at 3/4 or more for the entire flight. While landing I used around half throttle on the final turn then decreased speed as I got closer to landing. I touched down at around 50 feet of runway and stopped at just past half way.

Controls: I set the Spektrum transmitter up with 3 levels of dual rates as recommended by Tony at Pilot RC. I ended up using the highest level of throw for the elevator and just left it at mid rates on the aileron but I should have moved it to the lowest rate as it was a little too touchy. I will start off at this lower level on the next flight. I had about 15% of the fuel in the fuel cells with a total flight time of 5 1/2 minutes. I could get a little more time if I fly a little slower, maybe next time.

The plane was a real crowd pleaser. I will try to get somebody to get some video on the next flight.

There was one issue. The original tires were solid rubber. Tony sent me alternate inflatable tires on different rims as he said there may be an issue with tires that may come off. The alternate tires/wheels were not to my liking so I went with the original tires for this maiden flight. On take off, 3/4 way down the runway 3 of the 6 tires came off, both on one main, one on the other main came off. The nose tires/wheels were OK. The landing was actually OK though but for scraped up wheels where the tires had come off. The plane performed well on the landing despite the lack of rubber.

'Not sure what I will do next but I will email Tony for recommendations.

Overall a very good experience.

aehaas

aehaas

A word on the delay of flying the jet: We are limited to fly Turbine powered jets at our field when the drought index is elevated. I have not been able to fly since last October at our location. A couple of weeks ago the summer rains started, the drought index came down and we are all flying turbines again.

mugenkidd

My Feedback: (94)

thanks for the update! This is a really cool and unique jet glad the maiden went well

aehaas

Performance would be better if I used the take-off flaps but one does not do this on a maiden. Now that it is trimmed I will use them and the take-off should be shorter. Also, weather conditions vastly decreased turbine output so flight time and power should be better if nature cooperates. I very much like the plane but I have got to solve the wheel/tire issue.


aehaas

jetguy34695

My Feedback: (11)

why would you not use take off flaps for take off on a maiden i don't under stand take off flaps would give you more lift and less chance to stall the plane until you get up to speed and gear up

aehaas

Take-off flaps sometimes require up elevator and sometimes down elevator. In addition there is left to right compensation that can be extreme. I do not know anybody that would do a maiden with take-off flaps deployed. That is not to say that it cannot be done but if you do not have to do it then better to trim it out first, after you get airborne. Tony, at Pilot-RC, said not to use the take-off flaps on the initial flight.

aehaas

aehaas

We performed the second and third flights today. I used BVM tires on the original G650 wheel hubs but had to make some adjustments due to the slightly narrower tires. Anyway, they worked well. Tony from Pilot RC said he is using a new landing gear now but the original one works fine with the harder BVM tires. The original Pilot RC tires were just too soft a rubber compound to reliably stay on the wheel hubs.

One person did a little iPhone video work of the take-off: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Daip...ature=youtu.be

It went well on our rather poor runway. The landing was uneventful as well. The next task is to play with the iGyro SRS and get it working for us to help fly in windy weather.

Flying the plane requires power. At no time can you fly below half throttle as you can do on lighter planes. With our operational pitot tube for in flight telemetry speed determination we find that I can fly up to 140 MPH. We landed at around 55 - 57 MPH (a little under half throttle at touch down). It seems a little fast but it actually slowed fast using only half our 500 foot runway to land and stop. Overall, again, a real crowd pleaser. And no problem on a 500 foot runway.

aehaas

Speed-RCU

My Feedback: (5)

"Rather poor runway"! Most people on this forum would love to have a 500' X 100' paved runway, particularly when Google Earth shows it 15 minutes from your house. I would be grateful!

aehaas

OK, another flight today, There was a brake line leak only evident when there was weight on the wheels. The jet ran into our mud hole grass past the end of the paved runway. Normally our jets lose their landing gear in this situation. In this case the plane had no damage even though it sank into the summer mud. I guess I should have taken a picture of the mud on the plane. It was a big mess.

'Very strong gear and mount. The brake line rubbed against the new larger wheels when compressed and a hole developed in the line. It was replaced and re-routed. A lot of rain is coming up in the next week but I will fly as soon as practical. I am getter very comfortable flying this plane, the only thing is that you need to come in a little faster. But it slows quickly on landing so no issue on our 500 foot runway.

aehaas

aehaas

I make a cradle to hold the model upside down to work on the electronics and to mount the wings. It is made of a cut open aluminum stove pipe from Home Depot and lined with thick felt. I also made a cradle to use for transportation in the upright position. For the transport cradle I used short wing tubes to suspend the model on those in part so the woodwork alone did not do all the support work. I also use the transport cradle to store the model on pipes sticking out of the garage wall.

aehaas

Today somebody was able to video my flight, maybe my 7th or 8th. It looks faster than in real life:

mugenkidd

My Feedback: (94)

SECRET AGENT

My Feedback: (18)

Awesome, great job.

aehaas

Long Term Update:

I love the aircraft. It is always a hit at the field. I do have to fly it in at half throttle as it would otherwise drop too fast. Keeping that in mind, the landings are soft and can easily be done on our 500 foot local runway. I think that I also few on one runway that was only 400 feet Long!

I have made several changes over time. I had to go with electric brakes as the original ones kept leaking air. Not a big deal. I also changed the soft plastic fuel cells with Jet-Tech hard fuel cells of the same size.

AEHaas

TimT2000

My Feedback: (1)

I am too looking at this jet! I see that Tony mentions that it has electric gear now. Thinking of going with the smaller king tech K85's. Thanks for sharing all this great information.

Cheers

Tim

aehaas

'Not sure what you would do with all that power. I would not try a loop for example. It is a straight and level flyer. Good luck!

AEHaas

Gaspar

Well done! Do you know what is the dry weight?

Gaspar

aehaas

If I remember correctly, around 42 lbs.