I have had trouble with CJM retracts in the past which makes me nervous about their jet kits. I like the looks of their F9F-8 Cougar but need more opinions regarding the quality, completeness, and flight characteristics of their jet products. Ok, what do you think?

TX

What trouble have you had with Century Jet Retracts. I have a set in my yet unflown F-4 phantom and would be curious as to what your problems were.

Me too i have the F-100 with there scale retracts, what problems you having ?

I feel like a CJM rep here with the 2nd posting in 15mins about CJM, I have seen there F9F-8 Cougar fly in person (probably see it fly this weekend at markham too) and have seen it fly on there video, looks i like a nice jet, handles very well in the air, i've seen it land at a 500ft runway with probably only taking up 300ft to land very slow. The Airframe looks scale for a Cougar and on this day i did not see a problem with there gear.

Buy there video the Cougar is on there flying along with there F-15

What questions do you have about the Cougar? Nope I am not a CJM rep, But have a Cougar with all the bells and whistles. I have not flown it yet, but can answer all your questions about building it. Mine is about 80% complete. I am only missing the Landing Gear (which I have NOT purchased yet) I would estimate about 60 building hours minus paint and scale detail, but will all options.

Mostly it's an ARF except for the wing. Most formers come installed in the fuse. Wing is foam core sheeted wing, but you have to add the wing spar. Wing Tip is all shaped for you (F/G) along with the Ailerons and Flaps. The instruction book, well it comes with TWO. One with the instructions and another for just the pictures.

I got TONS of pictures of you want to see anything in specific, let me know. I am on vacation from Cal State so I have a couple of weeks of hard building time. I plan to have it done by the end of summer.

Turbulence
[email protected]

Regarding the retracts, I have a set of articulating gear for the F8F Bearcat which were DOA. Many calls and no satisfaction. It has been a couple of years since that bad experience but I'm not in any hurry to repeat it. However, there are not any other options for the F9F that I'm aware of and I haven't had any experiences with CJM kits. I am trying to find out if the kit products are worth serious consideration.
TX

You interested in selling the retracts?

I am in Vero Beach now, but will be back home tomorrow night. E-mail me & I will reply when I get home.

Countryboy,
I'm not interested in selling the retracts. I already had them fixed at my expense.
TX

I have not been thrilled with their retracts, but the NEW jets look really nice. I have seen Dino's Cougar and A-7, and they are in a REALLY different league from the older kits like the F100 and 162, and the retracts have nothing to do with them.

What is the quality of the kit and components? Fiberglass work and sheeting?

How complete is the kit compared to other similarly priced offerings?

What are the flight characteristics like?

What is the customer service like with regard to CJM's jet kits?

I have the Cougar about finished less painting.

The kit is of average quality. Certainly no BVM kit. It will be a good looking airplane when completed - but BIG!

CJM is flying theirs with a AMT Mercury turbine (or at least were the last time I saw it). Personally I don't think that is enough turbine. I am going to use an AMT Pegasus - 28 pounds of thrust. Bypass and thrust tube from Tam. It looks like the weight will be in excess of 30 pounds plus. But then I built heavy.

If they are still using the single flat wing spar, it just is not enough to hold the airplane. I added a second flat spar aft of the one they used. I think the whole spar arrangement must be changed for more strength. Two round spars would be much better. I think you could buy the wing cores unsheeted and develope the spar structure yourself - that is if they are still using a single flat spar.

The retracts I purchased with the kit look very good but I am not sure if they were made by Century or not.

They originally supplied Glennis wheels and brakes which would be my last choice. Getting parts and tire replacement is very slow with Glennis. First choice would be BVM in scale wheels. If scale wheels are not crucial then TRIM makes great product at less than one-half the price of Glennis and BVM. Glennis uses plastic bearings instead of brass and a "Rube Goldberg" braking mechanism. One respondant had problems with BVM wheels and brakes. BVM holds a VERY tight tolerance between the axle and bronze bearing. Unless maintained properly they will lock-up as will the Glennis product. The respondant said the BVM brakes would not hold. This is the first time I have heard of this. He may of had a problem he did not know how to correct. I know they are selling Interairco wheels and barkes now. I do not know what brand of scale wheels they are furnishing.

If I were to purchase the airplane now I would buy the bare basic kit. You can buy a better grade of hardware a peice at a time. You can do much better.

If you want to chat on the phone we can arrange a time.

I am currently building the #3 , (third one molded)Talon from CJM.
The glass work is not the best I have seen, but from what I have seen and heard, it is way better than I the older stuff. I give is a 7.5 There are no 10's!! not Even BVM. The Talon is fully molded composite plane so I can't comment on the sheeting and foam. I have the CJM retracts for it, they look beefy enough, and seem to cycle fine on the bench. Look at the report by Terry Holston on Winnamac to see the #1 Talon and read how it flies.
Roger Shook

Does anybody know how good the mig -15 kit is from century jet? I don't have the kind of money you need to drop on a BVM mig -15, and besides the CJM mig 15 is bigger, and bigger is better

Hi,
I bought a CJM Mig-15 with all of the options including AMT Mercury in early 1999, based on its performance at Superman 1998.
I was not impressed with the gear, (they looked crude and some parts were rusty). The wing is foam sheeted with 2 aluminum spars and the gear blocks installed, it looks nice. The elevators are very small. The cockpit does not have any instructions, and needs to be cut way down to fit between the inlets. The pilot is heavy, his legs need to be removed. The glass work is preprimed, and it looks pretty good, but the canopy hatch needs at least 1/8" of filler to mate with the fuselage.
I have only spent 5 hours building it, so I am not an expert on this plane.
I have plan built 4 Ziroli warbirds and other plan planes, and they do not seem like too much more building and engineering than the Mig kit. I have also built 4 Kangaroos, 2 are ready to test fly today, I think the Fibreclassics Kangaroos are much more strait foward than the Mig kit.
I hope this helps,
John

BVM may not rate a "10" but it is about as close as you can get. For their prices it should be.

If BVM is not a "10" I sure would like to know whose kits rate that high. I would like to built one.

They originally supplied Glennis wheels and brakes which in my opinion SUCK.

So much for accurate review

Joe

The Talon came with Intairco wheels and brakes, which appear to be very nicely made and with the piston actuated braked rings they should work well.
On the other hand I have had great luck with the Glennis wheels and brakes. I had horrible luck with BVM wheels and brakes, hardlly ever got them to brake evenly.
Roger
PS. Not knocking Bvm, just not worshipping him as so many do!!

Well back to the quality of glass. That is in the eye of the beholder, like I said before I am no CJM rep or anything but the kit that I received, the fiberglass work was great for me. No cracks anywhere, pinhole free and grey gelcote. Maybe I have not purcahsed enough kits to know the difference like someo of the other Jet Jocks here. Can the wings be made different? Sure I would have loved to have received a wing with the spar already installed so I would not have to cut the cores to install them.

I got the complete kit, with wiring harness and every single nut and bolt to build this plane. Do I like all the parts, NO, everyone has their way of installing things. For example: I built the flaps with hidden linkage through the wing. The CJM way was the standard of hang the control rod under the wing to a horn sticking out the bottom of the flaps. I just use that to illustrate that their way might not be exactly yours, but that does not mean the parts they supplied where below standard. Heck I took some parts out of the wiring harness just to reduce the amount of wires too.

Bottom line is I am pleased with what I got and felt it was worth what I paid for it. I can not tell you how it flies, but I do know it has plenty of instructions to build it right. I does not come with fancy CAD Plans but it does have at least five full size drawings and almost 100 pictures to help you build it. Unfortunately BV does not make a Cougar so I can not compare the two. If BV made one that size, I am sure I would not be on the list for it because of the price tag. I would love to get one of his new F-86 though.

As far as wheels and brakes, it’s always a crap shoot. I have not had any problems with BV wheels, but then again I have not used Glennis so I can not comment on that. I have however had a BV Brake (Smooth Stop) DOA, but does that prove his stuff is no good? Not in my eyes, but I have not tried another smooth stop yet cause the spare one that I had from UPI has worked great (the one I originally DID NOT want to use and the reason I had purchased the BVM unit)

There is my 10cents worth of honest opinion of the kit, I will leave the bashing to the rest.

Turbulence
[email protected]

Ralph,

Nice post. I, too, had a SmoothStop go belly-up. However, Harley Condra (BVM Rep) took it out of my plane, walked over to BV, told him about it, then came back and handed me a brand new one--no questions asked. Maybe the SmoothStop isn't the best brake valve available, but it's the one I'll always use just for that reason (unless, of course, Yellow comes out with one ;-)). Now, that's service.

Anyway, I hope your CJM flies well for you. I sure thought about their MiG for a while.

Turbulence,

Thanks for your comments. I am glad to hear that you have been satisfied with the Cougar's quality.

arw9fmw, I'm interested in your comments regarding the spar and the value of the deluxe kit. I'll send you a PM.

I hope your maiden flights go well!

TX

Hello Texan,

I want to state up front that I am a CJM rep and factory demo pilot. I have flown the factory He-162, F-104 and turbine Mig-15. They all fly well! The He-162 is tricky on crosswind takeoffs, but ROCK solid in the air. The F-104 flys like a Yellow scale wing A-4 with a LONG landing glide. The Mig is smooth and solid on AMT Mercury power. I unfortunately crashed the turbine Mig on final approach at FJ 2000, totally pilot error. After a smooth flight, I got too deep on downwind and too slow in the final turn.....classic approach turn stall.

I think CJM kits represent excellent value for the money. They are craftsman's kits, very much like the higher quality kits of some years past. You will need to do some filling, sanding and adjusting. The glass work is excellent, as are the presheeted foam components.

CJM kits are NOT mega-prefab, but they're listening and taking steps in that direction (re; the Talon). They are also not BVM, which I consider the highest quality kits on the market. But you will not pay BVM prices, either.

What CJM has going for it are the neat designs. They've got something from every era of the jet age; Cougar, F-105, A-7,
F-15, A-4 and the sport turbine Talon are some highlights. If you are looking for a kit that falls together as you pour it out of the box, look elsewhere. If you want a neat design that will go together with some work on your part and will fly well, CJM represents a good value.

Call Bruce and ask him for a copy of the Cougar flying video. The plane performs beautifully on AMT Mercury power with solid flying, slow landings and no gear problems. I will warn you that if you are thinking of buying the Cougar, be prepared to do so once you've seen the video!

Good luck, I hope I've been of some assistance.

Tom

Tom,

CJM has an A-4? What size?

I have no experience with older CJM kits, but I have used their gear---1/2 strut size on my F-15 with no problems.

I took a good look at the Talon at Winamac, flown by Lewis Patton.

Nice plane. Should be easy to build--all composite. Not as agile as the BobCat, but lands slowly with 40 degrees of flap available. Good Grass field gear with 5/8" struts and 3" wheels, larger if you want.


Check out photos on my link under "Winamac Photos" thread


Tom

Shaun,

If I'm not mistaken, the CJM A4 was purchased from Planes Plus. It's 85 in. long and has a 55 in. wingspan. If I had 1895 burning a hole, I'd get one in a second. I saw it in person at WRAM this year and it's definitely got the 'wow' factor.

Steve

Shaun,

The CJM A-4 and F-15 are the former Air Champ designs. The F-15 flys incredibly well, while the factory A-4 is still in line for flight.

Thanks for the help, Steve! I'll contact you tonight......by e-mail, not at your door!


Tom

Out of curiosity was Century's A-7 purchased from Aeroloft?

I talked to Aeroloft about their A-7 but they told me it had been sold to another manufacturer who bought the molds, etc.

Wonder if Bruce is going to buy what is left of CAI?