To all Turbine flyers,
My friend and myself are interested in getting into turbines. With all the new stuff coming out, I am interested in some feedback. Please post your experience with different brands and models of turbines.

you have a great turbine company in the same state you live in, give them a call.

jetcat,,,,,,

mark

The ones I have experience with: TJT, PST, and WREN all get and A+

Pretty much all the current production turbines give excellent service. The out-of-production ones will be problematic...

I would highly recommend buying only BRAND NEW turbines.. your taking a chance when buying some used.. Jetcat/ARTES/WREN/AMT/FTE are all great turbines from what ive heard..

-RaZoR btw, make sure they are AMA 2005 Qualified/Certified.

Where do you guys fly now? Is it a good places for turbines?

JET CAT........
JET CAT.........
JET CAT.........
JET CAT
Semper Fi
Joe

All I have ever owned were Jetcats, so I don't know about the other brands. Never had a problem with my motors though.

The AMA doesn't have to approve turbine engines anymore.

Hi Bob,
We fly out at EBRC in Livermore, do we know each other? Turbines have flown in Livermore quite sucessfully (in the hands of the right pilots)
Ernie

Ernie, I am a member at LFE (I used to be on the board there too) as well as the Tracy Skyliners. The Tracy field is much better than either of the two Livermore fields. Tracy has 800' with no restrictions or obstacles. There are a few guys who fly jets out at Tracy...we all fly Jetcats. They are ultra reliable....but I know a lot of other people are having great success with some of the others as well.

What are you thinking of buying?

Hey Bob,
I haven't a clue on what I want to buy yet. I'm in the stages of gathering as much information as I can.
Much thanks to everyone that has responded so far.
Ernie

Take a look at SimJet at the Great Northern site. www.greatnorthernmodels.com. I've got a 2300 and it starts first time, every time and runs just as good as any JetCat I've seen and it's a lot less expensive.
BRG,
Jon

I second what F106A says. I have three Simjets and all run well. A 700, 1200 and a 2300.

red

I would check the field that bob suggest and see what is flying and not causing too much grief. There is a bit of a learning curve with each brand of turbine, more specifically ecu, so starting out, it might be handy to get a turbine that someone around you can help with setting up, programming, etc.

All good points so far.
I am liking the pricing on the Wren MkIII for sure. Is it worth the $200 bucks more for the autostart option?

Go watch a guy air start an engine, and all the support equipment for that, and then watch someone start a jetcat or other turbine with auto start.

If you're the kind of guy that likes to flip a switch and go fly, autostart is worth the $$.

I fly 100% autostart turbines. Even if I have to dick with them to get them to go (like an old simjet I had )

AMT and Jetcats are great engines... but I didn´t like weightlifting airtanks to refill in the scuba shop and meet those strange guys who like to swim dressed as frogs. So I would choose a Jetcat,
of course.

Regards, Enrique

I just got educated by private message on how Wren's work and have heard this argument over "autostart" before related to AMT engines which have "Autostart" even though they are airstart. So I believe the PM is important enough to share:


Hello Sean,

Just a note about your post re Autostart/Airstart.

Some people on RCU seem to think that if an engine isn't Autostart it must be air start. Not true! Wren are alone amongst the major manufacturers in offering an alternative to full Autostart, known as the ECO ECU.
With full Autostart, there are valves which operate the gas and fuel on start-up, and the glow plug and starter are operated automatically. With an ECO, you operate the gas, glow and starter. The starter can be either a wand or an onboard starter. Once the engine is running on gas, the ECU senses the heat via the thermocouple and starts the pump to set the fuel flowing. From there onwards the ECU takes over, you unplug your gas, glow plug and starter and go fly.

There are two main reasons for our use of the ECO rather than full Autostart. Most important is that our small engines are used to power smaller jets, where weight is a big consideration, and you can save over a pound in weight by not having valves, onboard gas, onboard starter battery etc. There are also fewer items to install in the fuselage. Over 80% of Wren jet fliers use the ECO for this reason.
The second reason is the cost - we aim to provide the lowest-cost jet flying, where people can not only build their own engines but also save money on maintenance because many fliers need to keep the cost as low as possible.

Regards
Sara Parish
Wren Turbines Ltd

For what it's worth, I personally refer to Autostart being a function of I flip a switch and everything automatically starts like how a Jetcat, or Ram with Autostart or most the new simjets work. I understand there are multiple uses of this word across turbine manufactureres so best to check with each one to figure out what you are getting.

In my opinion, the "full autostart" as in how a jetcat starts is the best option, but there are many many many (most AMT users come to mind) that like having full control over their starts ) and to those guys, I say, get a knee pad

MAN BUY a BEHOTEC turbine i fly them never had a problem with them
www.behotec.com

Absolutely!

You should take a good look at the FTE turbines as well, they are excellent running turbines with a one year warranty 100% and priced very reasonable. www.franktiano.com



Regards............... Johnny Hernandez

You should consider the service in your country. The distributers can replace parts for you. But most of them seem do not have the ability to balance the rotors.
I had a crash in previous fight. I found a loss of power & vibration in full RPM. But there is no balance service in this country. So I limit the power & prepare to fly with a trainer.
Alex Chan.

I am a Wren man myself, love them.
Fantastic value, fantastic service.
I use the remote manual start, but have in the past used the starter wand. This is the cheapest option, and works just fine.
On some instalations it may not be possible to get to the engine, this is when you decide for full auto or remote manual.
Full auto is as described, a flick of the switch, all gas batteries and valves are on the plane.
Remote manual is a starter motor on the engine but all other items such as batteries, gas valves etc are off board.
Saves weight and airframe complication, but still manual start.

Another option is remote full auto, i have seen this on AMT and is now becoming available for Wren engines.
Basically it is full auto but you plug the ground unit into the plane, flick the switch, it starts automatically and then disconnect.
This is the best of both worlds really, full auto without the extra complications and weight on the plane.

All of these options are available now on the Wren44, just slightly different price for each.
Other than that, i have experience with other brands and fly with people who use them. Most engines these days are miles ahead of where they were 5 years ago. Most are reliable and perform as they should. I beleive the most important aspect of making a choice is +feedback from users and service. You need to ask questions such as, 'if i crash this engine how long will a repair take'? Important to modellers.
I have once again always found Wren to be exceptional on that side, and had engines back within a week (i have crashed a few times)[&o]. Also, what is the cost of repair/service. Cost of ownership is a very important factor on a purchase of this cost.

I hope the above is helpful

Dear Sirs,

Therefore please have a look at

www.jetpower-magazin.com

Regards,
Thomas

I have a Wren MKIII.

I was and am new to turbines. I bought it as a kit, built it in 4 hours, it started first time, and has every time since then.

I know a friend of mine went to the Wren open day and 8 engines were built during the day and 8 started and ran perfectly.

The weight of these engines tends to be lower than others, the back up absolutely fine, and it is a nice English colour!!!

Building it myself gave me a bit more confidence about how it works and saved me a bit of cash.

I have not operated any other make, but based on my own experiences, I think the Wren is very difficult to beat in value for money terms.

Gazzer