O.K , Thats good, keep us informed. I am realy interested in the total of hours of this turbine.
Gio.

I get enjoyment out of running engines on the bench but are you guys going to fly this thing or just run it till it quits?

Well my jj1400 is in the turbine heaven (or hell i dont know) so i run a different turbine now as i don't intend to try another JJ.
Anyway i could use about 1000 dollars because thats what i am short off for the completion of my jet.
I have a big pork like money box and i hope that in a few months i will be ready as i add small amounts every day.
Of course there is the possibility that my wife finds the pork money box []
Chris

91 minutes and counting..........

WOW! Thats around 12 flights! Seems to be long lasting ;-))

Just got my JJ-1800 today in the mail.
I will be (attempting) running it up on the weekend. See how and if it fires up.
Doesn't look too bad if i may say so from the outside. only had time enough to take the front cover off but good to see nice 4mm festo fittings for both lines and quite neat.
I had to space out the mounting straps to fit around the engine, i think it is a tad too small. They just provide punched out flat strap frame, you have to bend it up yourself.

SO what does this mean "Well my jj1400 is in the turbine heaven (or hell i dont know) so i run a different turbine now as i don't intend to try another JJ." Did your JJ disintegrate on the test stand of was it in a crash??? The curious part of me just wants to know.. BTW I am a Wren user and so far they are flawless...

My jj1400 didn't run well from the start.
It couldn't reach 160 K rpm under any situation and the EGTs were sky high.
Eventualy the NGV and the turbine wheel got distorted so badly that i decided that it wasen't worth it to spend more money in it.
Chris

was it under warranty? JJ should stand behind their products like any other manufacturer

Well of course i could sent it back but due to my actions things didn't went too good (dont ask).
In any case i believe that nothing could be done in order to make MY jj1400 airworthy.
Simply put i believe that the quality that a turbine must have was simply overall absent from
the JJ1400, it wasn't just a simple technical problem.
In other words My JJ1400 should not have left the "factory" in the first place.
This is particularly true when i saw the quality of the Trefz tt66 turbine i got afterwards.
Even used the Trefz tt66 is a Mercedes compared to a cheap Lada and this is evident even to a turbine novice like me.
I am now glad that i didn't spend more money on the JJ.
Chris

OK well sometime try a WREN, they are superb as well..

Mark P,

Here is a pic of my Tamjets F-16 that will be in the air in 2-3 weeks after completion of the assembly process. I too enjoy flying a lot more than bench running engines and assembling ARF's, but it is a necessary evil and definitely gives any pilot peace of mind that his power plant and airframe is going to perform flawlessly.

Greg Hames

Greg,
My buddy has the Tam's and I am putting together the SM F-16.
You are very brave... to use the dining room table[X(]

Bench running a necessary evil??? Never bench ran my JetCat P60 or my Wren 44 Gold before installing. Both run as advertised without issues for many hours. This bench running condition must be specific to JetJoes??

Dave

I bench ran my WREN MKIII kit built engine 3 times since it was my first turbine and I followed the recommendations in the owners manual. Doing this did give me some training on proper starting etc. I just got a Super Sport and put that right into an airframe ( FLASH) and started that in the plane, only adjustment was a slight tweaking of the propane flow valve. I believe there is some merit in bench running for anyone who is new to jets but only for a few times to learn the start up procedure etc...AND it is not necessary to let it run at full output for long times on the bench...

Rcguy & Geh3,

I'm feverishly working to finish the assembly of my Tamjets F-16 so that my turbine can be taken off the test stand.

My turbine does have 107 minutes on it and yes, it has all been on a test stand. However, it has never burned a plug, ran hot, flammed out, had a hot start, failed to start, or given even 1 second of worry.

However, during the 4 days I was at Florida Jets this past March, I did see a ME-262 (pic below) equipped with Wren turbines that would taxi out, but then loose power and go back to the pits.

Graupner's new G-Booster (full kerosene start) turbine in a Mig 21 (pic below) flamed out going to full power just before take off on the runway

Even Ali Machinchy's huge Red Arrow (pic below) flamed out.

My point is that no matter how expensive the equipment, or experienced the pilot may be, there can be issues with any product.

So, until my jet's assembly process is complele, I will continue to run my turbine on the test stand and enjoy it

Regards,

Greg Hames

The TamJets F16 flies very well!

Dave

That's exactly what Tam told me when I bought it from him in Florida

Greg

Mark P,

I have never been married, so the living room, bedroom, and dining room are all fair game for assembling and tweeking r/c equipment.

Greg

Just remember that all turbines WILL require a set of bearings eventiually and this is based on running time SO if you waste running time on the bench you will have less time in the air until you will need to send it back for bearing replacement!!!

Very true......I think I may be hooked to the smell of Jet A burning.

Greg Hames

HAH I can only get K1 Kerosene but it does have an odor of... POWER!!!

P.S my nieghbors pets freak out whenever I fire up my turbines...

I posted elsewhere on another thread about a Wren MW44 with 870 minutes running (another Wren had twice this time) on it and no bearing change, so set up correctly these GWR cageless bearings may run for a very long time in the air at upto 195,000 rpm. The principle difference with JJ turbines is in the build of the oil byepass flow to the rear bearings, also the engineering tollerances and lack of customer filtering that have led to earlier bearing failures. The is not to say that late JJs have not improved, rather that there are many early examples that are sub standard. The early IC Chinese engines of SC and ASP also often arrived full of swarf inside and self destructed the piston+liners on the first run. Its a learning curve for the factory and the buyers.

Paul

Yes products always improve with time

Absolutely...

The JJ1400 I posses has an updated, one piece tail cone and updated plumbing underneath the front cover (no kinks or restrictions in either of the fuel or oil lines).

Greg Hames

Hi Guys,

I just purchased a new set of JJ1400. However we are not able to start it.

When we initiate the start the ECU (version 3.0) is unable to spin the rotor or sometimes it spins but at very low speed. Therefore the turbine is unable to ingnite. If it ignites for some reason the turbine cannot start and dispays time-out. During some starts the turbine goes into fire (big propane fire) and then tries to start the turbine and then displays “weak gas”.

I believe this is software problem becuase the intial voltage to the start motor is too low. Can we change the hidden parameters so that the propane start voltage to the electric starter can be increased?.. Or is there any other suggestion?..

Best Wishes from Turkey (the first JJ owner in Turkey)

Murat Bukey