Has anyone here flown the Skymaster Gripen? Someone told me that it has ground handeling problems because of the narrow gear. Has anyone else seen this? Will the Skymaster Hawk fly OK with 17.5 pounds of thrust? I am trying to decide which of these planes to buy to put my Ram 750F in.

Gene,

I think both Gripen or Hawk can fly with 17 lb thrust engine. We have a demo Gripen with P-70, and a Hawk for Simjet 1700, both fly very well.

Eric, can this plane come out to 20lbs or under? Gene, good luck with your choice, sorry to bump my head in here.
I got a P-120 that might work in this plane.

Joe

My Hawk is 24lbs I have a 17lb thrust P-80. Last year at Heart of Ohio it radared at 130 MPH. The hawk is a very smooth and nice flying plane.

Joe,

The plane dry wight is about 21lb to 24lb. P-120 is more then enough to fly it.

I have a Gripen with a 120 in it. It's fairly fast at 185mph in level flight, and it has some unique flying charactoristics. Performance on the ground is no problem, it tracks nicely even in a crosswind. The most challenging part of flying the Gripen, for me anyway, is landing it consistantly.

Rob B.

rob , what problems are you having? i just got a gripen this week. it's my first jet . i see there's a training cg point i can use. i have a p-80 i want to put into it. any thoughts? do you think this plane is to much for a newbie. ? i've flown a lot of big gas stuff. mostly warbirds. Warbird_1

Do a search here on the Gripen, there has been much written about it, some of it by me. The Gripen is a good plane, but there is a learning curve in setting it up correctly. The plane can weigh as little as 20lb with a 1200 sized turbine and yes it flys well at this weight and engine output. Although the gear are narrow, I have had no ground handling problems.

George

The Gripen is not a difficult model to fly, its just a little different from a normal model. The main thing I would do on the test flight is get up high and find out what trim setting you need for the correct approach speed, mine has about 5 clicks up at 145mm cg, and the plane flys at 10-15 degrees nose up. On the approach, if your nose is any where near level, you have way to much speed, probably 90mph or so and you will not be able to bleed off this kind of speed in the flare. The Gripen on approach should look something like a full scale F-18, which takes some getting used to because the nose is so high and the plane is flying so slowly.
You are going to like the Gripen, I have 90 flights on mine now, and it is one of my all time favorite models.

Rob B.

Rob, you are correct, it is not a difficult plane to fly at all.

When I say "set-up", I mean getting the correct canard throws for different aspects of flights. Example, from experience we have found that we need to reduce the canard throw for landings to eliminate the pitching, but need much more for normal flight to bring the nose around in tight, high-speed turns.

I only speak from own experience and is based on two Gripens I have personally maidened and flown, one powered by a P-80 and a second powered by a SJ 1200. Hopefully I will have an opportunity to fly another Gripen powered by an Artes Falcon soon.

George

i know what your saying about the nose up approach. i fly a north star sold by balsa usa. and it's the same way. though not hard to fly , you do have to pay attention when landing. every landing seems different . i also flew a g&p sales f-18. it's funny you guys talk about max speeds of some of these jets being about 130-150. my f-18 with a rossi .60 swinging a apc 11x7 pusher was getting about 130 on a flat run ! on a pipe, 120 with a standard muffler. thanks for the input . it is very helpful ,warbird_1