Hey Guys

I have aquired a Byron F18 NIB (very rare here in Oz), it is supplied with twin Rossi 105's.and Byron fans.....

Can anyone let me now how well they fly as a single ducted fan...............also is it possible to convert to twin DF ??

Also will they fly off grass as we have a no sealed strips to fly off .


cheers

Alan

youdo have a rare find there. The byron F18 is a grassfiled jet. Godd sturdy and steady flyer on the single OS 91 and Byron fan. I believe you would be asking for more heartache than its worth going to a twin setup. I have the Byron F15 on twins...great impressive airplane but a pain in the butt to get flying and keep flying. The F18 on a single is not overpowered, fast or aerobatic by any standard but it will get you in the air. My advice is to keep it simple, keep it a single and you will be happy.

i agree with ram-bro...

I have one of those which i am converting to turbine at the moment.

P-70 and a bifur pipe and that baby will fly great....

Twin Engine D/F is not that hard - you just have to know how to set up the engines so they run right. Had a Byron F-15 with Ross.81s with OS 9 carbs - flew GREAT -no problem at all - same thing with a Tom Cook F-4 - Twin Dynamax and OS.91s- I could get 20 flights a day - and NO dead sticks. Try it. Nothing worse than a twin engine A/C with only 1 engine - why bother ? JMO.


Jackjet

Hey guys thanks for your help/advice..........this is my first venture into DF/jets.......been flying large scale heavy metal war birds for years......so thought I'd go the DF path before diving into the abiss of turbines

The Byron F18 model gets delivered next week and has been partially built with all internal formers installed for a single Rossi 105 DF so retrofitting a twin DF may be more of a headache than it's worth........I'll see when it arrives

Glad to hear that it does actually fly on the single DF although not sure weather to stick with the Rossi 105 and Byro fan or go for the OS91 and a Ramtech fan......????/

Any thoughts ??

cheers

Alan

if you go with anything else besides the byron fan you will need to build all the intake ducting. the jet is already heavy so adding extra weight is not going to help you as a first jet. as for the rossi 105, if you have time to tinker with it long enough to get it dialed in its not bad. if you want a dependable engine that you can crank,fire and fly and rely on, go with the o.s. 91... just my .02cents

Dont think there's room for 2 byroblasters. I had one I flew for several years with one byron shroud with a hurricane fan. OS91. It has to be light. Mine was 14# and did pretty well.

Keep it light, mine weighed in at around 19lbs dry compared to my F-16 which is around 13lbs.
I have an OS 91 DF in my F-16 Falcon and it is a fantastic flying machine, flies off our grass field without any problems, however the Hornet is a whole other story.
It needs a minimum of 400 feet plus runway to get airborne. Turbine ( P-70) with a tail pipe and saddle fuel cells is the way to go, makes it a far superior flying machine.

do yourself a big favour and put a jetcat 70 or probably even better (if it will fit) jetcat 80, ring peter at intairco and he will steer you in the right direction (away from your money!) ducted fans are sooooo last century mate, ok if you have a desire to muck around with gunk and oil till its coming out your ears, or if theres a total fire ban, but thats about all. theres not that much to learn from flying seriously underpowered jets, its all been done, go to a jet meet here in australia, 50- 60 turbines and 1 or 2 d/fs thats the reality these days. intairco has some good engines second hand too. if money is not too much of an issue and you really are a reasonable pilot/ builder, just go straight to turbine
you could even run the engine at 25% throttle for that genuine d/f experince!!!!

Alan,
just get a hold of a OS9D Carb and make a adapter then mount it to the Rossi 105 - trust me- you WILL like it- D/F is still fun - I LOVE the sound of 24K RPM on a high speed low pass - sounds just like a F1 race car.

Jackjet

Ahhh you guys .....now you got me thinking.....DF...Turbine....DF .......Turbine


Blackcat

Thanks for the words of wisdom about going turbine......I am soooooo tempted but too many money sucking projects still unfinished, I do however like a challenge and flying an underpowered DF sounds like a real challenge !!!..........I fly a Byron P51 with the Q42 and reduction drive and that is a real challenge to fly ........soooo underpowered but fun to keep in the air !

Jackjet

I will look into an OS9D carb and see how we go...........I will try keep the weight to an absolute minimum.........but then again if it does get too fat.........drop in a turbine !


cheers

Alan

If you go DF use the Rossi for a door stop on your workshop and get an OS-91.

V..

This is my Byron FA-18 circa late 70s early 80s OS 90 and Byron fan weight about 15 lbs flew great, only problem was taxing/taking off/landing in a cross wind with it as the mains landing gear was not very wide

Spitmad,

I just maidened my Byron F-18 today and it did great even thought my elevators were not even causing it to roll left. Made 2 or 3 passes, set up for a landing, throttled back and touched down at a nice nose high attitude. This jet is by no means fast, but looks great and scale in the air! I received a round of applause with many cheers after the mains touched down. Mine is powered by a Rossi .90 and took about 350' to 400' to rotate. I cannot wait to fly her again! I will be at Florida Jets this week and may come home with a new power plant for her......

Some pics for your enjoyment!

Nice Bird! I'm new to DF and was wondering is there a way to deduce the necessary wing area for say a BVM 0.91 DF engine?

Thanks,

Mods

you could always cut another foam core oor scratch build a balsa version. But why would you need to reduce the wing area? To use the BVM fan you will need to have some internal ducting and seal the cheater hole and I would think that would be enuff

Hey Ram-bro. Sorry, I meant deduce (i.e. to find) the wing area required for a 0.91 sized GDF model. My plan right now is to scale up the CAD drawing until the engines fit but I want to get the aero science part taken care of before doing all that work.

Mods

I dug up an old copy of RCJI (Jan 95) and there are a few pics of a mod done by a gentleman by the name of Angelo Minici. Its on pg 11. He mounted dual Ramtec/OS91s in his Byron F-18. Looks similar to the F-4 install on the Tom Cook F-4. Yeah its tight but it fits. He even went so far as to make his own scale gear. Dual Byroblasters would prob not fit. All in all a spiffy looking aircraft.
Jeff

Excellent !........congrats on your maiden flight.........again I'm glad to hear that they will fly on a DF.........400' is a lot of strip to get off the deck[X(]...how was the verticle performance ???.........will the F18 pull a loop or cuban 8 ?

cheers

Alan

It was because of that 400+ feet of runway it needed to get of the ground i am planning on going Turbine. You will Definately need to strengthen and modify a few pieces. Specially the wing attachment. Also you will require a tail pipe, kevlar fuel cells, and all the other necessary attachments. Email Tam @ tamjets.com and he will be able to assist you.
Zain

Zain,

I hope to speak to Tam this week at Florida Jets if they will be in attendance.

I am planning on strengthening the elevator assembly, wing attachments, and landing gear setup with brakes.

Greg Hames

Alan,

Do NOT expect any vertical maneuvers with this jet. It is a great, stable flier but the best you could expect would be a split S following a high speed dive.

Greg Hames