JAS-39 Gripen Owners/Build Thread
12-29-2015, 07:38 AM
#1326
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Join Date: May 2004
Location: Kungsbacka, SWEDEN
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Hi
There is one of the Swedish made Gripen kits for sale.
www.rcuniverse.com/market/item.cfm?itemId=1056568
//
Jonas
There is one of the Swedish made Gripen kits for sale.
www.rcuniverse.com/market/item.cfm?itemId=1056568
//
Jonas
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jescardin (06-12-2021)
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jescardin (06-12-2021)
06-17-2021, 02:27 PM
#1331
joeflyer,
Thanks for compliment of the video. Always a pleasure videoing Jose and whatever he's flying. He is going about taming this Gripen. The performance gets better with each flight tuning.
Cheers!
Desert Fox 1
Thanks for compliment of the video. Always a pleasure videoing Jose and whatever he's flying. He is going about taming this Gripen. The performance gets better with each flight tuning.
Cheers!
Desert Fox 1
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David J Ruskin (06-29-2021),
Fighting Falcon (07-03-2021)
07-02-2021, 03:54 AM
#1333
Come on you my humble Friend, your Videos are awesome and of great help for any pilot to get better. Thanks for all you do for us!
Joeflyer, I'm pretty sure you would enjoy her big time. Mine was sitting in my garage for years... I've been taking advantage of radio and gyro newer features and she is flying a lot better that she used to.
Thanks to both you and Jim RCJETS_63 for sharing your experience and wisdom in this thread. I've followed your advice to the letter.
Dust her off!!!
Joeflyer, I'm pretty sure you would enjoy her big time. Mine was sitting in my garage for years... I've been taking advantage of radio and gyro newer features and she is flying a lot better that she used to.
Thanks to both you and Jim RCJETS_63 for sharing your experience and wisdom in this thread. I've followed your advice to the letter.
Dust her off!!!
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Fighting Falcon (02-24-2022)
10-12-2022, 09:49 AM
#1337
Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: Falkoping, SWEDEN
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I PIO'd it on take off for a practice flight Friday afternoon. It bellied in at the end of the runway. Significant damage so it won't fly again at Top Gun.
The Gripen will fly again, just not this weekend. I'll get it fixed for the JWM and it will be better than ever.
Regards,
Jim
The Gripen will fly again, just not this weekend. I'll get it fixed for the JWM and it will be better than ever.
Regards,
Jim
I noticed some pictures at David Harts flickr (
Assume you have repaired the model now? It would have been nice to see some pictures from the repair.
I myself have completed a 1/6 Gripen from Einar Johnsson thats waiting on re maiden.
Best Regards Daniel
10-12-2022, 03:11 PM
#1338
Hi Daniel,
After PIO'ing it into the overshoot at Top Gun 2015, I recognized that fundamentally the model had a fatal design flaw in that the landing gear relied on hydraulic lock to lock the landing gear in the down position. Unless landed like a butterfly with sore feet (every landing), the landing loads would attempt to push the gear up, load the extended cylinders, and buckle the cylinder rods. This necessitates replacing the cylinders which have a $400 replacement cost (and a 4-month lead time). Simply put, this was not an acceptable.
I partially repaired the plane and then made a deal with Hank Miklich where I'd sell him my plane and he would design/manufacture a downlock feature for the main gear (Hank is a master machinist who made, back in the day, a variety of parts for the Apollo and Skylab programs) and I would buy his new-in-box AW Gripen plus a set of landing gear lock parts he made.
Hank designed a Heim joint and incorporated reversing pneumatics into the drag link which solved the downlock problem. The plane re-maidened in May 2021 flown by Jerry "Randy" Moore at Russelville airport near the Tennesse/Kentucky border. Such a large runway allowed fiddling with the take-off setup & technique to eliminate (or at least minimize) the "Gripen Leap". Ali Machinchy flew the model at Kentucky Jets 2021 and further refinements were made based on his much valued input. It was at Rosewood (Bill Beech Memorial aka Fall Classic) in Oct 2021, that we'd confirmed that we really had the plane sorted out that it was "good to go". Even I got a pull at the sticks!
Hank always wanted to go to Top Gun, so we all set to work in preparation. Hank got the bird in tip top condition, I set to work on the documentation and making scale details to later attach, and Randy prepped for the routine he would fly. Top Gun went quite well, and the plane received a static score of 99.250 points (out of 100) and, overall, we finished 3rd in the Unlimited category.
It's quite coincidental that you replied to the thread this week. I have just returned from Rosewood 2022 where I took delivery of Hank's NIB kit (in fact, a box of fiberglass parts is still in my vehicle) so I have a replacement Gripen to build. I'm hoping to make this one even better than ever with the following improvements:
- incorporate the downlock mechanism that Hank developed. (See Post #1202 for an explanation of the issue).
- convert the hydraulic gear to pneumatic. (Hank also did this.)
- incorporate servo-driven airbrakes using the mounts that Hank designed and retrifitted as an improvement into the original Gripen
- new more scale-like wing pylons, plus the centerline pylon and the pylon on the right inlet. Droppable stores on multiple pylons.
- replace stock missile rails with more scale-like rails
- improved cockpit with working LCD color displays, animatronic pilot, sunshield and mirrors, and detailed features on the deck behind the pilot.
- fully detailed airbrake back surface and recess
Now all I have to do (besides building it) is to decide on the paint scheme. I'm leaning towards aircraft #9237 in the Tiger Meet scheme of 2009. What do you think?
Jim
After PIO'ing it into the overshoot at Top Gun 2015, I recognized that fundamentally the model had a fatal design flaw in that the landing gear relied on hydraulic lock to lock the landing gear in the down position. Unless landed like a butterfly with sore feet (every landing), the landing loads would attempt to push the gear up, load the extended cylinders, and buckle the cylinder rods. This necessitates replacing the cylinders which have a $400 replacement cost (and a 4-month lead time). Simply put, this was not an acceptable.
I partially repaired the plane and then made a deal with Hank Miklich where I'd sell him my plane and he would design/manufacture a downlock feature for the main gear (Hank is a master machinist who made, back in the day, a variety of parts for the Apollo and Skylab programs) and I would buy his new-in-box AW Gripen plus a set of landing gear lock parts he made.
Hank designed a Heim joint and incorporated reversing pneumatics into the drag link which solved the downlock problem. The plane re-maidened in May 2021 flown by Jerry "Randy" Moore at Russelville airport near the Tennesse/Kentucky border. Such a large runway allowed fiddling with the take-off setup & technique to eliminate (or at least minimize) the "Gripen Leap". Ali Machinchy flew the model at Kentucky Jets 2021 and further refinements were made based on his much valued input. It was at Rosewood (Bill Beech Memorial aka Fall Classic) in Oct 2021, that we'd confirmed that we really had the plane sorted out that it was "good to go". Even I got a pull at the sticks!
Hank always wanted to go to Top Gun, so we all set to work in preparation. Hank got the bird in tip top condition, I set to work on the documentation and making scale details to later attach, and Randy prepped for the routine he would fly. Top Gun went quite well, and the plane received a static score of 99.250 points (out of 100) and, overall, we finished 3rd in the Unlimited category.
It's quite coincidental that you replied to the thread this week. I have just returned from Rosewood 2022 where I took delivery of Hank's NIB kit (in fact, a box of fiberglass parts is still in my vehicle) so I have a replacement Gripen to build. I'm hoping to make this one even better than ever with the following improvements:
- incorporate the downlock mechanism that Hank developed. (See Post #1202 for an explanation of the issue).
- convert the hydraulic gear to pneumatic. (Hank also did this.)
- incorporate servo-driven airbrakes using the mounts that Hank designed and retrifitted as an improvement into the original Gripen
- new more scale-like wing pylons, plus the centerline pylon and the pylon on the right inlet. Droppable stores on multiple pylons.
- replace stock missile rails with more scale-like rails
- improved cockpit with working LCD color displays, animatronic pilot, sunshield and mirrors, and detailed features on the deck behind the pilot.
- fully detailed airbrake back surface and recess
Now all I have to do (besides building it) is to decide on the paint scheme. I'm leaning towards aircraft #9237 in the Tiger Meet scheme of 2009. What do you think?
Jim
Last edited by rcjets_63; 10-13-2022 at 10:05 AM.
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Ron S (10-12-2022)
