First Turbine Jet
 

I know this has probably been beat to death and I have read a lot of post on several forums pertaining to this subject. It's so spread out and most of the links to suggestions are dead or kits are no longer made. I've kind of narrowed it down to either a Boomerang Sprint, Turbinator or a Turbinator 2 air frame. I have already purchased a KingTech K85 so the aircraft has to fit this engine. I've sent a question from the contact us page at Boomerang Jets but have yet to receive a response which makes me a little nervous about the product and support should I need any. Are there any other suggestions to a good starter air frame fitting this turbine? Keeping in mind that I am kind of on my own as there are no clubs local to me that I know of that fly anything, let alone fly jets. A little history on my past. I have been flying RC off and on for more than 30 years, including trainers, sport, Giant Scale and lately EDF jets.. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

I fly an XL, awesome jet.

First Jet
 

A friend of mine just flew his first Turbine jet this past September. He's been flying sporadically over the last 20 yrs. mostly flying electrics. I recommended, and he purchased, an Excalibur (standard size). He bought and installed a k85 (which is perfect) I did the maiden (typical 1 or two clicks for straight and level) with a very smooth comfortable felling in the air. On the fifth flight he did his first solo on it. That was in September and he's still smiling. It's a nice flying plane at a reasonable price, easy to assemble and flies and lands very well. I have both a boomerang intro and XL they also fly well but I believe this is even better (just my opinion having flown all 3) All flights have been off pavement but a 400-500 foot grass field should be no problem.
Welcome to turbine powered flight. Good luck!
Gary

My suggestion for a first turbine jet is a Rookie, a old favorite of mine.

I could be wrong, but something interesting that I observed this years is the people that learned to fly turbines in a bobcat, or a rookie, hotspots, etc.. ( the old "difficult to fly" jet trainers ) progressed smoothly to fast, big, complex models with ease, and tend to fly a lot more relaxed whatever they choose to fly.

And at the same time, people that learned to fly in boomerangs, and other "easy flying" jets had a tendency to fly easier, slower straight wing models even if they have plenty of experience.

I recommend the Sprint. I still love to fly mine. It has a lot more room inside it than the Excalibur. But, the Excalibur will be a little faster with the K85 as the Excal is a bit more aerodynamic. A K85 will not push an XL very well. The Sprint and Kingtech manuals are very good. But none address the Rxer, power distribution system, etc. So ask a lot of questions.

There will be a bit of a learning curve, especially if you are on your own. Best to link up with experienced Jet Guys now as you will need a waiver to fly it and they can help you with info on assembly, operation, etc.

Best to stick with a trainer so you can learn to deal with a jet before putting a lot of $s into a sport jet and crashing before you learn the essentials. However, there will be a leap from the trainers to the sport jets and another leap to warbirds.

I do like the looks of the Excalibur better than the Sprint. But I have helped extensively troubleshoot a turbine in an Excal. There is little room for anything in it. The one here does have pneumatic gear, which the tanks take up a lot of space. One has to burry stuff and then it is a real bugger to troubleshoot. Placing the Remote Rxers away from metal components also became an issue. Basically the Excal is small and you do NOT have the turbine for a larger version, IMHO. The Sprint is much more open and you can add the larger fuel tank. My P-100 gets about 12 minutes on the larger tank. Also, the Excal that we have at our site, has gone thru several nose gear pins from bouncing. The pilot flies other planes well. He just has had a hard time getting a good landing with the Excal. I never had a landing issue, ever, with the Sprint. From day one, I just landed it. But, the Excal will be a little faster given the same turbine. But if you are just learning jets, fast is not always better. You need one that gives the jet experience, but handles well and still is fun to fly. When I want a fun, no stress day of flying, the Sprint comes out of the trailer first.

I have had 2 Boomerang XLs and can attest to the fact that they are excellent flyers and very easy to land. Having said that, and with what I know now, I would have much rather have an Avanti. Sebart makes an Avanti XS which would be a perfect match for your engine! While I loved my Boomerangs I think the Avanti is a much better looking jet and, if it flies anything like the Freewing Avanti, a much better flying jet (I know, hard to imagine anything that flies better than a Boomerang). Experience with an Avanti is that it flies extremely well at all speeds, even dead slow! Makes for nice, comfortable, predictable approaches and easy landings.

There is a new Sebart distributor in the U.S. who is looking for orders for a container of jets coming soon.

I just ordered one earlier this month from these guys:
https://www.lindinger.at/en/airplane...turbine-or-edf

Here is a video of one flying with a Merlin 80:

And another video of one flying on a P-60!

Thanks for all the suggestions! Gives me some ideas and things to consider.

Received my Avanti XS last saturday! After a lot of head scratching I have decided to order a Kingtech K-85 for it. It just seems like the perfect match for this plane with keeping it light in mind.

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rcu...32a69acefb.jpg

Hi Steve:
Did some comparison weight vs thrust and my first choice would be the Jets Munt M70 more thrust and lighter than the King Tech k70.... The K85 is a pretty heavy piece of machinery. then there is the larger fuel tank you need for the K85. since they are mounted pretty far back you may need to add dead weight to the front to compensate
for the C of G. For any servos mounted in the tail look at the MKS 737 or the 747 servos for power for a 38 gram servo.

Hi,

I don´t know about the rest of you, but for me, regardless of flying characteristics, a turbine jet has to look like a jet.
Given your flying experience I think that a CARF Joker would be perfect.
The K-85 is the perfect turbine for the plane, and it has a very wide flying range. You could fly at slow or medium speed to get used to it, and then when you get confortable, if you like you can tear the sky with it. In our club there are several of them as first jet plane, and all their owners are very happy.

Regards
Eduardo