TommyWatson

My Feedback: (1)

Thanks Bruce, Great idea with the index.

Regards

afterburner

My Feedback: (18)

Bob,
I just took a look at the 661's I received and I can't understand how they would work. It looks that it would have to be cut so short that even using the top of the retract unit as the spring stop, the strut would only be able to compress maybe a third of its full travel before bottoming out into the top of the retract? This would cause the mount/wing to take the full impact on a hard landing. It looks like the 660 series is probably a better choice. Has anyone used the 661's on the mains? i really like the look of the offset strut but I just don't see it working correctly in this application. Thanks.

Bruce,
Great idea with the index.

Marty

maxvertical

Perfect the 661's aren't, but yes I did use them in my airplane and yes the strut is cut very short, I think mine are cut to apprx 2 1/4" on the upper strut unit itself. Some have cut a little spring off with the mod, I did not. It's very stiff, but still functions very well. I get exactly 11/16" travel out of the stut before bottom and feel this is much better than the regular no give wire gear. We shouldn't be slamming jets on the ground anyway, so figure this is way better than no strut at all. I also made a light crimp at the top of the strut to help keep the plastic spacer from putting constant pressure on the retract unit and eventually forcing the strut out of the unit. Another word of caution that may help keep you from total frustration is that when the strut is cut that short, when retracted the wheel could come in contact with the air nipple for the retract unit. I had 90 angle fittings on my unit so had the extra clearance where the tube doesn't come in contact with the tire. Just more food for thought. I do like the 661's but there's a fair amount of work involved to make them right.
Hope that helps

Chris

bob1393

My Feedback: (10)

Marty,

I used the straight strut 660 and they work really great. I cut 2 coils off the spring, but that might not be necessary. Depends on how stiff you want them.

Bob

afterburner

My Feedback: (18)

Chris,
Here you said you used the 660's for the main gear and the offset 661 for the nose? I think the 660's(straight) would be able to give more compression than the 661(offset). Maybe I'll keep one of the 661 for the nose and return the other for 660's for the mains.

Marty

maxvertical

Sorry bout that Marty, you are correct, as listed. The offset is what I'm using on the nose, the mains are straight. This week is stress week for me, so haven't been thinking very clearly. Didn't mean to mislead you on that. I did measure the strut travel, and how much I cut off, so the travel and length I gave you is accurate for the mains I'm using.
Chris

afterburner

My Feedback: (18)

No problem Chris. Thanks. I'm sending the 661's back and ordering the 660's.

Marty

Eddie P

My Feedback: (4)

I've been looking at possibly using some 660's myself in place of the wire struts but everyone seems to be out of the 660's until late this month -meaning in a couple months probably!

tahfiet

Hi guys!

We finally maidend the Reaction and put 6 flights on it with 2 different engines

For the first two flights we had the PST J-600R under it's belly, but changed it to JetCat P-60 for the time the PST was repaired.

Best regards,

David

tahfiet

Hi again!

As you see, it is still in primer, but we wanted to fly it as soon as possible. And I am not sure about the paint-job, yet. Our junior pilot said: It's just wood.... . Flys like a *****-cat, I just found it hard to slow it down for the first landings. CG is at the rearmost position, makes it fly exellent in aerobatics, could have a bigger rudder for knife-edge flight . We changed the flap-mix close to no down-elevator and I will try crow-brake on the next couple of flights.

Best regards,

David Büsken

Eddie P

My Feedback: (4)

Congratulations David, it looks like you did a nice job with the glass finish! What weight did your model end up at?

TommyWatson

My Feedback: (1)

Have I got the fastest R54 in the world???.

I flew my Wren Supersport powered R54 on sunday. beautiful day at the field, I had the Weatronic RX to log the flight. The fastest I got was out of a split S (I gave it full throttle just before pullout) was 313 K/H or approx 194 Mph.
I need to check the acuracy of the Weatronic with a radar gun, but it was fast enough for me. What a super model, Thanks again Bruce.


Regards

TommyWatson

My Feedback: (1)

Ok, I know it is not a turbine or a Reaction 54, but it is a really cool engine and I wanted to show it all my Reaction 54 friends (especially you Dave R).
I will fly it in my big Tiger Moth when I can't fly the R54 due to hot weather..

Regards

tahfiet

Hi Tommy!

What's the sampling rate of your Weatronic GPS? They do have wrong numbers from time to time. The speed before and after your "record" is much lower so the time-marks would be nice to know.

Our reaction is pretty fast with the P-60, but has more power with the PST, but I would says it is probably around 250km/h. Sorry to say but it is far behind the Rookies and Harpoons, not like you said before. A Rookie with 120 is in the higher 300s. I remember Wolfgang Klühr flying his roo with a 160 with 400+ km/h!

Best regards,

David

BruceTharpe

My Feedback: (1)

David - Congrats on the new R54! First one to fly in Germany that I know of. Be sure to post pics after final paint.

Tommy - You win! Now stop that Actually, 194 mph sounds possible, particlularly coming out of a Split-S with your ultra-smooth finish and 18 lbs of thrust from the Wren. Did it LOOK like 313 kph/194 mph?

georbeckha

My Feedback: (12)

Hello all,
I have come close with my R54 powered by a Jetcat P70 at 4900 ft altitude in a shallow dive.
The radar gun clocked it at 183 mph! (Yes, actually it did look that fast. almost C**ped my pants because this is my first Turbine powered aircraft.)
I have since swapped the P70 for a Jetcat P60. That has been clocked at 160 mph downwind and 143 against the wind in level flight! We fugure an average of 151.5 mph is plenty fast enough for a beginner Turbine pilot to learn on. Once I get used to it and a new airframe is finished I may swap back to the P70 in the R54 and use the P60 in the new airframe.

Thanks for such an excelent flying design Bruce. Both myself and everyone else in the local club are very impressed with it!

George

tahfiet

Hi Eddie!

Sorry for the late reply. The Reaction weights 8.9kg dry with the PST and would be around 0.5kg less with the jetCat. But we didn't remove any noseweight, but put a Lipo-battery in the rear canopy-compartment. The PST uses a 1350mAh Nicad at the front-end. We use two 1500mAh Lipos with a Powerbox Digi for the reciever. Orbit valve for the retracts and a Jet-Tronics valve for the brakes. Retracts are Behotec because we had them. They are a bit heavier than the Robarts recommended by Bruce. But in case of a problem it is allways good to buy local.

@ Bruce: I will for sure post more pictures of the reaction. We never had that much fun with a sport-jet. It does fly better than the AV8R and the Facet 1200. And it even looks good in the air. I am already thinking about a nice paint-scheme with some flames to make it look faster

Best regards,

David

TommyWatson

My Feedback: (1)

Hi David,

The sampling rate is 1 second. I agree, I noticed the same thing. Thats why I want to get the radar gun and compare. It seemed fast. I am still getting used to the Weatronic and the 3D display..

I need to use it a bit more.

Regards

TommyWatson

My Feedback: (1)

Hi Bruce,

I find it hard to judge speed while flying, but the guys that were watching said it looked faster that I normally fly.

I need to get someone else to fly it while I watch.

Regards

georbeckha

My Feedback: (12)

In case anyone was interested... Here is my Reaction 54 which at this stage was still powered by the P70.
This was my first flight with it and we were having problems sorting out the Fuel Feed...

[link=http://homepage.mac.com/amerikiwiusa/iMovieTheater109.html]R54 - P70 Short Flight[/link]

Like the Backdrop? I think it was less than 40 degrees this day! (Thank God for the warm Jet Blast! LOL

maxvertical

You guys are killing me! Have it set up to do the first flight on my R54 May 23rd, so I'm getting close! Mine will be in grey primer as well since I wont have enough time to finish out before the big day.

Will post project pictures soon.
Chris

TommyWatson

My Feedback: (1)

Hi Chris,

Be sure to put some dayglow stickers on the wing tips and the fin. It also a good idea to have some on the bottom of the wing.

You are going to love it.

Regards

booker-RCU

My Feedback: (43)

Hi Guys - We had a mini gathering of R-54's at Shelton Sanderson Field yesterday. The weather was great and schedules finally coincided and we had a great time.
On the left is Chuck, Middle is me and Right is Bob. All three have PST 600"s. Bob and I have the R version and Chuck the 600. We can't tell the difference in power between the R and the regular PST.
I doubt any of us hit 185 mph, but then we weren't trying.
Galen

maxvertical

Galen, I got the tease from Bob. He wrote me saying you guys were up there just ripping it up!

Sounds like you guys had a real blast, so hope to add another bird to the frey sometime in the near future. That is if you let me fly with you guys.... I don't have PST power..

Tommy, thanks for the words of advice. Probably good sound advice for an all grey airplane. One of the guys that is helping me with the process is into pylon racing, and he's got some stickers we can put on this thing to help with visability. Now I have to pick a color, dayglow orange or dayglow green!

booker-RCU

My Feedback: (43)

Hey - You're welcome any time!
Where do you plan to do the maiden? Be sure and check the website as the WSP use it for training as well and some days aren't available
http://sfrcf.quintex.com/
I should have my Bobcat going pretty soon.

Galen