DP01

My Feedback: (1)

I located the retract air tank behind the upper hatch - lots of space and the tank is light. The brake tank is below the shelf on the RH side. Also added a 16oz round fuel tank on the LH side.

I used the trim servo operated valve - took a little mix programming but it works OK. I've used the Jetronics unit on another aircraft and it is easy to set up and as noted, saves a servo.

Dennis

JimBrown

My Feedback: (2)

Hello All!

Just a quick note to mention that not only have I joined the R54 club, but in doing so, I've also joined the turbine club!

Yep, last Sunday I put on the first three flights on my new (to me) R54. (It used to be Gary Szetlak's.) What a wonderful flying jet!

I've mentioned this to a number of people personally, when the R54 was introduced, I was pretty sure it would be my first turbine jet. And after flying RCPete's R54 (thanks Pete!) I knew it would be. The reason is that I did not want to have to worry about two things at once, operating a turbine for the first time, and flying a new jet for the first time. With the R54, one does not have to worry about the flying part!! And the best part, is that it looks good! It looks like a jet.

Oh, and those first three flights were made at my club field, which has a whopping(!!) 430' of grass runway. Since I was being carefull and not horsing it off the runway, it used about 200' of it. I'm sure I could get it off sooner. As for landing, I did get a bit slow and dropped it the last 2' of altitude, for a roll out of about 20'. :-) I think I had too much flap dialed in. The second and third flights were similar, but with better landings.

Anyway, more flights this weekend at a Giant Scale rally two hours away, then off to Heart of Ohio!

A big thanks to Gary S. and RCPete for their help at Michigan Jets finishing up the setup, and to Bruce for the extra bits and pieces I needed.

I'm a happy camper!
...jim

Terry Holston

My Feedback: (1)

Hey Jim............................'bout TIME, buddy....................Congrats...............

rcguy!

My Feedback: (69)

Way to go Jim! Burn some kero now! Congrats!
I'm sure Gary built it straight and true!
Seeya at Heart of Ohio!

Dave Rigotti

rcguy!

My Feedback: (69)

Folks,
I've sold my Reaction 54 to a nice guy in Carlsbad, CA. I'm enjoying the "little" R44 so much I haven't flown the R54 much at all this season. The shipping crate came out at 86" long, 35" wide, and 28" high with 4 by 4's underneath. The box is really 24" high. Shipping weight came out to 175 pounds. Shipped it Forward Air from the Cleveland terminal to the San Diego terminal.

I'll still enjoy reading the posts and I'll answer any questions directed towards me.

Thank You Bruce for such a GREAT plane!

See some of you at Heart of Ohio?

Dave Rigotti

dbarrym

My Feedback: (47)

Wow - took me over 3 hours to scan through this thread. I'm the "nice guy" Dave sold his Reaction to - I got tired of seeing this fine jet sit in the classifieds and decided to help out and take it off Dave's hands. Seriously, I've wanted a nice sport jet and this looks like a nice one.

Haven't done much jet flying over the last year, what with the 'jet ban' at most SoCal flying sites and the fire ban in place at my home field, but hoping to make the best of the rest of the season this year. Looking forward to getting her in the air next week. Thanks Dave!

yeahbaby

My Feedback: (21)

you know where she'll have a whole garage all to herself and can fly her year round. LOL

Looking forward to seeing it in a couple of weeks

buck

afterburner

My Feedback: (18)

Good deal on selling the R54 Dave. You answered my PM's over a year ago when I needed to decide if the Reaction was the right trainer and I'm happy to say it was. Last weekend was the maiden flight of mine and it was completely succesful. Here's some video of the maiden.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrY-JDVUMcc


Marty

rcguy!

My Feedback: (69)

Marty,
Way to go! "I like the colors!"

Dave

BruceTharpe

My Feedback: (1)

Marty - Great movie! Takeoff and landing were both a little fast, but that's understandable for a first flight. Hope you have many more exciting flights and smooth landings...

Jim - Congrats my friend! Welcome to the R54 family. It's extra cool when guys use the R54 as their first turbine.

Dave - You're still an important part of the family - Number 2 customer-built model to fly!

Here's another case where the R54 served as a first turbine and now Dave's moving on to bigger and better (and faster) things, no doubt. Nothing but the best, my friend!

afterburner

My Feedback: (18)

Thanks Bruce. As it's been said many times, you designed and implemented a great trainer/sport jet kit and the manual left nothing to the imagination. I can't wait to get some more stick time on it.

Marty

speedbrake

Howdy all,
Just wanted to add my name to the R54 thread. Flew my Reaction for the first time a couple of weeks ago. The kit was from the original batch from BTE and built in Holland. It was shipped to Georgia this summer ( not a scratch on it). Bruce sent me a turbine last month. The PST600R and the Reaction are an awesome combo.

Experienced four flameouts in the first four flights. A whip antenna was installed and haven't had a problem since. Haven't had a problem with any of the on board systems or the airframe. Was able to rescue a second R54 kit from an ARF builder. Got the kit, retract and brake packages for a very reasonable price. The wife and I are being reassigned to Italy so plan on building the second R54 there and have it shipped to the states next summer. I like the F54 modification so will probably try it.

Fly high, fly fast, and land soft!

Keith

BruceTharpe

My Feedback: (1)

Way to go Keith! Glad you survived the flameouts - the R54 is pretty forgiving in that situation.

Oops, forgot to give a shoutout to "nice guy" dbarrym. Glad Dave's R54 found a good home

causeitflies

When I was building my R-54 I was glad to see any video that anyone had of the plane flying. My buddy got a few short clips of mine on his digital still camera. Not the greatest quality and no fancy flying (if I knew he was filming I would have shown off )
Just a take off, slow flight, and a landing that's not the greatest but I was running out of runway and wasn't looking for "pretty". I like to ride the mains when I can.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgLQR3PnQqU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMgAb2suvX8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UAsexW-JWAQ

Ron Stahl

My Feedback: (12)

I know that Bruce is out of kits right now, so if anyone is looking for an complete package ;I have a friend who too busy to build his right now and is willing to sell his complete package at the same price Bruce is selling it for contact me for info on how to talk to my buddy.

afterburner

My Feedback: (18)

Nice videos Mark.

You're right about the videos when building. Every time I took a hiatus from balsa dust, I would watch an R54 video to get myself back into the build even though this was one of the easiest kits I've ever built.

Marty

phantom driver

My Feedback: (32)

Hello everyone,
This is one really great thread.I love all the planes, and the mods are awesome.Some really nice birds.I am going to be getting a Reaction 54 when they become available again and I will use this tread for help and ideas for sure. I have just ordered my first turbine engine, a JetCat P-70 and I cain't wait for it to arrive. My local feild is 400'x 50' and the Reaction 54 looks like it should be able to takeoff and land in this space. Thanks for all the info to all that have contributed to this thread.

causeitflies

After seeing my Reaction fly quite a few guys are sayng "Hmmm... these jets aren't that hard to fly and you don't have to land at 90mph."
I wish I had a good video of a really slow landing but here are a couple short clips of playing with a Bob Cat. Sorry, no sound, again video from a still camera.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Jb3H9l1ktc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItkSi1yL9iE

autothrottle

My Feedback: (69)

Hello Reaction owners/builders,
I was very fortunate in finding a NIB Reaction kit on RCU. Just about to finish up both wing panels. Before I start on the fues, I wanted to know where I could find the plans to build the side intakes that run along the fuselage. I’ve seen some of the Reactions with these “Military” style intakes. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Rob

causeitflies

Finally found the post I was thinking of:
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=3337097

f6hlct

My Feedback: (4)

I am putting this on the Reaction site in response to an email that I just received about my retracts and struts. They seem to be working very well, and I would like to pass on what I had to do to incorporate the Robart struts.

I used the 530RS 90 Deg. Robostrut Ready Main Gear for the mains with the 660 main struts. The biggest difficulty in using struts on this plane is that the Reaction gear struts are so short. That is also a good thing as the bending moment is also reduced. I had to cut off about 3” from the strut, which is about where the spring block inside the strut is. In doing so, I have no stop inside the strut, and use the inside of the retract block for the spring seat. This is not a very big task and most people should be able to accomplish this.

The nose gear is where all the work is, and may intimidate some people. I used the 543RS 100 Deg. RoboStrut Ready Rail Mount Nose Gear which is a bit different than the kit recommends. The strut for this is the 661LLH Offset for 2 3/4" - 3" Wheels. Once again you have to cut off a chunk, but you do not have a retract that accepts the strut as in the mains. You will have to make this strut even shorter than the mains. I can’t remember the exact lengths, but you will also need to cut about ½” off the inside piston, as well as the spring. You will also have to limit travel by building up the block that limits the scissor travel with a metal rod silver soldered in place. If you look closely at the photo, you will see that the steering tiller was welded directly to the included knurled metal insert to save even more length. One of the problems I had was that the 3/16ths rod that is used to join the strut to the retract is just not strong enough for this plane. Robarts recommended a ¼” rod that they use in larger retracts for a fix. Drilling out the existing parts was an easy process and has proved to be a good decision.

As for the wheels and brakes, I used the Trim setup, and every thing works great. All this retract stuff was purchased at www.greatnorthernmodels.com if you are looking for a source.

I do not regret any of this work, but I would caution anyone that thinks that this is plug and play. It’s far from it. Perhaps if the desire is there, Robarts could make up the custom sets for this plane. Its defiantly a great setup.

Hope that this answers your questions.

Dave Penchuk

mr_matt

My Feedback: (10)

Sorry if this is a dumb question but why not just mount the nose retract further up in the airframe and then you would not have to shorten the strut so much??

Regards,

speedbrake

f6hlct,
What prompted you to change the landing gears? Is there a problem with the recommended retracts?

Speedbrake

f6hlct

My Feedback: (4)

I figured that if I put this much money and time into my jet, that I would want it to look the part. The functional oleos also add a level of absorption on the airframe. I have seen Reactions with wire struts, and they seem to work fine too. It’s your preference.

As for moving the retract higher, you end up with a longer moment arm on the retract, as well the wheel will retract back farther in the up position. I thought about this one for some time, and drew many mock up pictures until I found what seemed right.

It’s not the only answer, but it seems to work very well.

Dave Penchuk

jclittle

My Feedback: (99)

Dave, good to see you in Ohio last week. You have an awesome Reaction! If you want to get some flying in this winter, come on down to GA, your welcome anytime. Jim