Lil Hoss

My Feedback: (58)

I think I'm one of the lucky ones to find a Aviation Design "Exocet". As I understand they are getting hard to find. I lucked out and found one from Peter at http://www.altecarerc.com/. A few days latter it's sitting on my front porch. All my jets in the past have been ARF's. This is a project. Really doesn't look to hard to do. Has anyone else build one of these? Anything I should possibly look out for in the construction? I am planning on glassing the wings and stabs when I get that far. I did a search on RCU on the Exocet but the post are pretty old. I am planning on putting a P70 in this jet. Any suggestions or building forums that I might have missed, Please advise me.


Thanks
Hoss

Bob_B

My Feedback: (11)

Cool project Hoss. Post photos as you build.

LGM Graphix

My Feedback: (22)

Hi Hoss,
I've built 2 of them and I love the jet! I flew mine with a RAM750 and the last one I had (just sold it) was going to have a PST600R in it. They build very light and fly fantastic.
The only things I can think of that are worth changing are:
1. Beef up the nose section, I ended up putting a layer of 3oz carbon fiber cloth in the nose on mine, this is a weak area, I also built up the nose gear former a little stronger, did all this on the rebuild of exocet number one after a nose gear failure on take off removed the front half of the jet. The airplane needs a fair bit of nose weight to balance so don't be shy about making it beefy there.
2. Be sure and put a BVM heat blanket between the pipe and the rudder pushrod. I had my rudder pushrod melt on the first run up. After putting the blanket in there I had no more problems. I also used all Carbon fiber nyrods in mine for the elevators and rudder.
3. Don't use a single wall pipe. The exocet kits are sold with a pipe option, unfortunately it's still a single wall pipe. Single wall pipes are fine for ducted fan use but IMO have no real place in a turbine model, it used to be the accepted standard I guess but if it was a good design everyone would still be using them. Have Gary at Jet-Tech make one for you with a stainless inner tube and a titanium outer tube to save some weight (like I said, you'll need nose weight) A single wall pipe will not run cool enough and the back end of the exocet is fairly tight around the pipe, you want to keep it cool in there.
4. Fuel tank, a 1.5L water bottle fits between the inlets perfectly! Build a cradle for the neck of it and the inlet ducting will support the back half of it with no problem.

Other than that, it's all pretty straight forward, there is one really odd shaped piece of fiberglass in the kit that isn't mentioned in the instructions, it's a shroud that fits over the inlet ducting and surounds the frong half of the turbine a little, sort of like a partial bypass I guess but it's really not a bypass. You can see where it fits in this picture:



Here you can see where I mounted my elevator servos:



Here is my last exocet after the repairs from damaging the nose:

Lil Hoss

My Feedback: (58)

Thanks LGM. I read your post back in the archives about your Exocet and thats really why I bought one. As I understand they fly very well and slow down to a crawl. I tried to contact you,,, but for some reason the mail never went thru. If at all possible can you contact me?? I have a few questions on the construction. I just opened the box, looked at the parts and put it aside for construction next weekend. Can you please contact me at [email protected]

Thanks again LGM
Hoss

mikeyfly

[img]2007 just got an exocet and gave it a new pant job, ram 750 going into it,[/img]

mikeyfly

[quote]ORIGINAL: mikeyfly

[img]2007 just got an exocet and gave it a new pant job, ram 750 going into it,[/img]
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