2008 the year of the Turbinator
01-04-2010, 09:07 AM
#151
RE: 2008 the year of the Turbinator
I guess 2010 will be the year of the Turbinator for me. Here are some photos of my progress. I still have quite a bit of plumbing and wiring to finish up, but other than the cockpit you can get a good feel for how it will look.
01-13-2010, 11:15 AM
#155
RE: 2008 the year of the Turbinator
My modified turbinator is complete, the only thing left is the cockpit detail and gear doors on the mains (if I decide to add them). Here are a couple photos. Note the "gun" in the nose that is actually the pitot tube for the Eagle Tree airspeed unit. Also you can see the way I set up everything under the hatch. I ended up right on the 7" CG recommended by the plans with no nose weight. Using a bathroom scale, I estimate the plane weighs about 23 lbs empty. Should be no problem with a Jet Central Rabbit pushing it.
01-13-2010, 06:59 PM
#158
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RE: 2008 the year of the Turbinator
Great job of kit bashing. I'm real close to finishing my 80% version of the Turbinator. Will post some pictures when I get a chance.
Hal
Hal
01-20-2010, 09:31 AM
#159
RE: 2008 the year of the Turbinator
I thought I'd post some of the final photos now that the cockpit is done. It's too cold to take it out into the sunshine yet, so I'll have to wait to get some good photos. I can't wait to get it into the air. Check out my "virtual" cockpit. I would have liked to do a full figure but there is only so much space available.
.
03-19-2010, 05:22 PM
#164
RE: 2008 the year of the Turbinator
Still waiting for some nice weather and coordinating the maiden with the people who will sign me off. I hope to get in the air sometime early in the season and get my waiver. It was nice enough to get a couple outdoor photos. Looks ready to go.
06-02-2010, 01:39 PM
#166
RE: 2008 the year of the Turbinator
I finally got a chance to maiden my jet and everything went well. I even managed to get a couple more flights in so I can get a feel for the plane before attempting to land on my much shorter home runway. The aircraft handled fine, and was especially good at slower speeds. The CG seemed good, just a slight bit in front of the recommendation (my tank is back a bit farther). The Rabbit seems to be a good match and at full throttle it has good vertical. It's a bit of a fuel hog. My initial timer setting was 7 min, and I was thinking that would give me plenty of time with an 80 oz. tank. I found that the throttle doesn't give me much unless I'm around 3/4. I went around a couple times on my first two attempts and after landing the tank went dry and I could not taxi back (I was lucky). Later flights I started landing at 6 min. and had about 1/3 tank left after about 8 min total time. When I got it up I found that the split flaps are very effective, and get the plane moving too slow for flight rather quickly at anything below 1/2 throttle. This made me a bit scared to actuate much flap, but once I pointed the nose down it seems to maintain speed well, too well as evidenced by the go-arounds due to too much speed. I did find that the plane will fly very slow before indicating a stall, so I need to bring in a bit more flap when setting it down on my shorter field (something I hope to try in the next week or so). I never did any sustained full throttle runs, but on landing noticed my airspeed indicator showed a maximum for the flight of 134 mph. It doesn't seem that I'll have to worry about exceeding the airframe limits. I tried to get a video of the flight, but the camera seemed to want to autofocus into nothing. I have some good still photos though that are attached. I'm happy I made the modifcations to the turbinator, I think I maintained the good flight characteristics yet have a plane that looks like a scale subject.
06-02-2010, 04:14 PM
#167
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RE: 2008 the year of the Turbinator
Very nice job Todd. The plane reminds me a little of the Bell P-59 Airacomet. That's one plane I'd like to build some day primarily because my Dad worked for Bell Aircraft and did some work on the P-59. I have a Turbinator kit still in the box. Some day in the future I'll do some kit bashing like you did and come up with my own "sorta" P-59.
06-02-2010, 07:05 PM
#169
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RE: 2008 the year of the Turbinator
ORIGINAL: hooker53
todd, Just a real classy bird there. You did a great job all the way around. Randy, Where are you finding the 80% kits??? Thanks Roy
todd, Just a real classy bird there. You did a great job all the way around. Randy, Where are you finding the 80% kits??? Thanks Roy
06-07-2010, 07:51 AM
#170
RE: 2008 the year of the Turbinator
Here's a link to a video on Youtube showing flights 2 and 3 for my modified turbinator. On flight 3 it jumped into the air early (I forgot to hold some down elevator) but it handled it with no problem due to the fairly low wing loading.
[link=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOQuIsoYhZs]Youtube Video[/link]
[link=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOQuIsoYhZs]Youtube Video[/link]
06-07-2010, 09:33 PM
#172
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RE: 2008 the year of the Turbinator
ORIGINAL: hooker53
todd, Just a real classy bird there. You did a great job all the way around. Randy, Where are you finding the 80% kits??? Thanks Roy
todd, Just a real classy bird there. You did a great job all the way around. Randy, Where are you finding the 80% kits??? Thanks Roy
http://store.laser-design-services.c...products_id=50
06-08-2010, 07:29 AM
#173
RE: 2008 the year of the Turbinator
I did not have a strong head wind. I neglected to hold down elevator and for some reason the plane decided it needed to take off early. It surprised me, so I quickly pushed the nose back down. It could have been my mistake, being used to holding some up on my tail dragging warbirds to keep them from nosing over. The good news is that the jet can handle a fairly early take-off without a problem even without much wind. A jet with higher wing loading may have not been so forgiving. I went to full throttle early on that take-off to see if I would have any problems getting in the air once I move to my shorter RC runway. On the next flight I held some down elevator until I was ready and it resulted in a smooth take-off just like the first flight on the video.
On one landing attempt I went to full throttle to go back around, and with the flaps down the plane wanted to go into a hard climb. In all other flight modes it seems to handle fine and has little trim change between full and partial throttle settings.
On one landing attempt I went to full throttle to go back around, and with the flaps down the plane wanted to go into a hard climb. In all other flight modes it seems to handle fine and has little trim change between full and partial throttle settings.
06-10-2010, 09:15 AM
#175
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RE: 2008 the year of the Turbinator
Does anyone know where I can buy a canopy for the 83% Turbinator. I have tried to cut down the full size one from Ziroli but it doesn't work very well.
Thanks in advance.
Hal
Thanks in advance.
Hal