Radio Control Jets-2007/04

SUPERMAN 2006 was a success and
congratulations to Jerry Caudle for pulling off
another sensational event. This year Kent Nogy
stepped in to CD the event and handle the daily
operations. He did a great job, and that allowed
Jerry to concentrate on promotion,
organization, coordination, and setup of the
event without completely burning out. Team
efforts are the way to go when running such a
large gathering.
What about Superman after missing a year
because of last year’s sudden ban on shutting
down airports for nonaviation events? Quite
simply, the event was a success. There were
plenty of pilots and vendors and all the flying
you could handle.
Superman 2006 relocated from Jerry’s
home airport at Metropolis, Illinois, to
Missouri, and the new site worked out well. As
with any event at a new site, some problems
crept up, but they were dealt with.
What was the news coming out of
Superman? There was plenty. Artes Turbines is
now Jet Central. Jet Central is the actual
manufacturing partner of the original Artes
Eagle turbine and the company followed up
with a complete product line, offering a full
range of engines. Now Jet Central will assume
full development and production of this fine
product line.
Eric Clapp of Florida will handle
distribution and support of these turbines in the
United States. These changes should further
firm up this impressive line of turbines as
strong contenders in the market. Additional
information is available at the company’s Web
site at www.jetcentral.com.mx.
Along with this announcement, Jet Central
went one further and announced a lifetime
warranty on its entire turbine line. That’s
unbelievable!
Having had an Eagle turbine from the
company for a couple years, I can see why Jet
Central has such a strong belief in its products.
I could go on about these excellent turbines,
but you need to check them out yourself to
appreciate the company’s offerings.
Eric gave me a preview of the latest
FADEC electronic control unit (ECU) for the
Jet Central engine and I like it. The original
FADEC ECU has proven itself to be a reliable,
quality unit with some convenient
programming and operating features. The
improvements to the new unit include power
and programming features that enhance its
versatility when operating the full range of
turbines from the 14-pound-thrust Bee to the
powerhouse Rhino with 36 pounds of thrust.
The second improvement is in the
packaging. All connections are directly to the
unit; there are no dangling wires. Provisions
are made to mount the ECU securely in an
airframe.
While at Superman I had the chance to fly
demonstrator models of the Baby Boomerang
and the larger Boomerang XL. Both are
available as ARF models: the smaller Baby
Boomerang as a balsa aircraft and the larger
Boomerang XL as a composite, painted-in-themold
model.
The Baby Boomerang is designed for 12- to
15-pound-thrust turbines. One can expect an
empty weight of roughly 14 pounds with fixed
gear and 15 pounds with retracts. The
wingspan is 74 inches with a length of 72
inches. It’s a great size for a sport model
designed for grass-field flying.
The Boomerang XL is the Giant Scale
version of this series with a 94-inch wingspan,
ready for those 18- to 30-pound-thrust
turbines. The empty weight of the XL will
be in the 25- to 30-pound range
depending on the equipment one decides
to install.
The first Boomerang I flew was the
Baby. It was a demonstrator model of
Robart Manufacturing, powered by the
FunSonic turbine and equipped with
Robart retracts. I always enjoy flying
these Baby Boomerangs because they
have light wing loadings, great flight
characteristics, and generally boost pilot
News and technology from the Superman Jet Rally
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Radio Control Jets Jim Hiller
Dustin Buescher converted the power plant in his old Aggressor
to the BVM electric VioFan system.
Jet Central introduced the FADEC ECU that features improved
programming and performance in a tight little package.
One of the large aircraft from
Airworld Models, the
powerful 1/5-scale MiG-21 has
proven to be quite a
performance model. Photos
courtesy Ben Lanterman.
confidence when flying. This Boomerang
continued to prove how fun it is, and in the
crosswinds on the paved runway at Superman
it even proved how solid its ground handling is.
This is a wonderful model for the new jet pilot
or anyone wanting an everyday sport jet
powered by a turbine.
After an enjoyable flight with the Baby
Boomerang, a man walked up behind me and
said, “If you think that’s a fun jet, then you
need to take this transmitter and fly my
Boomerang XL.”
He was Alan Cardash, the designer and
manufacturer of the Boomerang, and the
transmitter he handed me was for his own
Boomerang XL. The Merlin turbine powered it.
The XL has all the fun characteristics of the
Baby, but it is bigger and better. I had a nice,
well-behaved flight with the XL, but by the end
you name the maneuver and I was doing it.
I particularly like rolling the big XL; slow
rolls, eight-point rolls, and even 16-point rolls
are fun because with the large size and light
wing loading, you can take an eternity to
complete your roll. Knife-edge maneuvers,
loops, and spins are also a blast.
As the Baby Boomerang did, the XL
handled the crosswind takeoffs and landings
with ease. Again, the reliable and strong Robart
landing gear handled the ground operations.
Additional information about this neat line
of models is available at www.boomerangjets.
com. The company is set up with US
distributorship of this model to ease purchase
concerns. Information about Robart retracts is
available at www.robart.com.
What else did I see at Superman? The
complete line of Airworld models. These large,
detailed aircraft have to be seen to be
appreciated.
There were two Albatros L.39s flying and
Airworld representatives put in a flight or two
with the big MiG-21. What an impressive large
aircraft! It looks so tough and mean, but it
turned out to be a great flying machine.
These Airworld models are built to 1/5 scale,
so they are large. The Albatros L.39 has a 75-
inch wingspan, a 96-inch length, and weighs
roughly 35-40 pounds. This large jet makes a
statement yet flies well. The MiG-21 has only a
56-inch wingspan, is 111 inches long, and can
be built to weigh slightly more than 30 pounds.
These models are impressive composite kits
and have a complete list of available options for
the discriminating modeler. The best place to
get additional information about Airworld
models is the company’s Web site at www.air
world-usa.com. Its line of products includes
much more than these two scale models I have
described.
Awhile ago I wrote about the introduction of 5-
inch-diameter electric ducted fans and they are
now flying. The Bob Violett Models (BVM)
crowd showed up at Superman 2006 with a
collection.
Dave Ribbe brought his old Viper,
Dustin Buescher had his Aggressor, and
Kent Nogy was there with his T-33. They
installed the new electric-fan units called the
VioFan in their jets at the field. They
enjoyed flying with Bob Violett who had an
F-86 converted to his new electric fan.
What about performance? All flew strongly.
The batteries were two 5000 mAh 5C Li-Polys,
each fitting into the location once occupied by
the glow-fuel saddle tanks. The converted
airframe resulted in a weight increase of
approximately 1/2 pound—less than that of full
fuel tanks.
The power draw, however, was an
impressive 107 amps with the 10c battery
setup. There was plenty of power, but it was a
bit much for the batteries.
A switch is programmed to have full power
available for takeoff, but a lesser amount—
roughly 85%—for normal flying to enhance
battery life. This setup seemed to work well for
the pilots.
Dave and Dustin proved their old airframes
still had the speed. I had my old Viper with a
BVM .91, so we had old and new power. I
even had one flight where I shared the sky with
Bob Violett. His electric F-86 and my glow
Viper highlighted the difference between
electric and glow performance. Electrics are
much quieter. They have similar four- to fiveminute
flight durations and they push the
model well.
Acceleration on takeoff was significantly
better with electric; the old glow engines don’t
really get going until they unload in the air and
get on pipe. Dave Ribbe’s Viper weighs much
the same as my glow Viper. He was able to
follow his takeoff with an Immelmann turn
back to the runway.
I wouldn’t attempt that with my glow
Viper. I can’t get on pipe quickly enough to
make it safely over the top after such a short
acceleration run.
Dave’s Viper and Dustin’s heavier
Aggressor had similar speed and vertical
performance to that of my glow Viper. We did
not put any speed runs together to confirm
numbers, but they looked comparable and
similar vertical performance was obvious.
One thing I noted about electrics was that
they had to spend quite a bit of time behaving
on the throttle stick so as not to overheat the
batteries. With the glow power I could leave
that throttle up hard the whole flight. It was
enough to make many of the turbine models
work hard to keep up. Turbines are fast, but so
are the old ducted-fan models, and the electrics
proved they can run too.
The scale jets of Kent Nogy and Bob
Violett—the T-33 and F-86 respectively—were
truly cool and flew nicely with electric power.
That old T-33 is a large airframe for a ducted
fan, so pushing it on electric was quite an
accomplishment.
Kent didn’t have as many chances to fly as
the others because much of his time was
committed to CDing the event, but he did prove
out his new electric installation. Bob had quite
a few flights on his F-86. Overall, the new
BVM electric ducted-fan motor came out in
force and proved itself well.
I saw many more products at Superman, so if
you like jets and want to see them perform, get
out to a jet meet this year. See the products in
action and join the fun.
Check out the pictures this month,
compliments of Ben Lanterman. MA