RADIO CONTROL JETS - 2003/02
NEW KITS are coming to market quickly these days, and it’s hard
to keep up. They are making it to the flying fields now, so let’s
discuss some of them. The Century Jet Models Talon, the Golden
West Models Blade, and the Bob Violett Models (BVM) F-86 Sabre
and BobCat are the subjects for this month.
RADIO CONTROL JETS - 2001/04
The SnoW is falling, the temperature is too cold to fly, and night
comes early. It truly puts me in the building mood, and occasionally
the writing mood.
We are deep into the winter building season in Northeast Ohio.
The past year was a blast. The 2001 season will have begun by the
time you read this, as we travel south for some great seasonal jet
meets—excuses to beat the winter with trips to Florida.
The first two big meets are Jets Over Deland and Florida Jets—
both ideally timed to bring us down from the North.
Attendance at the jet meets has been growing in the last few
years, and last year truly showed the strong interest in turbine and
ducted-fan models. We have more contests than ever on the list of
“must attends,” and these events are getting larger.
The 10th annual Heart of Ohio meet in Columbus, Ohio last year
was one of the largest in the event’s history, with some awesome
flying weather to add to the overall enjoyment.
The Superman jet fly continues to grow and to start earlier in the
week. The field at the airport started with 30 pilots Monday and
numbers grew each day, finally reaching a total of 231 registered
pilots and more than 400 models.
This massive growth has caused Jerry Caudle to consider
setting the official start day of the 2001 Superman as Monday,
with a progressive entry fee based on the day of arrival. Watch for
Jerry’s press releases about this meet for details. “Superman Jet
Week” has a nice ring.
This growth is not limited to the Midwest; almost all jet meets have
been reporting similar expansion.
RADIO CONTROL JETS - 2001/02
I AM WRITING this month’s column as I
prepare to leave for the Superman Jet Rally.
The routine inspection of systems on my
Razor is complete, and it’s ready for another
major weekend of flying.
I had a nice conversation with Dubb Jett
concerning his ducted-fan engine line, his
philosophy on engines, and what the future
may bring for us ducted-fan modelers.
Dubb has two engines on the ducted-fan
market: the Fan-Jett 50 and the Fan-Jett 95.
These engines are reasonably priced.
Dubb’s primary design goals when
building engines are performance with
reliability, in terms of durability and ease of
operation. Art Arro has been flight-testing
these engines, and he has always had good
things to say about them.
Local flier Joe Lewis has been running a
Fan-Jett 50 in his Jet Hangar Hobbies F-86 Sabre for approximately
two months. Joe saw the success Art was having at the Nationals, so he
decided it was time to upgrade his engine to get the same performance.
Joe is turning a Turbax fan with a MACS quiet pipe, left over
from his K&B 7.5 days. The Fan-Jett’s performance is significantly
better than the old K&B 7.5 engine it replaces.
Joe has roughly 20 flights on the engine, and it is coming up on
pipe nicely. He is on only his second glow plug, and it has more than
a dozen flights on it, with no sign of problems. The Fan-Jett has
turned out to be a friendly engine to tune and fly.
Check out the Jett Engineering engines on Dubb’s Web site
at jettengineering.com; E-mail him at [email protected]; or call him
at (713) 680-8113.
The Internet age is upon us, so I hope you don’t mind my listing
Web sites; they are an effective way to stay in touch with all the new
products coming at us in the ducted-fan and turbine community.
I am not very computer savvy, but even I can find my way
around the Web.
RC Jets
CONGRATULATIONS to all the award winners at Top Gun this year, and especially to our jet-flying buddies. The success of the Scale-jet competitors this year was unbelievable, with first places in Expert Scale, Designer Scale, Team Scale, and the Top Gun award winner. I'll leave it to the Top Gun articles to bring you the details, but I am sure this success will be a topic throughout the Scale community. The neat thing for those of us who attend jet fun-flys across the country is how often we see
Radio Control: Jets
YOU MAY HAVE noticed a new byline for this month's column; I'm stepping in for Del Ellis while he tends to a health problem. I wish him well in a speedy and healthy recovery. Developments in jet model products continue to amaze me. Golden West Models brought its new Hammer turbine out to the deep freeze of Ohio in January for final AMA approval and cold-weather testing. Tad Krzanowski and Bob Wilcox, owners of Golden West Models, flew in from Los Angeles to perform the demonstration. They arrived in a Level Two snow and ice storm, with temperatures around 15º.
