THE WORLD’S PREMIER R/C JET MAGAZINE

CONTENTS
JUNE/JULY 2022
8 NEW FROM THE JET WORLD
10 FLORIDA JETS 2022
One of the biggest jet events in the world

20 EDF TO TURBINE CONVERSIONS - Part 3

Page 1
Let’s talk about it!

26 ALM-MECA A180
First ever test of a turbine from a new manufacturer!

34 DASSAULT FALCON - Part 2 Page 60

The business jet at 1:4.5 scale!

38 POWERBOX’S SERVO CABLES AND CONNECTORS

Assembling PowerBox's Premium Servo Cables and Connectors

42 BOOMERANG RANGER
A major marvel!

52 JET LANDINGS MADE EASY!

Tips for nice and safe landings

60 EUROFIGHTER BIFURCATED TAILPIPE TEST Gr

A quieter tailpipe Page 66
64 GAS TURBINE PERFORMANCE COMPARISONS
Up to date engine data

66 KRILL MINI ARES - Part 2

A compact and high quality composite sport jet
10

Florida Jets 2022

ON THE COVER:
A beautiful picture of Rafael Villades’
stunning A-10 Thunderbolt II taken
by the talented Jorge Juarez. This is
just a teaser of the fantastic report
rumania Tailpipe about the Kings Canyon Jet rally
coming in the next issue!

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EDITORIAL
Honorary editor
Tony Stephenson

Editor
Marco Benincasa
marco@rcjetint.com

Co-editor
Colin Straus
colin@rcjetint.com

Magazine design and layout

Emanuela Amadei

Printer
Warner plc
Dear friends, Published by
I would like to welcome you all to this new issue of R/C Jet International! Radio Control Publishing Ltd
Bush House, Ongar Road, Writtle,
Essex, CM1 3NZ.
One of the interesting articles in this issue was written by Jet International's co-editor, U.K.
Colin Straus, and concerns tests he carried out on a bifurcated tailpipe produced by Subscriptions
Grumania for his T-One Eurofighter, where measurements have shown it both sales@rcjetint.com
significantly reduces the noise level as well as the loss of thrust typical of bifurcated RC Jet International is a bi-monthly magazine
1 year subscription prices:
tailpipes. Colin decided to change over to the Grumania tailpipe as the noise level with UK £ 32.50
the original was too high, the model in consequence not being welcomed at his flying Europe £ 43.00
USA/Worldwide £ 45.00
field. Automatic renewal
UK £ 31.00
Europe £ 42.00
These tests of his reminded me how, unlike the world of internal combustion engines, USA/Worldwide £ 44.00
in the case of turbine powered jets very few people, in fact almost no one, has
addressed the problem of noise. Yours truly has for many years been heavily involved
in the world of R/C aerobatics, where in both F3A and the categories with the largest ADVERTISER INDEX
models (at first there was F3A/X, then briefly F3M, today IMAC) there were (and in
F3A this has fortunately not changed) maximum noise limits that the engines must Advanced Radio....................... 51
not breach, and in competition they were and still are checked before each flight.
AMT Turbines........................... 72
This led manufacturers to do a lot of research on exhaust systems and propellers, BVM Jets.................................. 7
achieving results that were unthinkable even a few years earlier. As is always the CARF......................................... 71
case, technologies that are developed for competitions then find applications in CB Electronics.......................... 26
everyday life, which benefits from these advances. This is what has happened in this Dreamworks............................. 19
case too, bringing the noise of internal combustion engines down to levels that are
much less intrusive, and therefore more easily accepted by those who live near Electron.................................... 31
airfields, diminishing or even eliminating in many cases the dangers of a club or an Evojet....................................... 57
individual modeler being 'evicted' from their airfield. Horizon Hobby.......................... 59
After this long but indispensable introduction, my question is this: are we sure that Hybl Turbines........................... 41
nothing can be done to reduce the noise of our jets? Obviously, I don't really want to
make their beautiful sound disappear, but perhaps it might be possible to lower the
JetCat........................................ 2
current levels enough that in the case of 'sensitive' neighbours, it might help them to Jets & Props............................. 3
integrate better. Who knows if one day turbine manufacturers will ask themselves the Jettstream................................ 41
same question. J Perkins Distribution Ltd......... 18
KingTech.................................. 58
Good news about many of the well-known and long-established (as well as some
new) jet events: several have been able to go ahead again this year, for example Lambert................................... 60
Florida Jets (report in this issue) and Top Gun (in the next issue), whilst others...are MacGregor Industries............... 33
still to come! That's right, the world's biggest jet event, the much-loved JetPower, is PowerBox Systems................... 32
back this year, at the beginning of September, in a new guise: 'Jets & Props'; as the Schubeler Composite............... 32
name suggests, propeller powered models are added this year. Obviously the entire
Sorvolando Compositi.............. 51
Jet International team will be there!
Tailormade............................... 27
I will now leave you to enjoy this issue and, as always, I wish you nice flights and Tomahawk Aviation................... 37
happy landings! Unilight..................................... 51
Xicoy Electronica...................... 41
Marco
Zap Glue................................... 41
13-2_PUB. pag. 62 25/05/18 12.58 Pagina 1

O!!!
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OR
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F OR IN
CLICK

CLICK FOR
INFO!!!

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CLI

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NEWS

NEW FROM THE JET WORLD

Tomahawk Aviation EPIC ELITE
A unique combination of a superb 1:5th scale jet that has sport jet flying characteristics, the Epic Elite is the first EDF plane pro-
duced by Tomahawk , and is supplied in advanced prefabricated ARF-Plus format. All the necessary installation work has alrea-
dy been completed to the highest quality level, whilst the plane is built using lightweight but durable full-composite sandwich con-
struction, reinforced with carbonfibre where necessary. The electric landing gear made by JP Hobby is pre-installed.
The plane can be equipped either with two 90mm EDF units or two KingTech K-45 turbines, both nacelles having access doors
to allow for installation and maintenance - mounts are already installed.
Key features:
• Wingspan 2.52m
• Pre-installed retracts, oleos and braked wheels
• Pre-installed nose gear door with sequencer
• Pre-installed nacelles with EDF/Turbine mounts
• Pre-installed control surfaces, hinges, horns
• Tinted cockpit windows
• Pre-installed fuselage door with hinges and latch
• Pre-painted metallic blue colour scheme
• Servo mounts included
Available from stock by the end of June , the retail price is 4,193 EUR (plus VAT within the EU)

Link to the product page:

8
 NEWS

WE ASKED, YOU REPLIED!

Photo 1

Photo 2
In the Editorial of the previous issue we
invited readers to send us pictures of jets
that have been painted or re-painted in
Ukrainian color schemes, to show support
to Ukrainian modellers. So here are the
first two readers who shared the pictures of
their creations! Mr. Christian Vandamme
from France sent the pictures of his beau-
tiful Freewing MiG-29 (Photo 1-2) and Mr.
Geoff Wallace from UK sent beautiful shots
of his HSD L-39 (Photo 3-4). Thanks to
both of them, great job!

Photo 3

Photo 4
9
AUTHOR & PHOTOGRAPHER: BARRY VAUGHT

FLORIDA JETS 2022

The CARF team, made up of pilots from Germany and the USA, is always a large and spectacular feature of every show they attend

The US R/C Jet Show season recently

commenced, with the roar of turbines
and the camaraderie of friends at
Lakeland, Florida, USA. Florida Jets is
not a competition, is a jet-together
where you meet up with old friends,
develop new friendships, fly your jet,
have fun and of course, is where R/C
jet related manufacturers and distribu-
tors come to present their new pro-
ducts!
If you have never attended Florida
Jets, you'll be amazed to learn that the
"air traffic" is handled like it is on an air-
craft carrier: flagmen are signaling
pilots where and when to take off, and
keep their eyes on possible conflicts
even during fly-bys. The local Imperial
R/C Club furnishes signallers, that use Every good show starts with a pilot's briefing

Elad Fish’s CARF F-100 is powered with a Jets Munt 250 turbine. Elad won a Special Recognition Award.

10
 FLORIDA JETS 2022

Bill Culberson’s Hawk also won a Special Recognition Award

green and red paddles to make it easy

for everyone to know what a particular
jet is doing: green for takeoff and pas-
ses, green+red for gear pass, and red
for landing. They used to use radios in
the past, but the noise of the turbines
made it too hard to hear anything, par-
ticularly as there may be up to 6 jets
flying at a time. Mother Nature can
The CARF Eurosport is one of the most successful jets ever.
throw a few punches with the weather, Here in an original green “tiger” scheme
and that's what happened this year,
with moments of high wind and even
rain, but the pilots know how to adapt
and maximize their flying time.

11
AUTHOR & PHOTOGRAPHER: BARRY VAUGHT

Chris Moe Gleason’s BVM 1:5.5 F-18 is powered by a K-260G4 turbine.

Chris flies his Hornet with a Spektrum DX20

ward.
a Specia l Recognition A
M cC or m ac k’s Mephisto won
Ty ler

Elite Aerosport’s new BDX: 104” span, 110” length, 40-42lbs. for a 180-210N turbine. The BDX won the Best Sport Jet Award.
Florida Jets is an excellent way for
manufacturers and distributors to pre-
view their new products, and this they
sure did. They showcased their latest
developments in their booths and
during the noontime air show. Pablo
Fernandez of Elite Aerosports brought
some new jet models that were a huge
success with the pilots, who could test
fly them using a buddy box during the
event. Elite Aerosports showcased
their new BDX model and won the Best
Sport Jet Award. The BDX is a modern
take on the original BD5 experimental
jet: Elite Aerosports redesigned the
BD5 into a sport jet that can perform
A busy flight line is a common sight at Florida Jets!

12
 FLORIDA JETS 2022

Ryan Haldenwan
won the Critic’s ger’s Skymaster 1/6 scale F-4
Choice Runner-
Up Award

You need a “pilot”?

Frank Noll and Jun Sawamura at the JR Propo booth Bob Violett Jets booth is a place nobody wants to miss!

The Imperial R/C Club is the host club for Fl Jets. They
Ali Machinchy manning the Horizon tent also raffle off several jet aeroplanes like this A-10.

13
AUTHOR & PHOTOGRAPHER: BARRY VAUGHT
A BVM Jets F-16 1:5 in a stunning “Tiger Meet” scheme

CARF’s owner Andreas Gietz won Best Craftsmanship Award with his MiG-17

Salvador Becherano’s custom made L-39 won Best Scale Jet Award

Zavi Machinchy showed great skills with his CARF Rebel Max

14
 FLORIDA JETS 2022

The new and impressive HSD Jets 747

is powered by four 90 mm EDF units
high G maneuvers and yet still retain
incredible slow-speed handling.
Manny Rodriguez of Aero Panda
brought his new Bull M01, made in
Spain by Hispano Aviacion: the Bull
M01 seems to float in the air and was
awarded Best Sport Jet runner-up.
Salvador Becherano flew his new L-39

lub Signalman Miguel Silva showed his new Huracan sport jet
Imperial R/C Css.
alert for gear pa

Larry Grela's 1:3.7 scale Tomahawk F-86 Sabre

is powered by a Jetcat 250 Pro Turbine 15
AUTHOR & PHOTOGRAPHER: BARRY VAUGHT

Roberto Zelaya (left), Miguel Silva (center) and JC Alvarez (right) with three Daniel Design MB-339s. The first two are Roberto’s, while the
third one is owned by JC Alvarez and was built by Miguel Silva. Below: two in flight pictures of one of Roberto’s and JC Alvarez’s one

e USA distri-
Aeropanda is th w Hispano
butor for the ne
on the Best
Bull, which w r Up award
Sport Jet Runne CRX Turbines is the distributor for Swiwin turbines in the USA

16 Greg Alderman showed the new Boomerang Super Elan

 FLORIDA JETS 2022

built by Miguel Alvarez and won the

Best Scale Jet Award. Twin Rebel Max formation by brothers Marius and Dominik Euteneier from Germany
Rod Snyder maidened his 1/3 scale L-
39, and Larry Grela maidened his new
BVM/Tomahawk F86. Larry’s F-86 was
awarded the “Most Photogenic Jet“
Award.
Andreas Geitz, owner of CARF
Models, flew his new MiG-17 model
and won the Best Craftsmanship
award. Greg Alderman was awarded
Best Cockpit Interior for his Yak 130.
Rob Lynch and BVM Jets were awar-
ded the Most Outstanding Jet Flight for
their new F-86 model. Bill Freeland’s F-16 in a low fly-by
Ryan Haldenwanger’s Skymaster F-4
won the Critic’s Choice Award runner-
up, and Henry Castellanos’s Pilatus PC-
21 won the Critic’s Choice Award.
It is always a pleasure to attend Florida
Jets. Frank Tiano Enterprises produces
an entertaining, thrilling, fun and safe
"Jet-together" where pilots can safely
burn jet fuel to their heart’s content while
never looking into the sun. There will of
course be a Florida Jets 2023.
Please contact carol@franktiano.com
for more information or visit franktiano.com
to register for Florida Jets 2023.

Barry Vaught

Elite Aerosport’s new Viper Sport

17
 AUTHOR : MARCO BENINCASA

Part 3

EDF TO TURBINE CONVERSIONS

Let’s talk about it!
Programming
As mentioned in the previous part of this
article, for my little Panther I went "full
PowerBox", and thus installed a PBR-9D
receiver to which I connected the amazing
and absolutely tiny iGyro SAT gyro,
assigned the power management to the
PowerBox Sensor V3, and in turn every-
thing is controlled by the PowerBox CORE
transmitter. We have already written a
great deal about this superb transmitter,
and every time I program a model on it I
am reminded just how impressive the ease
of programming is (which is of course a
somewhat subjective factor), the overall
quality, but also the sheer quantity of prac-
tical and really useful functions that we can
use thanks to its telemetry system. In fact,
not only can I read all the data on signal A comparison with the PowerBox CORE makes the size of this small but great jet obvious

We have added a layer of self-adhesive aluminium to protect the

The Panther's iconic tailplane, mounted in the middle of the fin base of the fin from flames (we never know...) and from the heat

20
 EDF TO TURBINE CONVERSIONS

quality and reception on the transmitter

screen, but also all the power values com-
ing from the Sensor V3.
And what about the iGyro SAT? By activat-
ing its widget we can program it directly
from the transmitter, adjusting all the vari-
ous settings to achieve the best perform-
ance and stick feel. The way everything
works seamlessly together is simply out-
standing.
Obviously, I not only set up the traditional
dual/rate and expo settings (on two-posi-
tion switches so that I could vary the sen-
sitivity of the controls in flight), but I also
slowed down the movement of the flaps to
achieve a more progressive and realistic
deployment.
I had not prepared a flap-elevator mix as I
didn't know if it would be necessary, and if
it is...which way should I set it? I will find
out during the first flight.

Ground tests
Finally, the weather gives us a break and
we can get to the flying field to test the
Panther.
It's also time to find out if the various things
I've had to make assumptions about, and
my resulting decisions, are correct or not:

Taxiing back after the first flight: C/G must be pushed forward but it's been successful!

21
AUTHOR : MARCO BENINCASA

Both the nose and main retracts and legs of the Freewing F-86
proved to be an excellent choice for the Aero-Naut Panther The nice “Panther head” decals

will the retracts (which as you will recall

are from a Freewing F-86 Sabre) prove to
be suitable? Will the turbine thrust be
enough to ensure a safe and enjoyable
flight? Will the flaps be effective? These
and other questions are going round and
round in my head as I fill up the tank, but
before we get the answers there's some-
thing else to think about! In fact, this will be
the first turbine start in this airframe, so
before flying there are several ground
checks to do: tailpipe functioning, heat
transfer inside the fuselage, checking for
kerosene leaks from the tubing and the
various Festo connections (just in case)
etc, etc.
As well as this, my JetCat P-20SE has
been stuck in a box 'hibernating' for a few
years so... let's hope it wakes up healthy!
The tank is now full and there are no leaks
(I didn't expect anything different from a
CMJets tank!). The first start will be done
with the upper part of the fuselage
removed, so that we can check the tailpipe
properly and intervene promptly with the
fire extinguisher (which is ready for action
in my father hands) if necessary. I have
total confidence in the work of Osvaldo
Gotta (Osvymodel.it) and in the beautiful

22
 EDF TO TURBINE CONVERSIONS

and very light tailpipe he made for me, but

a careful check should still be made, whilst
the operator should be ready for anything
during every start.
As soon as it receives the start command
from the transmitter the P-20SE instantly
comes to life and after completing a
smooth start-up procedure, it settles down
to idle. So far, so good!
We check the tailpipe, which is perfectly
stable, and also touch the rear of the fuse-
lage to feel the heat: nothing! There is no
sign of heat at all. Perfect! At this point I
push the throttle stick to 50% and we
repeat all the checks: the result does not
change, not even when I increase thrust to
100%. We could not be more satisfied.
OK, now we can fit the upper part of the
fuselage and then... fly!
Very little kerosene was consumed during
the test, so there is no need to top up the
tank.
The wind has increased, but it's straight
down the runway, so it won't be a problem.

The first flight

I place the model on the runway, start the
turbine, and perform a taxi test: the
Panther proves nice and stable, with the
steering being sensitive and precise (so
the servo I fitted is the correct one), but it
is clear that once the Panther begins to
move ... it does not want to stop! The lack
of brakes is very evident, but it's not a big
problem for now... we'll see what happens
when I land. I stop the model with one
hand and line it up at the runway thresh-
old: it's time! In a few moments all the
questions I have been asking myself will
be answered.
I open the throttle gradually and by the
time I reach 25% of the stick travel the
acceleration is already remarkable; once I
get to half power it is clear that the Panther

23
AUTHOR : MARCO BENINCASA

wants to lift off, and this after a run of only

40 metres! I decide to listen and so, very
gently, I pull back on the elevator
and...WOW! The Panther takes off into a
very steep climb angle! OK, two things are
immediately obvious: the power is more
than enough (!) and the centre of gravity is
too far aft! Thank goodness that, as I
explained in the second part of this article,
I added 60 grams of self-adhesive lead
inside the nose, resulting in a slightly more
forward centre of gravity than indicated in
the manual! Without those 60 grams I
would have been in trouble.
I manage to get the model to fly level with
a good amount of down trim, but it is clear
that the centre of gravity must be moved
forward. When I get to the stage where it
feels that I have "tamed" it, I can finally
retract the landing gear, noticing that the
speed is increasing: I immediately reduce
the engine to about 25% power and start
to do some figure 8 circuits to get to know
it better. In the meantime, the wind has
picked up further and in fact the little it's much better: the speed is still a bit too
Panther tends to wag its tail slightly and its high for a normal landing, but I'm fine with Second flight
wings rock a little; I decide now is the time that as you shouldn't land too slowly when
to test the gyro, switching it on at the low- the centre of gravity is too far back. I man- The second take-off is a different story: the
est gain I have set: how wonderful! age to get the Panther to touch down on Panther runs perfectly down the runway
Suddenly the wind seems to have disap- the runway without any particular problem until, after 50 metres, I pull back on the
peared. The iGyro SAT also helps to limit but...it just won't slow down! I let it roll elevator to get it flying; now it's MUCH
the less than perfect response I have on onward as the runway is nice and long, more stable and clean, almost perfect. The
elevator, caused by the centre of gravity and help it to scrub off speed by giving unpleasant feeling on elevator is gone,
being too far back. It is at this point that I small steering inputs right and left. Just and it feels like flying a much bigger jet; to
realise that since take-off I've never before the runway ends the speed has fly at a realistic speed I don't need much
pushed the throttle stick up more than half reduced enough to allow me to make a more than 25% thrust, great.
way! The power of the JetCat P-20SE 180° turn without any danger of the wing I feel much more comfortable, so I try rolls,
combined with the performance of the tip touching the runway, so I taxi the loops and inverted flight: the Panther's
OsvyModel tailpipe is proving to be very Panther back to my feet, stopping it with behaviour is perfect through every
impressive. Not knowing what the fuel con- my hand. I touch the rear of the fuselage: manoeuvre. I only open the turbine up to
sumption would be like (I didn't know how perfect! No sign of any heat. Ok, the first 100% to make a really big loop, which is
much power I would be using through the flight is over! There are a few things to fix, fun and nice to see, but I don't think I will
flight) I had set the timer to just 4 minutes, for example increasing the travel of the ever use full power in level flight. The
which went by in the blink of an eye. I still flaps to slow it down more, but clearly the wings are thin and light, why overstress
hadn’t tested the flaps, and may also need most urgent is to move the centre of grav- them?
more than one landing attempt. ity forward. As I do for every test flight ses- I left the timer at 4 minutes, but at this point
At high altitude I lower the flaps, first sion, I have brought more strips of self- when it goes off I know I still have time to
halfway and then completely, and the trim adhesive lead with me, so I add another 60 have fun! Anyway, I decide to try a few
is absolutely perfect, despite the fact that grams in the nose. I then increase the trav- approaches to check the effect of the
the centre of gravity is incorrect; no ten- el of the flaps to the maximum that the increased flap travel on airspeed. I enter
dency to climb or dive, and we can see a hinges allow. As for the controls, nothing the circuit at a reasonable altitude, then
noticeable reduction in speed. I leave the else needs to be changed at the moment. lower the flaps and gear. The braking
flaps fully down, lower the landing gear Fuel consumption? I used much less than effect is greater, but not by that much. I
and start the landing circuit. half a tank, so in total under 400 cc. then let the Panther lose altitude when it's
Although the turbine is idling, the speed is
still a bit too high to land, and the fact that
I have to lower the nose to lose altitude
during the circuit obviously doesn't help.
The end result is that I decide to abort
because the speed is too high, and so I
increase power to 50% and, after letting
the Panther fly down the length of the run-
way, carry out a wide 180° turn to re-enter
the landing circuit: this time, however, I
bring the turbine to idle much earlier, and I
start from a much lower altitude. OK, now The undercarriage legs are the perfect length, and thanks to careful positioning of the
nose retract mount by Marco and Giulio, the Panther "sits" at a perfect attitude

24

still well clear of the runway, so that I can
keep the nose slightly high throughout the
final approach, allowing the airspeed to
gradually reduce.
The idea works well, and in fact this land-
ing occurs at a much lower speed than the
first one; the Panther, however, even
though it’s now on the ground, doesn't
slow down much: the need for brakes on
the wheels is now obvious. Will I be able to
find a set of brakes for such small wheels?
Subsequent flights
At the time of writing I have made several
more flights, which have confirmed both
the centre of gravity position and the con-
trol and gyro adjustments. I'm really enjoy-
ing my little Panther!
It's a real marvel in the air, and has all the
features of much larger jets.
As it's now clear that the Panther fully
deserves them, I have found a set of elec-
tric brakes that should be compatible, and
hopefully I will tell you about them in a
future article.
Conclusions
Well, after all the work we did on the Aero-
Naut Panther to convert it from EDF to tur-
bine, I can say that it was well worth it, in
fact we got exactly the outcome we had
hoped for: an excellent small jet that flies
very well, with a very large power margin
available, easy and pleasant to fly; I can
EDF TO TURBINE CONVERSIONS
take it to the field with the wings already fit-
ted, even in very small cars, and it takes
up very little space in my workshop.
I can therefore confirm that I am officially a
supporter of the principle of EDF-Turbine
conversion, and I believe I will repeat this
excellent adventure in the future.
I hope I've inspired some readers to repli-
cate this experience; it's a great way to
enter the world of turbines, as well as hav-
ing a turbine jet that can be kept in the car!
You won't regret it!
Marco Benincasa
25
AUTHOR & PHOTOGRAPHER: COLIN STRAUS

ALM-Meca A180
Turbine Package Contents:

ALM-Meca A180 Turbine

ECU/Pump/Valves Unit
GSU (Ground Support Unit)
First ever test of a turbine Leads
FOD Guard
from a new manufacturer! Instruction Manual

The A180 package has a minimal parts count as many components are installed within the combined Pump/ECU/Valve block.

It is not often that a brand new turbine is launched by a com- The engine arrived packaged in a substantially sized and
pany that is also new to the model industry, but this is the case heavy duty printed cardboard box, the turbine itself and the
with the turbine I am testing this issue. Produced by the ancillary components being supported in strong pre-cut car-
French company ALM-Meca, which is a precision engineering dboard inserts, and this was quickly opened to take a first look
company that focuses on the aviation industry, the company at the engine. The A180 is of conventional appearance, and
is led by a jet modeller, and during the pandemic lockdown it boasts a fully machined alloy main case, which has a recess
was decided that there was time for the company to develop
their own turbines, of course they already had the expertise
and high-precision machinery that is required to produce high
quality model turbines, giving them a huge advantage in this
competitive field.
The first two engines in what is planned to become an exten-
sive range are a 210 Newton turbine and the subject of this
test, the A180, which as its name suggests is nominally of 180
Newtons (18.35Kg/40.47Lb) thrust.

The combustion chamber

26
 ENGINE TEST - ALM-Meca A180

View of the turbine itself, note the substantial machined alloy mounts and the well protected main electronics cable from the engine.

for the very nice, engraved engine mount assembly, which

has a main clamp section around the engine, and then sepa-
rate and very substantial mounts. Interestingly, the company
offers other optional mounts to allow easy installation in
various types of models, for example to allow installation of
the turbine from the rear where required, or in a glider. The
front cover and starter motor bullet appear to be 3D printed
and have a black finish, with the cap over the starter motor
being red. Externally there is the thermocouple, which runs
under a raised section of the mounting clamp, a heavy duty
and well protected electrical cable, and separate fuel and
kerostart lines. The compressor appears to be a (nicely pro-
duced) casting, whilst the turbine wheel also looked to be of
the highest quality, both this and the NGV (Nozzle Guide
The turbine shaft Vanes) being supplied to ALM-Meca by JetMax of
Switzerland. Supplied with the engine is a neat FOD guard,
which again appears to be 3D printed, and finished in black.
Also supplied is a support unit which contains the fuel pump

This neat 3D printed FOD guard is supplied with the turbine.

27
AUTHOR & PHOTOGRAPHER: COLIN STRAUS

(from HP Tech in Austria), V10 ECU

(from Xicoy in Spain) and fuel/kerostart
valves. Combining these various com-
ponents in a single unit does allow for
simple and very quick installation where
room allows, but it is rather bulky, so
smaller models and in particular scale
jets might struggle to find suitable
space. The company is aware of this, so
will be offering units in different shapes
and sizes, to ensure that there will be
something suitable for every model.
Other items included are an Xicoy GSU,
Multiplex to Deans adapter lead and a
short English language manual – this
does not cover programming or using
the Xicoy ECU/GSU, but of course the
manual detailing all of this is available
via the Xicoy website. As is now stan-
dard no battery is supplied, the instruc-
tions recommend a 2 cell Li-Po battery
so for all the testing a 2S 3200mAh bat-
tery was used. No fuel filter is supplied,
but it is recommended that a filtered
clunk is used in the fuel tank to ensure a
clean supply of fuel to the engine.
Note that although the current engines
are supplied with Xicoy ECU/GSU, from
around August/September 2022 this will
be replaced with ALM-Meca’s own
ECU/GSU and electronics, currently in
the final stages of development.
Mounting the turbine to the test rig took
little time, with the nicely produced and
very rigid aluminium engine mounts
making this simple. The fuel supply
input to the combined pump/ECU unit is
just a length of fairly rigid plastic tubing, The combined Pump/ECU/Valve unit is quite large, but ALM-Meca will
offer alternative designs of this to suit different models/installations.

28
 ENGINE TEST - ALM-Meca A180

which accepts standard 4mm clear

tubing, this simply being pushed into
place. Although this worked perfectly
during all the testing I carried out, I
would like to see a slightly more secure
system offered (possibly as an option).
With everything prepared it was as
usual a very simple matter to program-
me the Xicoy ECU and prime the fuel
lines into the engine so that it was ready
to run. The first start was extremely
straightforward and fuss free, with the
engine igniting as expected and then
accelerating through the rest of the start
process, until it passed control to the
radio system being used for the test,
however I did find that this took around
80 seconds in total – later starts with the
engine warm brought his down slightly,
to just over 70 seconds.
A few small licks of flame were genera-
ted during the start process, but this is
quite normal with many turbines, and did
not cause any concern.
With the start procedure completed and
the engine stably running at idle the Nicely cast compressor wheel is partly hidden behind the starter bullet.
testing could commence, the engine
being run at the various required points
throughout its rpm range so that the
thrust levels, fuel consumption and
exhaust gas temperatures could be
monitored and noted down for the test.
Unusually the A180 had been supplied
with the ECU set to Linear, and I did find
that this resulted in an inconsistent idle
rpm – changing to the standard Expo
setting cured this, after which the rpm
was steady wherever it was set across
the range. Running characteristics pro-
ved to be excellent, with the engine
being very smooth right the way through
from idle to full throttle, and once all of
the figures had been collated it was pos-
sible to check the acceleration and
deceleration times, which proved to be
pretty rapid for a powerful turbine such Crisp casting work is also evident on the turbine wheel.

29
AUTHOR & PHOTOGRAPHER: COLIN STRAUS

engine looked like new when we finished. I have thoroughly

enjoyed testing the A180, it is great to see another manufac-
turer entering the competitive field of model turbines, giving us
jet modellers even greater choice.
The quality of materials used and of assembly is excellent,
and the engine runs very smoothly and without fuss. ALM-
Meca are already working on further turbines beyond the
A180 and A210, with engines offering between 30 and 50Kg
and 100Kg thrust under development!

Colin Straus
WEBSITE
Unusual fuel line input to the combined Pump/ECU/Valve unit www.alm-meca.com
– the fuel tube is simple pushed into the black input tube. Note
the fuel and kerostart lines to the turbine in the background.

as this at around 4.2 seconds from idle to full rpm and fractio-
nally slower at 4.5 seconds from full rpm back down to idle.
The full power thrust at the maximum rpm figure of 126,000
was measured at a corrected figure of 176.5 Newtons
(18.0Kg/39.7Lb), so just slightly below the 180 Newtons spe-
cified, whilst the fuel consumption at full power was 600ml per
minute – interestingly the figure specified by the manufacturer
is 370ml per minute, but at 100,000rpm, so making a direct
comparison impossible, although this does look about right,
when put against the 402ml/min figure recorded at the ¾
throttle position of 104,000rpm. Idle thrust was nice and low,
at only 8.0 Newtons (0.8Kg/1.8Lb), making landing approa-
ches much easier than they would be with a turbine having a
higher thrust level at idle.
There were no problems found throughout the testing, and the

A180 on the test rig and ready for first runs.

30
AUTHOR & PHOTOGRAPHER: CHRISTOPHER FERKL
Part 2
Dassault Falcon
The business jet at 1:4.5 scale!
As was detailed in issue 172 of RC Jet
International, I am building two Dassault
Falcon 20 models to a scale of 1:4.5,
this resulting in airframes with a win-
gspan of 3.62 metres (142“) and fusela-
ge length of 3.81 metres (150“). The
take-off weight should end up at less
than 19 Kg including 6 Litres of kerose-
ne, although when I started the project
the estimated weight was in fact slightly
greater, at around 20 Kg. Both fuselages just prior to mounting the tailplanes
Following on from the work detailed in
the first article, the next important step
was to fit and glue the wing mount into
the fuselage. To do this, the model was
assembled and carefully measured with
the help of a cross-line laser and an inci-
dence gauge to ensure that the positio-
ning of the mount and all the various cri-
tical angles were perfect, as if any of
these were incorrect the wings would
not fit the fuselage accurately or the Sanding the parts prior to glass clothing
wing indcidence would be wrong. The
wing tube was tacked into the fuselage
with 5-minute epoxy – once this had fully
cured, the wing mount was bonded
securely in place with an additional sup-
port bulkhead and with glassfibre fabric
(166 g/m2) and epoxy resin.
To secure the wings to the fuselage I
installed M4 threaded inserts in the wing
root ribs, these accept M4 screws instal-
led and tightened from inside the fusela-
ge, reinforcements made of aircraft ply-
wood being glued into the fuselage
where necessary for these screws.
Underside of wing sanded and ready for its covering of glass cloth

Model prepared for fitting of the wing mount

34

Wing joint using thickened
resin to give a perfect fit
The glue used to secure the wing mount and allied parts in the
fuselage was left to fully cure overnight in the heated garage
at 25 degrees. The next job was to finish off the wing to fuse-
lage joint properly, with the first stage being to attach a thin
plastic sheet (kitchen foil) to the fuselage, covering the area of
the root rib.
A resin/microballoon mixture was applied to the root ribs of the
wings and then both wings were fitted to the fuselage. In doing
this, the resin-microballoon mixture presses up against fuse-
Glass cloth laid out dry on the wing, just awaiting resin
DASSAULT FALCON
Glass clothing the tailplane halves and elevators
lage sides, and a perfect joint with no gaps is formed, the pla-
stic sheet ensuring that the wings do not end up permanently
glued to the fuselage!
Once the resin/microballon mixture was fully cured, fine filler
was used were needed, before final sanding with 400 grit san-
dpaper to give a perfect finish to the joint.
Now the wings, tailplane/elevator and fin/rudder were prepa-
red for covering, with all the parts being sanded with an orbi-
tal sander and 600 grit sandpaper. The flying surfaces were all
covered with 80g glass cloth and with the well proven epoxy
resin system from HP-Textiles (high load laminating system -
epoxy resin HP-E111L). The glass cloth is laid dry onto the
parts and laminated in place using foam rollers (we used both
50 mm and 100 mm widths) and the HP resin.
The various parts all have one side covered in cloth, and then
before work commences on the second side, the overhanging
excess from the first side is cut away with a sharp knife. All
parts get two coats of resin to fully fill the weave of the cloth.
Covering all of the flying surfaces took a total of just under 10
hours. Where there were any overlaps of the cloth these were
carefully sanded smooth using 200 grit sandpaper.
The next step was to accurately mount the fin and tailplane to
the fuselage, so the model was assembled and secured so
that the top of the fuselage was perfecty horizontal. The wings
were then carefully checked to ensure that they were at the
same height, both left and right.
Covering the tailplane root sections in cloth
35
AUTHOR & PHOTOGRAPHER: CHRISTOPHER FERKL

Fin installation and tailplane

Use of a cross-line laser to accurately position the tailplane halves mounts on both fuselages completed

Fitting the Electron landing

The fin to fuselage and tailplane roots to fin joints being filled gear units into the wings
Now the fin could be fitted to the fusela-
ge - a laminated balsa/carbon spar is
installed in the fin, this being designed to
transfer the flight loads to the fuselage.
Once again, a cross line laser and inci-
dence meter were used to ensure that
the fin and tailplane were positioned
accurately on the fuselage. Once the
parts were in perfect position, they could
be carefully secured in place with 5-
minute epoxy.
Model carefully aligned so that the undercarriage oleo leg lengths can be determined

Gluing the wing tube and mounts into the

fuselage along with the securing bolt doublers Cloth reinforcement added to the fuselage and wing tube

36
As soon as the 5-minute resin had cured, it was possible to
reinforce all the joints using thickened resin (resin/microballo-
ons/thixotropic agent). The fin spar was also glued to the bot-
tom of the fuselage with this resin mixture and additional glass
cloth to give even more strength.
Like the wings, the tailplane halves are also of the plug-in
type. The mountings for the left and right tailplane/elevator
assemblies were glued to the fin, whilst at the same time the
various servo extension leads for elevator and rudder servos
were also installed.
At this point I moved on to mark the positions for the turbine
nacelle mounts on the fuselage. The model was reassembled
and set up so that the wings were exactly horizontal and the
top of the fuselage was also horizontal. Again the tried and
tested cross line laser was used, with the markings being
positioned so that the turbines will have a 1 degree angle of
attack, as if the point of thrust is behind the centre of gravity,
then it must be angled upwards slightly.
The landing gear units (Electron ER50) are screwed into the
mounts in the wings that had been fitted under the planking,
checking carefully that they are seated correctly. The nose
gear mount was also glued into the fuselage with the thicke-
ned resin/microballoon mixture and glass cloth reinforcement.
Now the model can be assembled and the length of the lan-
ding gear oleo legs can be determined. To do this, the fusela-
ge is again set up exactly horizontal.
The next part of the construction report will deal with the
installation of the fuel tank system, the turbine nacelles and
preparation for painting.

Christopher Ferkl

Installation of nose gear mounting in fuselage

AUTHOR: COLIN STRAUS

Making High-Quality Custom Extension Leads - The Easy Way!

Assembling PowerBox's Premium Servo Cables and Connectors

The full set of PowerBox Premium leads, pins, sockets and connectors for the Mini Ares plus the professional crimping tool.

When I started to put together the Krill

Mini Ares that is the subject of the
flying report in this issue of RCJI, I
wanted to keep the overall weight of
the model to a minimum, given that I
hoped to be able to fly it out of my
local club’s grass strip, which is not
huge and has trees on 2 sides. As part
of this I looked at the weight of the
extension leads used, as even in this
relatively small model there were a
total of 10 servos installed, all of which
needed extension leads of various
lengths. I also wanted to eliminate the
excess lengths of lead that is the ine-
vitable result when using commercial
extension leads, as of course these
are only available in specific lengths,
rarely being the precise length nee-
ded. We have all seen models with Along with the crimping tool I invested in a wire stripper to ensure clean
the excess lengths of lead bundled up removal of the insulation without damage to the stranded wire itself
and tucked into any available space,
sometimes this can end up looking
like a bird’s nest of wires!
Having used PowerBox equipment in
my jets for many years now, I was
aware that they also offered both
lengths of cable and the individual
pins, sockets and moulded connec-
tors to make up the male and female
ends of the extension leads. Even bet- On the left the components to make up a male
connector, to the right the female connector parts

38

The ends of the lead have
been stripped and twisted in
preparation for crimping
ter, the standard Premium cable is
listed as being significantly lighter
than normal extension leads, this
being due to the special insulation
used, which is used in full size avia-
tion, and allows a much thinner coa-
ting to be used whilst still offering full
protection and insulation. In fact, it
has far greater resistance to fire and
heat when compared to normal PVC
insulation, yet is around 30% lighter.
The cross section of the wire itself at
0.35mm² is larger most standard
leads, which tend to be of 0.25mm²
cross section, so the Premium leads
can carry higher currents with less
voltage drop. For those larger models,
or where very powerful servos are
being used, PowerBox offer their
MAXI cable, which uses the same
insulation as the Premium cable, but
has 0.5mm² cross section positive
and negative leads, with the signal
being only 0.3mm² cross section, thus
keeping weight to a minimum.
Note that although the insulation used
is resistant to Kerosene, Diesel and
Petrol, it is vulnerable to damage from
UV light, so should be carefully sto-
red, certainly the cable should not be
left for long periods in direct sunlight.
Connector sock
– note how th et inserted into the crimp
e lower sectio
ns of the sock tool and clamped in place
Socket crimped securely to the cable
A full set of cables, pins, sockets and
clear connector mouldings was orde-
red, as well as the professional crimp
tool PowerBox offer, and once these
had arrived I watched a very informa-
tive video on the PowerBox website
that shows how the crimp tool should
be used and the connector parts
assembled. I also bought a specialist
wire stripping tool, as the special insu-
lation used is tougher than normal
PVC, and as such it is harder to remo-
ve cleanly from the ends of the leads
whilst assembling the connectors.
Actually using the tool to crimp the
connector sockets is quite straightfor-
ward, with the first stage being to
secure the socket in the tool by partly
compressing the jaws, after which the
stripped end of the lead is carefully
inserted, finally the tool is fully com-
et are being be
nt inwards.
pressed, which completes the crim-
ping of the bare end of the cable as
well as ensuring that that rear part of
the socket is crimped onto the insula-
tion to give strain relief. With the soc-
kets now firmly attached the male and
female ends of the leads can be
assembled, requiring just an inner
moulding for the male end (female
sockets), and double ended pin sec-
tion plus inner and outer moulding for
the female end (male pins). A short
length of heatshrink is slid onto the
cable before the connectors are fitted
and is then shrunk onto place, again
to support the ends of the individual
leads.
Carrying all of this out took little time,
and before too long I had a variety of
completed leads, all made to precise-
ly the length I wanted, allowing for a
39
AUTHOR: COLIN STRAUS

The female connector is Final stage of assembling the female

Fully assembled male made up from a male plug socket is to add the outer shroud – note
plug with female sockets with the next stage being how the clear moulding allows easy
the addition of this pin part visual confirmation that the plug/soc-
kets are securely plugged together

lead
om m ade extension
Complete cust

quick and very neat installation in the Mini Ares. In the end
I made up 9 leads for the model, all of which connect up to
the Pioneer unit I installed. I did a weight check as the
leads were completed so that I was able to do a compari-
son with standard extension leads. A 1 metre extension
lead made using the Premium cable and connectors wei-
ghed 12 grams, whilst the standard leads weighed 18g,
thus a weight saving of 6 grams. With all of the various
leads, plus the one4two connectors (that use the same
cable) used for aileron/flap and retract/brake connections
between fuselage and wing, the overall weight saving
comes to around 80 grams, which is a useful amount,
given that these leads are of higher quality and a thicker
cross section than the normal leads that would otherwise
be used. Of course I was also able to completely elimina-
te any excess lengths of lead from the fuselage, again
Nine extension leads were produced for use in the
Mini Ares, they can be seen here plugged into the
PowerBox Pioneer I installed in the model.
minimising weight and keeping the installation as neat as
possible. Having now flown the Mini Ares very successful-
ly a number of times, the operation of the leads and the job
I made of crimping them has been well proven. I will cer-
tainly be using the Premium leads in any future jets I
assemble, as well as any other models that deserve these
high quality leads.
Colin Straus
WEBSITE
www.powerbox-systems.com

40
SUBSCRIBE !

www.rcjetinternational.com
AUTHOR & PHOTOGRAPHER: GEOFF GRICE

Boomera
A majo

When the call came through with an

offer to review the new Ranger kit from
Boomerang RC Jets, I jumped at the
chance…

About the Ranger

Boomerang is a well-known brand that
has been around for many years and is
synonymous with fun and affordable jet
kits that help people enter the world of
model turbine flying. Boomerang RC
Jets is a US based company that was
relaunched in recent years and has
introduced a refreshed and modernised
line of kits that modellers know and love,
including the Sprint V2, Turbinator 2,
and Elan V2. More recently Boomerang
RC Jets have taken things up a notch
yet again with their new release… the
Boomerang Ranger.
The Ranger comprises of a high
strength two-piece fibreglass fuselage The author Geoff Grice highly recommends the new Boomerang Ranger
with built up wings and tail surfaces,
offering both light overall weight and Building the Ranger assembling their own Ranger.
ease of maintenance. I found the cove- My kit arrived very well packaged, there
ring and paint work to be well suited to Much of the assembly is of course cove- had been one minor ding in transport
an everyday sport jet and the colour red in the kit manual, which is available that amounted to a blemish on the tail
scheme looks very handsome, certainly online, so in this article I will highlight but something easily fixed with a small
I have had plenty of compliments at the some observations and suggestions touch with a paint brush. The colours on
club, so it appears to be done very well. other modellers may find useful when the model are really dynamic and bright

42

ang Ranger
or marvel!
Slots are pre cut for the kit hinges
The hinges only need to have the hinge
point oiled before they are glued in place
BOOMERANG RANGER
Ranger is a sport jet with a soupcon of scale flair
and the first impression when removing the kit is a definite –
wow, nice!
The wings and tail have a nice solid feel and feature pre-cut
servo doors, laser aligned hinge slots and a surprisingly thin
aerofoil that is sure to give a sprightly performance in the air.
The fuselage seems to be a good balance between light
weight and strength with carbon cloth reinforcing in key areas.
I found the woodwork to be well bonded in both the fuselage
and wings, but there were some minor gaps to fill (I used
Aeropoxy 9566) around the turbine mounts and undercarria-
ge. For the small amount of weight it adds, the additional glue
work is useful to give the modeller full confidence when flying,
so check your kit for any minor gaps.
The ailerons and flaps are mounted via metal side mounts to
strong and colour coded epoxy glass hatch covers. This is a
Some hinge trimming required, but this is easily achieved
43
AUTHOR & PHOTOGRAPHER: GEOFF GRICE

Hardware kit is quite good, but some additional washers would be nice

Paint livery aligns well on the two piece fuselage

Servo hatches are from epoxy/glass in the wings and are built-up for the tail Hardware kit is comprehensive

The hatch cover is not flush with the underside of the

(above and below) Mini servos require a spacer, alternatively wing servos can be used tailplane, but proved to work fine in flight testing
good and reliable system, although I did find that with the ser-
vos I am using (MacGregor 5921HV) I needed to make some
thin spacers to bring the servo horn up to the middle of the
pre-cut slot. This may not be necessary on other full-size ser-
vos that have mounting lugs lower down the case but is some-
thing to watch out for. The kit comes with nice double horns
and stainless pushrods that connect via ball links for smooth
and trouble free operation, some modellers may elect to
upgrade to 3mm rods and metal hardware, but I wanted to try
the parts supplied in the kit and so far have found it all to work
reliably.
I found the elevator servo installation to be a little troubleso-
me due to the limited amount of internal space for servo
mounting. Boomerang recommend the use of thin wing ser-
vos to overcome this issue, and it’s true - newer designed ser-
vos feature a lot of torque and could be suitable for the job,
but I am not sure if they are quite fast enough for high-speed

44

Full size servos in the wings provide plenty of power
Undercarriage hardware kit is comprehensive
Wing retracts, oleos and wheels are sturdy and reliable
Ranger builders can choose from three wing tip configurations
BOOMERANG RANGER
Some U/C mount gaps are present, add glue to these to increase the strength
gyro assisted control surfaces. On this
model I am using the Smoothflite 16
from Booma RC for power distribution
and gyro-based flight control, and for the
elevators I equipped my Ranger with
Macgregor 2810HV servos because
they provide a torque and speed advan-
tage over thin wing servos. In order to
accommodate the 2810HV size servo I
needed to space out the servo plate sli-
ghtly. When the model is assembled this
is hidden underneath the elevator and
does not seem to affect flight performan-
ce, so this modification seems to produ-
ce a successful result.
As per the other Boomerang RC relea-
ses the Ranger is equipped with electric
retracts and brakes included with the kit.
Continuing the successful design ethos
of JP Hobby the gear is very rugged and
reliable for grass field work. Spare parts
or consumables such as tires can be
ordered individually through the JP
Hobby web shop online, whilst added to
this is the advantage that the gear is a
drop in fit for the model and you really
have an ideal package. Before screwing
the retracts into the wings I used the
opportunity to laminate in some carbon
tissue into the retract bay and also lami-
nate the wood work around that area.
This just gives a little more strength to
the top side of the wing on the off chan-
ce of a heavy landing or catching the
Fin/rudder assembly could be removable but I fixed mine in place
45
AUTHOR & PHOTOGRAPHER: GEOFF GRICE

Factory tank kit and accessories Adding servo lead heat protection is time well spent

wheel on a grass divot or edge.

Moving on to the fuselage I made my
own servo harness. If you are not fami-
liar with crimping servo leads, another
option would be to buy premade servo
extensions, but be aware the Ranger is
a long model and the run from the tail to
the most likely radio installation is some
2 metres, when taking into account the
twists and turns around formers and
mounts. To make model assembly at the
field easier and more reliable I made up
multi pin servo connectors using the
Molex SL range of connectors which are
available from RS Online. The variety of
housings ensures that any number of
pins can be catered for and also the loc-
king action gives an element of confi- Fueslage could be built with a locking lead connector but I preferred
dence that vital connections stay put for to make my joint permanent and simplify the harness

There were some gaps around the turbine mounts,

again these were filled with glue to increase strength

Equipment tray provides ample options

for securing leads and equipment Kit pipe and mounts predrilled and ready to attach - pure bliss!

46
 BOOMERANG RANGER

Customising the tip tanks with Sky Candy light kit

Plentiful space in the fuselage for accessory mounting

Kingtech K-120 is a tight fit, requiring

some trimming of the turbine mounts Molex SL locking connectors makes assembly at the field fast and easy

47
AUTHOR & PHOTOGRAPHER: GEOFF GRICE

secure the tank to the model I glued a

wooden mount to the back of the tank
which is screwed to the accessory tray,
and I complemented this with a large
Velcro strap to hold everything securely
in place.
For power I opted to go straight to
the maximum rated turbine and my
Kingtech K-120G2 found its way
into the engine bay. This required
minor trimming of the turbine rails but
does fit reasonably easily. The trick here
is to secure the turbine using the inner
turbine mounting bolt holes in the
bracket. Smaller turbines would
oseful
th stylish and purp possibly be easier to fit but I went
Ranger looks bo resolved this by laminating fibreglass with what I had available, and it
tissue around the base of the tank has worked a treat.
the whole flight. where the leaks were coming from and
A real highlight of building the Ranger also used this opportunity to improve the
was the turbine tailpipe installation. tank by installing an Intairco/Festo brea-
Thanks to the design work of ther, a heavy-duty clunk, and proper
Boomerang this has to be the easiest to Tygon tubing with a brass pipe insert
fit pipe of all those that I have installed in part way down the tube. In order to
any model - true plug and play with
bracket holes predrilled and mounts
supplied in the ideal shape. For
something that is normally a bit
of a tricky job, this was a real
joy needing only to slide in the
pipe, check that it is centred in the
fuselage and then screw down four
screws. Unfortunately, the fuel tank
installation was not quite as straightfor-
ward. I drew the unlucky straw on this The Ranger prefers the speed to be
kept high during knife edge flight
one and found that my tank revealed
some minor fuel "sweating" when full. I

e
due to the low drag airfram
pe r sm ooth low passes are easy
Su

48
 BOOMERANG RANGER

Upgrades and
customisations
I chose to fit a few “extras” to my Ranger
build in pursuit of additional safety, per-
formance, reliability… and also a little bit
of indulgent bling. For lighting I am
using Sky Candy landing
lights in the tip tanks,
Unilight dual pro LEDs for
navigation lights and the Booma
RC ILS03 for dual lighting controls
and a variety of sequences that are
manually selectable through two
surface mounted pots. From the
same stable is my choice of power
and flight control. The Booma RC
Smoothflite 16 which incorporates
power distribution, servo optimisa-
tion, and self-tuning gyro function
(reviewed in RCJI edition 165). To
provide optimum fuel supply my
Ranger relies on an Intairco iTrap 50
which delivers high volume and bubble
free flow with the ability to clearly see
the fuel and pickup at a glance when
filling. As the pièce de resistance I
painted and instal- Underwing liver
y is just excellent

Flying the predictable touchdowns, even on a wind

led a 3D printed pilot and cockpit
kit produced for me by my friend
James Symons. The quality of 3D
printed materials has really come on
in leaps and bounds and James did a
great job with the resin printed pieces,
building on some existing designs, and
for some of the pieces even designing
from scratch. I painted the pieces with
Tamiya acrylic model paints which
achieves a deep and lasting colour and
I really think this has brought the model
onto a whole new level compared to
having an unpopulated cockpit.
Ranger
Boomerang RC Jets
describe the Ranger as
“fun, fast, featuring an ultra-
wide speed envelope, and
yet also capable of slow,
controlled landings”. That is
a big ask because it is hard
to find jets that can achieve
such a wide criteria…. BUT,
I would say Boomerang
have managed to do just
that! The factory C.G. and
control surface rates turned out to be
good, complemented with about 40%
expo. While my Ranger measures in at
an all up weight of 10.5 Kg it is able to
slow down very nicely for smooth and
free day, thanks to stable and “at ease”
nose high approaches.
Take-offs are a non-event, possibly also
helped in part by the fact that I have
equipped the model with more than 1:1
thrust to weight ratio. The colour sche-
me looks as good in the sky as it does
on the ground, with the crisp red under-
side helping with orientation and visibili-
ty when flying at a distance. The Ranger
is at home with low and slow passes
which given the brilliant colour scheme
is a real treat for onlookers. Knife edge
flight is better at high speed and if the
speed drops too much the nose will
drop, but not too suddenly. Everything
happens at a smooth rate and gives the
pilot time to adjust and correct without
unexpected sudden movements.

Wide main gear aids stability on the ground

49
AUTHOR & PHOTOGRAPHER: GEOFF GRICE
Boomerang recommend turbines ranging
from 7 to 12 Kg of thrust. I am using 12 Kg
AR Smoothflite 16 is an ideal control
system for the Boomerang Ranger
es a stable and predictabl
Half flap produc
50
Large and open canopy area allows
for easy and neat installation
Aftermarket cockpit kit brings
this model to a whole new level
e landing speed
Livery is eye catching and provides a great finish
The flip side of this is that the Ranger
might not be suitable for advanced jet
aerobatics, but rather it excels in neutral
high-speed smooth and graceful flight
both with or without gyro activated.
I was very excited to fly the Ranger and
I can really say that the model exceeded
my expectations in every way. For brand
new jet pilots my first recommendation
is still the Boomerang Sprint V2, but I
have no hesitation in recommending the
Ranger to any jet modeller, or someone
that already has experience in flying
medium sized EDF models. The Ranger
is a FUN model to fly, very smooth and
fast. I have the feeling that if the Ranger
were an automobile it would be a GT
sports car, oodles of power, easy to
pilot, and dominating the skies with its
presence, ensuring that the Ranger is
certain to impress any seasoned jet jock
at the field.
Geoff Grice
WEBSITE
www.boomerangrcjets.com
www.kingtechturbine.lu
AUTHOR: P.J: ASH

Jet Landings Made Easy!

Tips for nice and safe landings
What goes up, must come down! A term especially for someone with little experien- not forget that thinking about all that time,
that almost everyone has heard before. It’s ce of this fabulous type of model. Why is energy (and money) that a modeler puts
a simple statement, but very true. I had a that? I believe that several factors are into a jet means that it is hard for a new
Submarine Officer tell me that, “what goes involved; one is the stories we have all pilot to relax during this important part of
up, must come down, however, what goes heard that "landing an R/C jet is always dif- the flight. Other than practice and/or time
down doesn’t always come up”. I am very ficult" (often this rumor is spread by... the with the plane, there is not much that one
glad I became a pilot rather than a sub- very people that have never flown an R/C can do about this.
mariner. jet!) so the newcomer to jets often starts off However, the final factor and the subject I
I have been blessed in my life to enjoy the being afraid of the landing. The second would like to spend some time on here is
hobby as well as full scale flying as a com- one is that some jets have a much higher technique. Yes, that pesky part of any air-
mercial pilot. I’ve been able to fly virtually wing loading when compared to many craft operation, the technique in bringing
everything in radio control from WWI tis- prop powered models, so the approach your beautiful bird back onto the ground!
sue and fabric aircraft to the latest turbine speed is in consequence also higher, thus
jets, with the same going for my full-scale raising the "fear" level. Of course, we must
flying. I have noticed a critical, but in many Same landing attitude
cases overlooked area of jet flying, this for these two Phantoms:
being the landing! There are numerous R/C replica (left), full
times that I’ve watched a superb airplane scale (below)
take to the skies and perform beautiful
maneuvers, only to set up for a landing
and pow! Either they come down way too
hard, way too fast, or way too slow. They
usually rid the plane of that pesky gear as
the aircraft comes screeching to a halt with
holes in the place the gear used to be, a
broken wing or worse! Ouch!
So why in the world am I writing in a jet
magazine about landings? Why not stick to
my other articles about building model jets
or sharing some techniques I’ve learned
over the years?
Well, because let's face it, landing a jet is
something that can put nerves to the test,

A typical landing pattern

52
 JET LANDINGS MADE EASY

In flying both full scale and model aircraft, ach and landing compared to a Hawk and their own world! Just joking). The first leg
there are several areas that I think are if you are not careful, you can easily snap would be after take-off, or if you are alrea-
constants in any safe landing operation. a Phantom at a speed much greater than dy in the air going the same direction as
Believe it or not, the airplane does talk to you might be used to when flying a Hawk. when you took off, and is the upwind leg.
you! And airplanes, just like people, have Does that make an F-4 a bad subject? When you make your first turn perpendicu-
different personalities, quirks, and that Absolutely not, you just need to know what lar to the runway, that is your crosswind
point where, if you push too hard, they will the flight characteristics are, fly within the leg. The second turn, that has you going
snap at you! Yes, I mean both airplanes aircraft limitations, and you will really enjoy the opposite direction to your takeoff and is
and people. The type of plane you have the F-4. usually furthest away, is called your dow-
will largely affect how you set up for lan- I am going to focus on some of the basics nwind leg, which is followed by your third
ding and how you eventually get her on the that I’ve found work well with every airpla- turn where you are turning back towards
ground! ne type (and not just jets). So, we’ve done the runway but perpendicular to the run-
Before we start, the first thing any good some basic research and gained an under- way, this being called the base leg. Your
modeler will need to do is research! standing of the basic principles involved last turn in the pattern is where you set up
Whether it is a sport jet (which are general- with landing your plane. The first and for final approach and landing, and is cal-
ly acknowledged to be easier to land and absolutely the most important part of any led the final leg. For this section, I want to
to fly in general, mainly due to their low successful landing is the proper set up and focus on your base leg to final leg becau-
wing loading) or a scale jet, it is always initial glide angle. What do I mean by that? se truthfully, if you do not have your jet
useful to do some research to find out how Well, first let’s discuss the 4 legs of any ready by your final leg for landing, go
they perform at low speeds, and in particu- flight pattern. We pretty much fly a stan- around! I’ve seen so many crashes on lan-
lar when landing. Read what you can dard pattern (unless you are a helicopter dings where the pilot seemed to “fight” the
about the model, watch videos, talk to peo- pilot and/or 3D pilot and well, they are in plane all the way down. I bet you’ve seen
ple who already have experience with it. In
this way you will already have a solid star-
ting point.
Having information on a particular subject
is very important! Two totally different
types of aircraft are the Sopwith Pup and
McDonnell Douglas F-4! Yes, both have
wings and both have an undercarriage, but
that is about the end of the similarities bet-
ween them. If you tried to land an F-4 like
a Sopwith Pup, I dare say you wouldn’t
even get close to the runway before the
poor jet would snap into the ground! Why? Here is how flaps affect the landing point
Well, that’s easy to explain! They are both
totally different types of airplane, and as
such they have very and I mean VERY dif-
ferent “personalities”. Okay, so enough of
that, but how about a pilot who has been
flying a Hawk for a season or two, but now
would like to build and fly an F-4 Phantom!
They are both scale jets, both have retrac-
table gear, both have flaps, so they should
both land the same, correct? Wrong! An F-
4 has a very different “feel” on final appro- Here is how flaps affect the approach angle

53
AUTHOR: P.J: ASH
this too! The plane porpoises up and down
and/or side to side, then at the last second,
hits the runway, off comes the undercarria-
ge, etc. Often this is followed by the pilot
looking down at the radio as if it is the
radio’s fault!
Let’s break this section down a bit further.
I like to have my jets fully prepared for lan-
ding before I turn final. What I mean by this
is that I want the landing gear fully exten-
ded, flaps in the landing position and (if my
jet has them, and I need to lose speed fur-
ther) speed brakes out (they're also helpful
to keep the speed constant while working
with the throttle), landing lights on, etc. I
don’t want anything moving and causing a
change in the airstream and aircraft perfor-
mance whilst on final approach.
Depending on the type of jet, I usually put
in my first stage of flap as soon as I turn
onto my downwind leg, making sure my
speed is safe for deploying the flaps. Right
54
after that, I will go ahead and hit the gear
switch. Usually this is after the halfway
point of the downwind leg. When I am
“abeam my landing” or directly across from
the point where I want to land, I will bring
in the second stage of flap. Now I will go
into my base leg with the gear almost
extended or fully extended and my flaps
the same. So, by the time I’ve turned onto
my final leg, the plane is configured for lan-
ding, and I know that the characteristics
will not change due to the airflow chan-
ging. If you wait until final to start hitting
switches, or you are flying around with the
gear and flaps down at full throttle, you are
putting undue stress on the control surfa-
ces, and you really have no idea how the
plane will handle at the slower airspeed
and with all that “stuff” hanging out.
Once I am on final approach, I like to have
my speed at the level required for landing
– this is not the speed at which I touch
down, but my “approach speed”. Again,
depending on the aircraft that speed will
vary and will require a different amount of
throttle. Let’s go back to my F-4 for exam-
ple. When I am on base to final, I have my
flaps fully deployed and my gear down. I
have at least 2/3rd throttle, and on a hot
humid day I might be at full throttle in the
turn! The second I make the turn I bring
the plane back to about 1/3rd throttle for
just a second or two. I will notice the nose
start to come up where I can just see the
bottom of the fuselage and wing. At that
point I will apply at least ½ throttle and
carry that almost all the way down to my
touchdown point. Very rarely will I land my
F-4 on idle. Almost every time, that plane
will just get in a groove and ride that all the
way down. Many will say that an F-4 is
hard to fly but in fact nothing is further from
the truth. This is a plane that requires
power no matter what you are doing, but
with the right power settings on landing,
you can “hit the numbers” every time! Now,
a sport jet is very different. For example,
with the Turbinator I’ve learned that when I
have the set-up I want, I will usually only
carry a little bit of power on final. Another
important aspect of the approach is that it
is often the power that sets your descent
rate, not elevator! I know that is tough
because the first thing you want to do
when the plane starts to sink is add back
pressure. However, if you think about it,
that is the worst thing you can do! If your
plane is already slow, then suddenly starts
to descend, in most cases its not creating
enough lift and is getting ready to stall.
We’ve all seen aircraft get too slow and

you start to feel that screech in your brain
as you see the pilot continue to apply ele-
vator until, you guessed it - the pilot was
able to relieve the plane of the undercar-
riage! Adding power brings more airspeed
and if you leave the elevator alone (mea-
ning whatever back pressure you are
using to hold the initial descent), the plane
will get back into the groove and you won’t
be porpoising up and down for the rest of
the descent. I believe that if you have a
good glide angle set as soon as you can
on your final approach and your plane con-
figured for landing before final approach,
you will find that during this part of the
approach you can focus purely on the
power setting and will notice your worklo-
ad decreasing. Every airplane lands well
this way (unless you are flying a sailplane,
then you are on your own).
So, what is all that flap about? We all know
(or should know) that flaps are supposed
to help slow the aircraft down and to give
more lift, and thus control, at slower spe-
eds. However, not every situation requires
full flap or any flap at all!
On a very windy and/or gusty day, our
models are already being slowed down by
the wind itself when flying into wind, and
while this tends to result in a higher true
airspeed, the increased airspeed creates
more drag on those fully extended flaps, a
situation that will soon start to reduce the
speed, which in turn can cause the con-
trols to become less effective, potentially
resulting in a dangerous situation.
Allowing the speed to drop too low on a
windy/gusty day is also dangerous becau-
se a wind change or shift might cause your
aircraft to suddenly stall! So many times
I’ve seen airplanes make a nice approach
with those huge “barn door” flaps hanging
down. Then, all of the sudden they seem to
just drop out of the sky! What happened?
In many cases the very thing that is desi-
gned to help you....was the culprit in hur-
ting you! This is made worse in a situation
where you have a crosswind, and seriou-
sly, how many times are we blessed with
JET LANDINGS MADE EASY
winds right down the runway? Here is an
example I hope might help explain. Let’s
say that your jet will stall when clean, mea-
ning gear and flaps up, at 40mph. With the
flaps in landing configuration and the gear
down, let’s say (for this example) this redu-
ces the stall speed to about 30mph. Good
right? However, let’s say we have that
10mph wind with gusts to 15mph. You
have full flaps down on landing, but very
easily you could lose some or all of that
headwind. You very quickly go from a good
landing approach to a tip stall, as the air-
speed suddenly suffers an immediate
10mph loss of lift over the wing!
If some jets have full flap selected and are
flying too fast they will “balloon” or try to
gain altitude as flaps increase the lift from
the wing. If you are using full flap in windy
55
AUTHOR: P.J: ASH

conditions on a model like this and are keeping the power up, you many cases spooling up almost immediately, but even a couple of
could be fighting the aircraft all the way to the ground, only to suf- seconds matter on final approach with a heavy jet! In the case of
fer a premature flare and either a very hard landing, or again, rid my F-4, I noticed that if I can get the plane to the point that I like,
the aircraft of the gear! then use only power to keep her on the glide slope, I find my wor-
In this situation (particularly in a strong crosswind), I suggest that kload is much lower and I usually nail every landing!
you try landing the airplane with half flap setting. If the wind is I know that every airplane is different, every runway is different,
really strong, try the "take off" flap setting, or with sport jets even and every weather condition is different. You have to know your
land with no flaps at all. In this situation, you have more airspeed plane, understand its limitations, and listen to it on final approach.
to play with and, more airflow over the controls. As said, many air- It will tell you what it wants and what it needs by its reaction! Take
craft get “mushy” when slow, this is because the amount of airflow the time and do the research early on so you can enjoy the flight
over the controls is reduced, requiring the application of more all the way to the end!
control to achieve the desired affect. The plane can feel “heavy”. I have been asked numerous times, “Hey P.J., what is the best
Yes, you will touch down at a higher speed, but the aircraft will be part of your flight”. I always reply with the same answer.
more controllable all the way from final approach to touchdown. “The taxi back”!
Remember that the only tool to effectively fight the wind P.J. Ash
is...speed!
Another aspect that should not be forgotten, especially during lan-
dings, is that a jet doesn't have a prop pushing air over the con-
trol surfaces at any speed! The turbine (or EDF) is sucking the air
from the intakes and pushes it back at a higher airspeed through
a tailpipe/thrust tube, and out the back of the airplane, but all of
that thrust doesn’t help the controls. So, when flying a jet, whate-
ver airspeed you have is the only air you will get over those con-
trols. Now in scale jets, usually the ailerons are rather small
because the aircraft is designed to go fast! You don’t need much
aileron movement at Mach 2 or so! If you find yourself in a situa-
tion where you are slow and you realize either that you are going
to land short, or you ate up too much runway trying to slow down
and you push the throttle to full, there are two things you need to
remember! One, if the plane is “mushy”, it will still be mushy until
you get enough speed to regain improved control. The second
aspect, that is not as serious now thanks to modern turbine
technology, is something called "spool up time". This means the
time it takes for the turbine to spool up to full power and full thrust.
I studied in college several air disasters with the 727 that had bet-
ween a 6 second and 8 second spool up time! On a hot summer
day where the turbine doesn’t produce as much thrust, a 727 was
on final approach and became way too slow. By the time the pilots
noticed, they did not react fast enough and did not apply enough
power. They came from 4 engine piston driven aircraft and got
behind the power curve. The airplane slammed into the dirt about
100 feet short of the runway. In this situation, the turbines were
only at about 80 percent and were still spooling up when the
plane hit. Now our models have much faster spool up times, in

56
AUTHOR: COLIN STRAUS

Eurofighter Bifurcated Tailpipe Test

A quieter tailpipe

The difference
and the Grum s between the original tailp
ania pipe on th ip
e right are verye on the left
obvious.
The new custom made bifurca-
ted tailpipe from Grumania for
the Eurofighter, complete with
nicely produced intake cone.
Having flown my T-One Models
Eurofighter a number of times now I
have had several bystanders comment
that they felt the model was rather noisy,
and in fact I have avoided flying it at one
of the clubs I am a member of for this
very reason. As per most scale models
of full size twin engined jets that use
only a single turbine, the Eurofighter has
a bifurcated tailpipe to split the thrust
from the KingTech K-160 turbine down
and out of the two scale exhaust noz-
zles. It is well known that models utili-
sing bifurcated tailpipes tend to be noi-
sier than those with single straight tailpi-
pes, but as the T-One Eurofighter is a
pretty accurate scale representation of
the full size it was not really an option to
modify the airframe to accept a single
tailpipe, although this is a relatively com-

60
 GRUMANIA TAILPIPE

Where the pipe splits at the rear of the intake The tailpipe outer pipes are made from
additional material is bent around a threaded rod aluminium to reduce weight to a minimum
running top to bottom of the pipe, this being used whilst maintaining adequate strength
to help secure the intake cone to the tailpipe.

mon solution for less scale examples of

this and other models of twin engine
prototypes. I did try adjusting the gap
between the rear of the turbine tailcone
and the front of the tailpipe to see if this
would reduce the overall noise level, but
this appeared to make very little diffe-
rence, and whatever the gap there was
a hard rasp to the sound.
Having used the excellent tailpipes from
Grumania in Germany in a number of
jets I have assembled I contacted the
boss, Ilja Grum, as I knew that he also
manufactured bifurcated tailpipes, and
hoped that he might be able to offer a
solution. As I had hoped, Ilja quickly
came back to advise that he could make
a custom bifurcated pipe for the Rear end of the tailpipe, where the outer pipes are longer than the
inner, which helps draw cooling air between inner and outer pipes.
Eurofighter that he was confident would
be significantly quieter, whilst at the
same time reduce the thrust loss that is
common to bifurcated pipes. All I had to
do was advise the critical dimensions,
and a couple of weeks later a beautiful-
ly assembled (and carefully packaged)
bifurcated tailpipe arrived, this being
supplied complete with alloy intake cone
and pack of mounting hardware.
Comparing the original and new
Grumania pipe showed that the new
pipe was somewhat longer, although
much of this was due to the large intake
cone. Weight of the original tailpipe was
512 grams, whilst the Grumania pipe
was slightly heavier at 558 grams. Grumania incl
turbine exhausude the exact measuremen
As can be seen from the photos the t cone and pipe t requ
on this useful ired between
Grumania pipe is quite different in label.

61
AUTHOR: COLIN STRAUS

design to the original pipe, each of the

two pipe sections being straight after
they split right at the rear of the intake
cone, whereas the original pipe angles
out more at the start and then has a
second pair of angled joints to make the
rear pipe sections parallel.
Of course, I wanted to see exactly what
the difference in both sound level and
thrust would be between the original tail-
pipe and the new Grumania pipe. I was
able to borrow a noise meter from my
local flying club, and of course had a
suitable thrust gauge to hand from the
turbine testing I carry out, so with this
The mounting
equipment to hand I roped in the help of hardware set
of parts supplied
my good friend Ted to carry out some with the pipe.
testing, first with the original pipe fitted.
We assembled the Eurofighter at the
flying field and started the engine, then
with the thrust gauge supported at the
level of the nose (I had fitted a thick
piece of ply to the thrust gauge to accept
the nose of the Eurofighter) I opened the
throttle until the engine was running at
full power, where I was able to note the
level of thrust. We had previously mar-
ked points at 10 metres in front of the
model, to the side and to the rear, so
with me holding the model still Ted was
able to take noise readings at all three
points to complete the testing. Note that
both Ted and I wore high quality ear
defenders throughout the testing pro-
cess – running powerful model turbines
at full power can quickly lead to damage
to unprotected ears.
Now the first thing I must say is that the
thrust measurements recorded will not Nice secure mounting for the front end of the new tailpipe
be as precise as those I record with tur-
bines on my test rig, as when measuring
the thrust with the turbine and tailpipe
installed in the model the final figure is
affected by the friction between the whe-
els and the surface they are on as well
as the weight of the model itself. Of
course in this case I was really looking
to see if there was a difference in the
thrust figures between the original and
new Grumania pipe, but even then, and
as I had previously tested the KingTech
K-160 and recorded a corrected full
thrust figure of just over 164 Newtons, I
was surprised to find that the maximum
thrust figure recorded with the engine in
the Eurofighter with the standard bifur-
cated pipe was a mere 119.2 Newtons.
Although as mentioned, this figure is
unlikely to be completely accurate, it
does explain the somewhat lengthy
take-off run, particularly when flying off I made up a new support former for the Grumania pipe, with the outer
dimensions and mounting points being exactly the same as the original

62

grass, something that had surprised me
given that the dry weight of the model
was only 12.5Kg.
Noise levels recorded ranged from a low
of 86.9dB, surprisingly this being at the
rear of the model, through 90.4dB at the
front and a high of 96.7dB at the side.
Removing the tailpipe took little time, but
fitting the new Grumania pipe took a lit-
tle longer, given its different dimensions,
design and method of mounting at the
front end. I had to cut away some of the
rear sections of the turbine mounts as
these were too narrow for the much lar-
lib erat ed by the new Grum runways.
st
The extra thru rly useful when flying off gras
will be particua
ger intake cone of the Grumania pipe.
With the pipe in place and carefully ali-
gned with the rear of the turbine tailco-
ne, the hardwood mounts with the sup-
plied captive nuts fitted were then glued
into place onto the turbine mounts. The
original rear tailpipe former that was fit-
ted between the rear of the fuselage and
the tailcone assembly was used to pro-
duce an accurate copy, but with the
inner holes cut to suit the new tailpipe.
We then repeated the thrust and noise
tests, and saw a significant improve-
ania tailpipe
s
The Eurofighter is a lovely model to fly, and will be
even better now, with more thrust and less noise
GRUMANIA TAILPIPE
ment in the thrust, with this increasing
by just over 10 Newtons, to a full power
figure of 129.5 Newtons. Conversely the
measured noise levels were lower than
with the original pipe, as I had hoped,
with the level at the front of the model
being down significantly to 85.0dB,
whilst the rear was also lower, albeit by
a lesser amount, at 85.4 dB, the highest
level still being at the side, at 95.2dB,
once again lower than the original.
Although some of the reductions do not
seem that large, it should not be forgot-
ten that the decibel (dB) scale is logari-
thmic, so a 10dB difference in noise
level gives roughly double the perceived
level of noise, thus the reduction from
the front of the model in particular is
quite substantial. Of course, the final
test will come once the model is flown
again, but based on the testing we have
been able to carry out, the Grumania
pipe gives both a significant increase in
thrust and a noticeable reduction in
noise, in fact exactly what I had been
hoping for. The build quality of the
Grumania pipe is excellent, and I am
confident that as well as the performan-
ce and noise benefits, the pipe is likely
to outlast the Eurofighter itself – highly
recommended!
Colin Straus
WEBSITE
www.grumania.com
63
Performance
Comparisons
Note: To keep the chart to a reasonable size and aid clarity a number
of very old tests have been removed.

T he model turbine performance chart covers a wide range of

engines that have been tested independently, and allows for
easy selection of a suitable turbine for a particular model.
The engines are listed by thrust, as this is normally what is most
important when selecting a new turbine. Once a range of suitable
engines has been decided upon, it is then possible to narrow the
decision still further by looking at the overall weight of the turbine
plus ancillaries such as fuel pump, ECU, battery etc, as well as the
fuel load required for 5 minutes at full power, allowing selection of a
suitable turbine for the specific model or application.

KEY:

= Discontinued Model
= New Engine Test
= Tested previously

1 RPM figures shown are the maximum specified by the manufacturer.

2 Exhaust gas temperature (EGT) is nominal as the actual EGT
varies substantially depending on the exact position of the sensor.
NB
See Hybl Turbines, updated note from current test results: * This is a
Turbine Inlet Temperature (approx. 150°C higher than max. EGT)

3 The maximum thrust figures are shown in Newtons, as this is the

figure commonly used by manufacturers to describe a particular engine.
Conversion factors are; a) To convert to Kg, divide the Newton figure by
9.81. To convert to Lb, divide the Newton figure by 4.45.

4 To convert cc to US fI . oz. multiply the cc figure by 0.0338.

5 To convert Litres to U.S Quart multiply the Litre figure by 1.06.
6 To convert Kg to Lb, multiply the Kg figure by 2.20
7 The thrust to weight ratio is calculated by taking the thrust figure of
the engine and dividing this by the total weight of the engine, ancillaries
and fuel for 5 minutes at full power.

8 TSFC (Thrust Specific Fuel Consumption) - the lower the figure the
more efficient the engine.

9 The weight of the engine includes all parts attached, such as starter,
mounting lugs and temperature sensor, etc.

10 The weight of ancillaries includes ECU, pump, valves etc, and a

notional ECU battery weight has been included for those engines that
are supplied without a battery.

64
65
AUTHOR: COLIN STRAUS - PHOTOgRAPHeRs: BOB PETRIE & COLIN STRAUS
Krill
A compact and high quality composite sport jet!
Par t 2
Author with the Mini Ares just prior to its first flight.
At the end of the first part of the review of the
Mini Ares in the Feb/Mar 2022 issue the
model was ready to fly, but as this was writ-
ten in the middle of a U.K. winter it was likely
that the required combination of decent
weather, site availability and the attendance
66
Mini Ares
of my good friend and ace photographer, Bob
Petrie might mean a bit of a wait, and this did
prove to be the case, with the weather in par-
ticular being very poor. Due to this I was
unable to fly the model as I had hoped for the
previous issue, but finally things came
together, and we met up at our Debden flying
site in late March for the first flight tests. Full
range checks and engine tests had been car-
ried out the previous day, so the model was
quickly assembled, checked and fuelled up,
after which a final range check and static
photos saw us with nothing left to do but start
the turbine and fly.
The Xicoy X45 fired up immediately and the
Mini Ares was taxied out onto the runway,
adjusting the nosewheel steering until the
model ran straight. Lined up and ready to go
the throttle was opened and the model accel-
erated away smartly, with a gentle back pres-
sure on the elevator stick lifting the nose as
the Mini Ares became airborne for the first
time. This first flight focused on trimming the
model for level flight, checking later showed
The bright and appealing colour scheme really pops out as the model KRILL MINI ARES
performs a curving pass, and makes for easy orientation in the sky.

The crisp and at

sunshine – note tractive lines of the Mini Ares
the neat and effe look
ctive Grumania great in the
VT nozzle.

Starting the Xicoy X45 turbine for flight one, with the review Epic Victory out for another flying session as well.

67
AUTHOR: COLIN STRAUS - PHOTOgRAPHeRs: BOB PETRIE & COLIN STRAUS

that no rudder trim at all was needed, a mere

2 clicks of aileron trim was required, with 4
clicks of up trim, although this was probably
due to the very slightly nose-heavy balance
of the airframe. Once trimmed the model was
taken up for some stall checks, which were
very reassuring, as the clean stall took place
at a nice low airspeed, and saw the left wing
eventually drop, albeit very gently, with the
model regaining flying speed and control
almost as soon as the up elevator was
released; flapped stalls resulted in a very
similar outcome, albeit at even lower air-
speeds.
With the important tests having been carried
out the model was brought down low for top
cameraman Bob Petrie to do his work, and a
number of straight and curved passes flown.
Once the photos were in the bag it was time Lined up on the
to land, as the first flight was being kept short runway and read
y to go!
to ensure plenty of fuel was left if more than
one approach was required, but in fact the
model landed safely of this first approach, the
knowledge gained during the stall tests allow-
ing me to slow the model right down before
touchdown.

Plenty of performance provided by the X45, even though this is at the bottom of the recommended power range.

68

Further flights saw the model straight into
some aerobatics with a number of loops
being performed, both inside and outside,
then into rolls, standard, point and slow,
some inverted flight and finally a short section
of knife edge flight. The model handled all of
these manoeuvres with ease, whilst using the
standard control movements advised in the
manual. At this point I should commend the
information included in the manual written by
Sebastiano Silvestri: movements, exponen-
tial etc are all fully detailed in the manual with
separate settings for take-off/landing, normal
flight and 3D flight, whilst there is also full
mixing details for both knife edge flight and
take-off and landing flap deployment, these
proving to be spot on – the model adopting a
perfect stable approach with full flap, result-
ing in the landing occurring at a very low
speed indeed, but with full elevator authority
all the way to touchdown.
Of course, as detailed in part one of the
review, I had outfitted the model with a
Grumania tailpipe complete with G-Vector
Micro vectored thrust unit, so I was keen to
try this out. The operation of the VT unit is
controlled by a switch on the transmitter, with
servos on the yaw and pitch axes being
mixed with rudder and elevator controls when
mixing is activated. I had spent some time
Carrying out a
low and slow pa
carefully aligning the VT unit with the tailpipe
to make sure that when at neutral the VT unit
would not affect the trim of the model, and
this seemed to have worked well, given that
no rudder trim at all had been required and
only minimal elevator trim. With VT activated
I decided to try out its effect in knife edge
flight, and this proved very impressive, with
only a minimal amount of rudder deflection
being enough to maintain level flight at just
under full power – in future flights I plan to try
out a combination of increased rudder/VT
yaw deflection and reduced thrust to enable
sustained knife edge flight at much lower air-
speed. At the other end of the speed range I
am confident that a full knife edge loop will be
easy to complete if full power is used when
required.
Next I took the model up high and slowed it
right down until it could be tipped into a spin,
at which point I increased power and applied
full rudder/VT yaw in the direction of the spin,
which tightened up the spin dramatically –
using pitch VT as well made the spin very flat
indeed, with the speed of descent of the
model slowing. I had previously decided to
stop the spin at a safe height, and this was
wise at this early test stage, as although the
KRILL MINI ARES
ss with flaps de
ployed.
model stopped spinning the instant I centred
the controls, it took a little height to complete
the recovery. At this stage I have not used the
pitch VT to its full extent, but I look forward to
trying this out in future flying sessions. Of
course, with the power of the X45 being lower
than the weight of the model it is clearly
impossible to use the VT controls to hover the
Mini Ares, but the VT option still adds a great
deal to the flying abilities of the model, and
extends its aerobatic repertoire considerably.
As I plan to be able to fly the model from my
local grass flying field, which often requires a
landing approach over trees, I was keen to
carry out some extended slow flight practice,
so with the model at a safe height and flying
relatively slowly I lowered the flaps to their
landing position. Following this I flew the
model around some fairly tight circuits, grad-
ually reducing the airspeed until the model
was flying very slowly indeed, no problems or
hint of a stall being evident. With the confi-
dence this excellent performance engen-
dered I brought the model down and complet-
ed a number of low level tight circuits, again
without problems, just the outcome I was
looking for.
69
AUTHOR: COLIN STRAUS - PHOTOgRAPHeRs: BOB PETRIE & COLIN STRAUS

During one of the flying sessions with the

model the wind picked up and got quite gusty,
and this did illustrate one of the side effects of
the low wing loading of the Mini Ares, in that
it was getting buffeted by the rough condi-
tions, particularly at low level and when land-
ing, so as is recommended in the instructions
it is helpful to fit gyro stabilisation to enable Nice smooth lift-
the model to cope better with less than per- being used as I off at the start of the maiden
like to check th
e flap trim at heflight, no flap
fect conditions, in my case an iGyro SAT ight first
being used together with the PowerBox
Pioneer. In fact the following weekend I was
able to fly the model from the grass runway at
my local flying club, something that had
always been my intention, and prior to this I
had setup the iGyro SAT so that I could adjust
the gain etc from my Futaba 32MZ transmit-
ter. The grass had not been cut for a little
time, but this did not bother the model, it get-
ting airborne comfortably after a run of
around 30 metres. The weather conditions
were quite good, although the wind direction
was swinging around at times. With the
model at height the gain of the iGyro SAT was Landing gear tucked away, and the model trimmed for level flight.
gradually increased until the model started to
oscillate quite noticeably, this occurring at a enjoying the Mini Ares. The combination of is very good indeed, and the model looks
very low setting, so the gain was reduced the very lightweight airframe with the com- great, both on the ground and in the air; of
until the oscillation disappeared. After landing pact and powerful Xicoy X45 turbine has course, the relatively compact size of the air-
I was able to check the amount of gain set, worked out every bit as well as I had hoped. frame makes it easy to transport – I can fit the
and found that this was a mere 6%, this very The low fuel consumption of the X45 means Mini Ares in the car alongside another much
low amount probably due to the large control that flight times are very impressive, with the larger jet, ready for a full day of flying. The
surfaces of the model and their relatively large 1.8 Litre tank enabling the timer to be low wing loading gives superb low speed
large travels. The gyro appears to have no set to 8 minutes plus landing circuit – even handling, and a very low stall speed, whilst
effect on the control response of the model, then there is more than 1/3rd of a tank of fuel the X45 has proved to be a perfect match,
but it certainly eliminates the disturbance to remaining, allowing the model to remain air- minimising weight but providing plenty of
the flight patch caused by gusty conditions, borne for several more minutes should the power, whilst the super quick throttle
the Mini Ares flying as though it was a much runway be obstructed. As would be expected response is a further benefit. Overall, I can
larger airframe. Further flights also proved to with such a design from Sebastiano Silvestri, happily report that I am delighted with the
me that flying the Mini Ares from this reason- the Mini Ares really is fully aerobatic, even in Mini Ares, and look forward to plenty more
ably compact grass site is completely practi- normal mode, whilst adding the VT option flying with this lovely model!
cal, both take-offs and landings taking less adds a whole new dimension, that I plan to Colin Straus
than half the length of the runway. explore further in future flying sessions. The
Having flown the model through some ten price of this all composite model is extremely www.krill-model.com
flights now I have to say that I am really competitive, whilst the quality of the airframe www.xicoyturbines.com
www.powerbox-systems.com

70