Raptor Aircraft

Just posted on the previous YouTube video:

"For all you impatient people, I will be posting a video later today. I'm fine and so is the aircraft. I was busy with other things yesterday afternoon and evening as you might expect. You're all so spoiled getting same day videos. No one else does that."
 
donjohnston said:
Just posted on the previous YouTube video:

"For all you impatient people, I will be posting a video later today. I'm fine and so is the aircraft. I was busy with other things yesterday afternoon and evening as you might expect. You're all so spoiled getting same day videos. No one else does that."
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Pleasant guy.
 
Something I don't get. The guy's been building this thing for years. Can't be cheap, materials, hangar rent all that. And he still has to pay for a crib and the groceries he stuffs down his neck. If he's making booty calls he has to pay for those one way or anther too. I can't believe he got that many deposits on this fool thing. Where does all the money come from?
 
Semi wealthy guy who lives like Burt Munro???
 
Video is up. I haven't watched it yet, because I don't have a popcorn machine at my office.

 
****'s sake he's still talking about ground speed.
 
Was there that much thermal/convection activity or is it just that unstable?
 
He asked for people to post comments but to keep it positive. That sounds like a challenge. Here's my entry: "The nosewheel bearing has stood up really well to all the shimmy. It kept spinning through almost the entire flight."
 
Mtns2Skies said:
No, I doubt that realization has taken place.
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You and Salty called it. I retract my statement. His rationalizations make my head hurt.

Those temps were HOT and climbing, even at 30% power. If you saw those temps on your car, you’d be pulling to the shoulder or nearest gas station.

I swear at this point, a piston and connecting rod could come flying past the canopy, and he’d say “that’s ok, I planned for that. It’ll actually improve CG a bit”...
 
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Somehow I doubt the gear wells are going to solve his pitch instability. He's going to need one heck of an oil cooler to drop 60-degrees of oil temp. Oil cooler doesn't help his coolant temp much either.
 
UngaWunga said:
wow that looked sketchy.... Full throttle the whole time? Full aileron deflection on final?
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I made the same mistake at first. He reduced throttle after the initial climb. Have to watch the display on the bottom.
 
If it were me, I'd have telemetry to the ground with someone watching everything in parallel with me and scrubbing the flight as soon as anything looks odd. We have the technology do to such things. :rolleyes:

I would have at least one person outside myself making go / no go calls for such a flight. Probably a team of people I trust.
 
There never seems to be anybody waiting back at the hangar, or watching. He seems to be completely in a vacuum other than random fans on the internet.
 
Does he have access to some of escrow money after 1st flight?
 
TCABM said:
That plane was lurching around like a drunken sailor.
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He claims the oscillations are caused by the gear, and wheel-wells. As if that's somehow a valid explanation, or an acceptable explanation.
 
My mooney bucks like a bronco when the gear is down, so I'm sure he's fine. It's a miracle anyone with retracts lands safely with the pitch instability they cause. /sarcasm
 
It's got climb issues due to all the drag, so I'm going to bolt on some coolers Frankenstein style to fix the cooling....
 
At around the 11:45 mark, he is flying level for a bit. If the data is correct, it takes ~65% throttle @ ~14.5 gal / h just to maintain altitude, going 106 kts! :eek:

Sure, the gear and that he is flying behind the power curve certainly don't help, but I think that the performance still looks rather problematic.
The thing is also a slow climbing, fat groundhog. And then, of course, there are the massive cooling issues. :(

The people in the comment section of YT are all enthusiastic, though. :rolleyes:
 
German guy said:
The people in the comment section of YT are all enthusiastic, though. :rolleyes:
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He regularly hides comments he doesn't like, so there have probably been many negative ones that he has hidden.
 
I think that he thinks getting a flight under his belt is going to embolden someone else to test fly it, but I suspect the opposite will be the result.
 
jrcox19 said:
He claims the oscillations are caused by the gear, and wheel-wells. As if that's somehow a valid explanation, or an acceptable explanation.
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He later also blames the thermals. A plane that is unstable in pitch when it is close to the ground with the gear down sounds really bad to me. In fairness, he does have a plan to diagnose the problem including tufts and cameras around the gear wells.

The real obstacle is that he needs to overcome the heat problem before he can fly it enough to dare retract the gear. The heat problem is a vicious cycle, though. To climb at all, the angle of attack is too high for air to enter the cooling inlet on the top of the plane, so he has to reduce power to avoid overheating, further increasing the angle of attack required to stay in the air.
 
iamtheari said:
He later also blames the thermals. A plane that is unstable in pitch when it is close to the ground with the gear down sounds really bad to me. In fairness, he does have a plan to diagnose the problem including tufts and cameras around the gear wells.

The real obstacle is that he needs to overcome the heat problem before he can fly it enough to dare retract the gear. The heat problem is a vicious cycle, though. To climb at all, the angle of attack is too high for air to enter the cooling inlet on the top of the plane, so he has to reduce power to avoid overheating, further increasing the angle of attack required to stay in the air.
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Well said. After my overhaul (and installation of an engine monitor) I tried to baby my engine and reduce power on climbs to keep the temps down. Eventually I realized that doing so didn't reduce the temps due to the increased AOA and it caused the climb to take longer meaning higher temps for longer period....
 
His intake is getting heat soaked too. Climbed over 20 degrees in less than 2 min.
 
Salty said:
Hell, his ambient temp climbed 20 degrees on takeoff run. God knows why.
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He mentioned that the "ambient temp" field is the intake air temperature.
 
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