Tweet
I recently was asked to install a Jetec 120 electric turbine in a 6 meter Shark. Last December I installed a Jetec 90 in a 5 meter Ventus 2c 1/4 scale that was demo'd at the AMA show. After getting the model and the Jetec turbine I found that there was no way the unit would fit behind the factory retract (sorry Pete, no way will it fit stock). A lot of measuring showed if the stock retract was removed and a FEMA retract was installed I could make the turbine fit. Once I had the Fema in hand I knew it would work so I proceeded to cut and Dremel out the factory retract mounts and mount the Fema unit. A benefit of losing the stock retract was a weight savings of about 20 ounces, the factory unit is quite heavy. I made bulkheads for the turbine from ply and with carbon sandwich. We used a Castle 160 ESC and 2 Thunder Power 6s 5000 Lipo packs in series for 12s. The model had its maiden flight last Saturday and flew beautifully, the Jetec has lots of power but does gobble up amperage from the batteries so care was taken on the first flight to be nice to the Lipos. I'll let the photos do the talking. And I may have to get a Shark, its a fantastic handling glass ship that handled the extra load of the power unit with ease, I would never have known all up weight was 35 pounds.
-
-
Wow Dennis! That looks very good. Any videos of the demo flight? The Shark sure offers easy access to the retract!
Tim -
Nice, Dennis. Super clean. What tool did you use to cut the hatch for the engine with all those compound curves? Amazed how tight and uniform the gaps are.Comment
-
No video of the flights. I used a razor saw (Zona?) for all the hatch cuts. That's why they are straight lines and keep the gap to a minimum. The photos are of the installed FEMA, the old retract took up a lot of room which is why it had to be removed. I was able to remove the wheel brake from the old unit and graft it in to the FEMA, it works great. I'll post some more pictures of the model soon, I just delivered the model back to SUSA today for shipment to the customer in Atlanta.Comment
-
Tre clever on the wheel brake servo in front of the retract. I'm stealing that...Originally posted by DennisB View PostComment
Comment