Unique, but so is the fuel bill!

http://www.zenith.aero/video/turbine-stol-homebuilt.

Going to need a Beta setting on that prop. If that grass was wet he would have taxied with the brakes locked.

90 shaft horse power on a 701 is no big deal. Except for the neat factor and the sound. The takeoff was normal for a 701.

It is always fun, though, to see projects that are guided by adventure rather than practicality or economics.

tom

Savannah-Tom wrote:90 shaft horse power on a 701 is no big deal. Except for the neat factor and the sound. The takeoff was normal for a 701.

It is always fun, though, to see projects that are guided by adventure rather than practicality or economics.

tom

But it will probably make that 90 hp up to the flight levels and a piston won't do that. Plus its going to be lighter than a piston.
I like it, wish it was mine.

Like 670 says...the sound factor is worth the fuel burn!! Way to go. That's what Swingle needs on his next airplane, whatever he decides to build??

The only thing cooler than a turbine is a radial....

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Mongo wrote:The only thing cooler than a turbine is a radial....

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How can you even equate a turbine to a radial?? From the web, author (?):

Turbine vs. Radial

Round engines are commonly known as Radial engines. The piston jugs (cylinders) are placed in a circle. Hence "Round" engines.
Turbine engines are known as Jet engines. We gotta get rid of those turbines, they're ruining aviation and our hearing.

...

A turbine is too simple minded, it has no mystery. The air travels through it in a straight line and doesn't pick up

any of the pungent fragrance of engine oil or pilot sweat. Anybody can start a turbine. You just need to move a switch

from "OFF" to "START" and then remember to move it back to "ON" after a while. My PC is harder to start.

...


Cranking a round engine requires skill, finesse and style. You have to seduce it into starting. It's like waking up a

horny mistress. On some planes, the pilots aren't even allowed to do it. Turbines start by whining for a while,

then give a lady-like poof and start whining a little louder.

...


Round engines give a satisfying rattle-rattle, click-click, BANG, smoke, more rattles, another BANG, a big macho FART or two,

more clicks, a lot more smoke and finally a serious low pitched roar. We like that. It's a GUY thing...


When you start a round engine, your mind is engaged and you can concentrate on the flight ahead. Starting a turbine

is like flicking on a ceiling fan: Useful, but, hardly exciting.

...


When you have started his round engine successfully your Crew Chief looks up at you like he'd let you kiss his girl, too!

Turbines don't break or catch fire often enough, which leads to aircrew boredom, complacency and inattention.

A round engine at speed looks and sounds like it's going to blow any minute. This helps concentrate the mind.

Turbines don't have enough control levers or gauges to keep a pilot's attention.

There's nothing to fiddle with during long flights.

...


Turbines smell like a Boy Scout camp full of Coleman lamps.

Round engines smell like God intended machines to smell.

bumper wrote:Turbines smell like a Boy Scout camp full of Coleman lamps.
Round engines smell like God intended machines to smell.

Back in college I took turbine design course. Lab consisted of getting an old APU running without any manual or coaching from the prof. We got it going, but not before we evacuated the building. It seems that running it in a basement with only one window open wasn't quite enough ventilation.

tom

[quote="bumper"]
Cranking a round engine requires skill, finesse and style. You have to seduce it into starting. It's like waking up a

horny mistress. On some planes, the pilots aren't even allowed to do it. Turbines start by whining for a while,

then give a lady-like poof and start whining a little louder.


I looked up this 701's little Garrett JFS 100-13a and it is referred to as a 90hp turbo shaft starter. I take this to mean it is a pony motor like the old D series Cat dozer we had where the small gas engine is used in place of an electric starter to turn the larger Cat engine? I don't know squat about turbines.

bumper wrote:Turbines smell like a Boy Scout camp full of Coleman lamps.

Round engines smell like God intended machines to smell.

In no particular order, I love the smell of jet exhaust, wood smoke, my wet dog sprawled out next to the wood stove, WD-40, Hoppe's No. 9 gun cleaning solvent, diesel exhaust, and of course the smell of frying bacon. I know it's ever so slightly off topic, but it suddenly seemed important to share.

If it can't takeoff any shorter than in the video, it is the 'answer to a question nobody ask'.......

Opinion
lc

I think that the pilot is being conservative on takeoff. His landing is much worse, a high speed drive on lucky to get the mains on first. In my 701 I had a 92 hp rated Simonini @ 104 lbs wet, I could look down at the weathervane on the car garage 120' later and that was a slightly uphill driveway. The Garrett jfs weight is listed at 55 lbs.

(Correction, my wife remembers a small headwind that day. She watched from the kitchen window.)

This guy knows his 701. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tJuO16hRTk

I'm bumpin this back up because I added the video above with an edit.

dirtstrip wrote:I think that the pilot is being conservative on takeoff. His landing is much worse, a high speed drive on lucky to get the mains on first. In my 701 I had a 92 hp rated Simonini @ 104 lbs wet, I could look down at the weathervane on the car garage 120' later and that was a slightly uphill driveway. The Garrett jfs weight is listed at 55 lbs.

(Correction, my wife remembers a small headwind that day. She watched from the kitchen window.)

This guy knows his 701. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tJuO16hRTk

That reminds me of Savannah Tom departing Pacific City North from the tie down area
No video.....there wasn't time

That is why I said 'If it can't'........
I didn't/don't know about a little turbine and spool up time or whatever.....
I know the 701 is very capable, my comment/question was the little turbine.
And yes, I noticed the landing.

lc