Postby David Brown » December 2nd, 2013, 9:16 am
Yesterday was the day of the test flight and what a day we had. Thanks to our chairman Dave we were allowed to use Woodford for the testing and after a marathon Saturday & an early start Sunday to finish off all the little jobs and fit the fuel tanks she was ready to go. On arrival at Woodford we set up the JP and tested out the retracts etc only to find we had an air leak on the brakes which was not there at home, after fueling up I took her out for taxi trials and was happy with the ground handling. This is where I chickened out and asked Dave to do the test flying, he agreed and suggested doing a few high speed taxi runs to see if she would lift off, next minute she was in the air on her first flight, looking every part a JP in the air. Slow speed handling was fantastic with no hint of stall and rock solid in flight, I had a couple of minutes on the sticks then handed back to Dave to land, half flap was used with no trim change and she glided down on finals as smooth as you can get. For the second flight Dave put in half flap for take off making it more scale like, rolls loops, high speed passes all done with ease, again I had a couple of min's on the sticks then back to Dave who put full flap in for the landing, again no trim change but a slower decent was achieved and another greaser landing. The third flight was as the second but I just sat back and watched Dave enjoy putting the JP through its paces.
The Wren 70 had more than enough power and was a real miser on fuel, all 3 tanks hold a total of 2.2 liters of fuel but I only filled the 2 side tanks which hold 1.6 liters between them, after 5 mins flying she still had 3/4 of one tank left so 8-10 mins is possible. For me the slow speed handling was the high point of the flights so for me a bigger turbine is not needed, I would say it would fly happily on a Wren 54 as she only weighs just over 20lb dry. Now its up to Chris at Willis Warbirds to get it kitted in the new year. Thanks go to Dave for test flying, Paul at Kingfisher for doing the tanks, Paul from Wren for Jet tube & turbine settings, Chris for putting my idea's on paper and a special thanks John & Steve from Catton for help & moral support during the build. Dave Parry has taken some video on his phone, I will see if I can upload it ??.
A very happy Dave
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