Alec Salt's Radio Control Model Jets
My son and I have been flying model airplanes since 1995. About 5 years ago I started flying model jets.
These are not "pretend jets with a propeller on the front". They are real ones with real jet turbine engines.
They sound like real jets (because they are!) and they are fun to fly, because they move pretty darn fast.
Their top speed is around 200 mph, but you can fly them slower if you really want.
The picture below shows the three jets I currently fly. It was taken at our flying club,
St Louis RC Flying Association
, which is a big, open area near the Meramec river in Eastern Missouri.
And then we have each of the planes in the order of "newest first"
First my BVM Bandit
This is a composite (fiberglass and carbon fiber) model sold by Bob Violet Models. It is powered by a Jetcat P80 turbine which puts out about 22 lbs of thrust.
That's quite sufficient as the model weighs only 19 lbs. I have all JR servos and a JR receiver in it, and fly it with a JR 12X (2.4 GHz) radio.
My Composite-Arf Rookie 2
This is also a fiberglass model. It is made distinctive by the canards at the front of the fuselage, and by the air brake, which drops down from the underside to slow you down while landing..
These pictures were taken when this model was first built, and before I had graphics put on to it.
Last year I had graphis added to it, decals on top and checkerboard on the bottom. This model also has a thrust-vectoring system, which you can see on the picture from the underside.
It is powered by a Jetcat P120 and weighs around 18 lbs. This is a fast plane and is a blast to fly.
My Composite-Arf Rookie 1
This was my first firberglass jet, aptly called a Rookie. It is now my "beater" plane, and has been flown fast and hard for over 100 flights now.
It is powered with a Jetcat P80 and also has a thrust vectoring nozzle behind the engine.
Some of our previous models are shown here