Js3 jet catastrophic failure.

a lot more reliable to start
mmm, on the RC side I'm not sure they are much better since I last posted on this thread couple years back. Since then:
-bad egt probe
-bad glow plug
-newish turbine had stiction on the starter motor but if you could reach in and spin the bendix by hand it would start.
-another with bad starter motor.

But no catastrophies. Above were all fixable for a price.
Darren

wrote on 10/26/2020 3:32 PM:
I've been digging around trying to find out what the process has been for pilots that have added jets other than the MD-TJ 42. This group seems to have a lot of knowledge on this niche subject. The jets are coming down in price and getting a lot more reliable to start, so it seems it would be a more considered option for a lot of pilots. Are there many self-installs, or are there a handful of companies that specialize in the retrofit?

Chris Esselstyn has converted a Schreder glider and an ASW 27 to twin jet self-launch. You can
probably find his contact info on the SSA website or the FAA aircraft registration lists. Both
have flown successfully at Parowan during the annual motorglider event there.

--
Eric Greenwell - Washington State, USA (change ".netto" to ".us" to email me)
- "A Guide to Self-Launching Sailplane Operation"
https://sites.google.com/site/motorg...ad-the-guide-1

On 10/26/20 9:39 PM, Eric Greenwell wrote:
wrote on 10/26/2020 3:32 PM:
I've been digging around trying to find out what the process has been
for pilots that have added jets other than the MD-TJ 42. This group
seems to have a lot of knowledge on this niche subject. The jets are
coming down in price and getting a lot more reliable to start, so it
seems it would be a more considered option for a lot of pilots. Are
there many self-installs, or are there a handful of companies that
specialize in the retrofit?

Chris Esselstyn has converted a Schreder glider and an ASW 27 to twin
jet self-launch. You can probably find his contact info on the SSA
website or the FAA aircraft registration lists. Both have flown
successfully at Parowan during the annual motorglider event there.


Chris posted extensively to the earlier version of this thread,
9/17/2018 he talked about his uncontained Jet Cat rear turbine wheel
failure on his HP-18 conversion. Easy to find if you Google
rec.aviation.soaring.

That ship is Miss August 2021 if you have the new SSA calendar.

Dave

I really like what Chris has done and have reached out to him. What's on my mind is two 40kg class engines. You would have 175lbs of thrust, and in the event of one failing, you still have an adequate sustainer. I'm estimating the system would be around $25,000 (15k for the engines and 10k for the install). Where I am guessing entirely is the cost of the install, and if there would be enough room for two of this size engine. Two P300s are 10.5" wide next to each other, while two 40kg motors would be 11.5". So it seems they would fit in a lot of cases.

Interestingly, the P300 has a bit of a track record of catastrophic failure.. I'm sure there is an explanation out there as to why, but I followed many incident threads and I never found a definitive answer. There was speculation that the rotor sizing resulted in a resonant frequency that was causing stress on the bearings.