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Well the other sunday at the flying feild was a very special one. I got to witness a Vario Jetcopter fly. It is powered by a microturbine engine built by Jetcat. It runs on regular jet-a fule carried in two half gallon saddle tanks and uses a propane/butane mix for start up. Towards the front of the from you will see the belt drive system that is used to reduce the engine rpm from 80,000 to 1650 rpm on the rotor head. For control we have 3 JR 8411 digital servos on the swashplate and one more 8411 on the tail rotor (expensive little buggers at $150 bucks a pop) Start up of the turbin is fully automatic. All start-up functions are contrioled by the on board computer so all the pilot has to do is itiate the start up sequence with a knob on the transmitter, wait for it to fully ramp up (electric starter motor spins it up to 10,000 rpm, propane kicks in and gets the motor up to running temp, then the propane is shut off and the jet-a is turned on)

ok, enough of my rambling heres some pics....










thats my heli on the table there




ok...one of the most common question we get asked in the shop...(besides does it fly, and how fast does it go) HOW MUCH?!?!?!?!

there is a total of $16,000 in this little baby...not a toy!

looks like fun, but "wow" 16 grand!

Nice pics bob576, I fly models myself. I fly model airplanes with motors the size of 15cc, except I fly Futaba! let me guess the motor cost 1,600 Jet Cat turbine? Is that helicopter custom? Can you do any aerobatics, ha ha ha.

$16, 000 well my question is - what if it crashes?!

$16, 000 well my question is - what if it crashes?!

it like if you crash your car (minus innsurance )

Nice pics bob576, I fly models myself. I fly model airplanes with motors the size of 15cc, except I fly Futaba! let me guess the motor cost 1,600 Jet Cat turbine? Is that helicopter custom? Can you do any aerobatics, ha ha ha.   I might post some pics of my aircraft. What's your fuel size and how much fuel does the turbine drink a minute?

AH! your a futaba guy!! i used to fly futaba, but i had two planes go down due to interference...ever sence i bought my JR 8103 i have yet to even get a bump...i prefer the way JR's sticks feel and the way their programing is set up.

Yea...around there....5k for the mechanics http://www.jetcatusa.com/hp5.html recognize that? those are the mechanics we used. everything else is either directly from Vario, or custom made. The two saddle tanks hold a total of 1 gallon of jet-a plus the  air-trap header tank. We get around 12 min / flight so it all comes out to around 10 oz/min. This may seem like alot, but remember, the turbine is running  at close to full throttle the whole flight.
Right now we are still in the test flight stage, still gettting used to how it reacts. but soon we will begin working on its fuselage....a Commanche, the only turbin Commanche in the states...

What if you crash it?....you cry...no, if you cant take crashing lightly, you shouldnt be in the hobby. Every model has a certain lifespan you have to be ready for it to "die" any second...and you have to be able to laugh about it. A friend of mine once said the "Whenever i crash i like it to either cause no damage or be totaly spectaular"

Yeah, I have some history with Futuba. You need to watch out for pilot's that are on your same frequency. This one guy knocked me out of the sky oneday. He apparently had the same frequency, I was so pissed off. I later got a new aircraft. Check this Futuba radiohttp://www.futaba-rc.com/radios/futk75.htmlthis has a synthesized transmitter module and receiver so if someone else has the same frequency, you can change yours with this module. Come on Futuba's are not that hard to program. Anyways I will post some of my aircraft pics in the photo section in the future I don't have any digital camera, only 35mm. It must sound cool on startup. I say that because at our feild Pfeiffer Field http://www.mrrcs.org we had a fiberclassics Euro Fighter like this http://lov2flyrc.com/images/Eurofighter/EF2000/index.htmlfly at this feild barley got off the runway if you know what I mean, turbines have a slow spool up rate. I wonder have you tried doeing any acrobatics LOL  I hope you have good luck with your jet helicopter, just need to find a canopy for it.

Is that the radio you have? the 9cap? i had a guy come in to the hobby shop i work at and he needed his heli set up and it took me about an hour to figure out the programing on his 9cap...thats how different Futaba is from JR. Yeah, im verry aware of the frequency issues between different pilots. We have a very good system at our feild witha freq. board that uses our AMA cards. But i was not shot down, it was due to a problem with the transmitter....and i had just gotten it sent in to be checked over by futaba before the crash. Oh well.
Aerobatics...lol no not with this heli...i have seen a video of a jetcopter flying inverted but nothing like what the nitro birds can do.
As for the body...we have a lame looking stock fuse painted like a shark, but it looks alot better in opinion with  all the insides showing. Like i said we are working on commanche fuse. for it. we are just waiting for the hinges for the gear doors....
http://www.aeronautics.ru/img003/rah-66-comanche-05.jpg

I have been very privlaged to have been able to work on such a product. By the way this thing isnt mine...its my bosses (the onld guy in the pic...im the skinny kid in the white shirt  ;D). I did design and build everything from the pully system forward though, including the carbon fiber mounting brakets and trays for all the radio, startup, propane, battery, and computer systems.

benn alaot of fun and i hope to fly it some day, but for now, ill just stick to my nitro beast (blue one in the forground of pic # 5 on table)

16 grand?!

You could build an ultralight with that kinda dough.

Nonetheless, 'tis cool. REAL cool.