Raptor Aircraft

He is definitely underscoring the general fear pilots have for declaring an emergency.
 
WWFeldman said:
I keep hoping somebody close to that man will intervene before something really bad happens.
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Is there a point, should the number of declared and undeclared emergencies continue to rise, where the airport authority can intervene? Perhaps tells him the tower will no longer issue a taxi clearance for that aircraft?

I doubt that question comes up very often, and I haven't the foggiest idea of how or if that might play out.
 
iamtheari said:
He is definitely underscoring the general fear pilots have for declaring an emergency.
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He might also be concerned that the FAA might come and have a closer look at his project. I guess that there is a limit of how far they let one go with 'experimenting'. They probably still want to see certain engineering practices and some degree of reasoning to be applied.
 
German guy said:
He might also be concerned that the FAA might come and have a closer look at his project. I guess that there is a limit of how far they let one go with 'experimenting'. They probably still want to see certain engineering practices and some degree of reasoning to be applied.
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I've been wondering that for a while. After seeing his "fixes" on Youtube repeatedly, you have to begin to question the airworthiness of his project and the risk both to him and the general public. How long before the FSDO or DAR pulls his authorization? I cringed on his first flight as he skimmed around the airport low level over a busy highway trying to get back to the airport looking like a cowboy on a bucking bronco.
 
I wonder if he'll stretch this one out into another three video series.
 
iamtheari said:
He is definitely underscoring the general fear pilots have for declaring an emergency.
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Yeah, if you feel the need to say, "I may declare an emergency in the next 30 seconds," it's probably already time to declare one. Not like it costs anything, and only helps.

He was definitely rattled and indecisive so I'll give him some benefit of the doubt. But it's also a good demonstration of the fact that he is not a test pilot. A test pilot would have had a plan and followed it rather than trying to make a tough decision in the middle of the emergency and changing his mind two or three times.
 
flightwriter said:
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FWIW, he sounded pretty frantic - more so than during the previous emergency - but IMHO he deserves some kudos for making the choice to get it on the ground when he did.
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Kudos for making the only rational choice? He showed more of his seriously defective decision making by first requesting 17, then accepting 35, and finally realizing the obvious, landing on 17.

When you're going to declare an emergency in the "next 30 seconds", it's not the time to try to save face.
 
Just a little musing here. I have no idea what precipitated the emergency. One could possibly be forgiven for thinking it might have been another engine problem. If it was....

I have no problem with trying to do an automotive conversion, honestly. It's an experimental design; he's experimenting. Maybe he'll find that there is no good solution, maybe he'll find a good solution. There are some successful auto conversions out there, after all. Maybe they're not common, but they do exist.

That said... personally, if I'm sourcing used auto engines for an airplane, the auto engine would be the starting point. Find a suitable engine, tear it down, inspect it, do whatever modifications might be needed, re-assemble, test run, and fly. But those two steps -- tear it down and inspect it -- really shouldn't be skipped. No matter how low the mileage or how benign you might think the reasons may be for an engine to be pulled from a car, you really are buying a complete unknown. How do you tell the difference between an engine that's in perfect internal condition, and one that has suffered hidden damage in a collision (or whatever) and is about to shred itself? Without a teardown and inspection, you really can't. I wouldn't even put a salvage yard engine in a car without a teardown and inspection, to be honest.
 
3393RP said:
Kudos for making the only rational choice? He showed more of his seriously defective decision making by first requesting 17, then accepting 35, and finally realizing the obvious, landing on 17.
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"Some" kudos, in that it was the best decision he's made in quite some time... and even then, as we've both noted, he almost f****d it up (but didn't.)
 
flightwriter said:
"Some" kudos, in that it was the best decision he's made in quite some time... and even then, as we've both noted, he almost f****d it up (but didn't.)
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Pretty much summarizes the entire flight test portion of the Raptor, lol.
 
From YT comments on the high speed taxi video. He sounds a little testy.

"Just so you guys all don't wet your pants... I had a low oil light that was because I had slightly less oil in the sump than what is required. I followed my procedure to reduce throttle, flatten the prop and then restore throttle. The low oil light went off and everything else was normal. Tower asked me to continue the left base approach to 17 so I went ahead and did so. You guys never learn about speculating. It just amazes me."

This just amazes me, too, though likely for profoundly different reasons than his.
 
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thats great, he followed his procedure, but the first thing on his procedure for any oil related issue should be land ASAP!
 
DaleB said:
Just a little musing here. I have no idea what precipitated the emergency. One could possibly be forgiven for thinking it might have been another engine problem. If it was....

I have no problem with trying to do an automotive conversion, honestly. It's an experimental design; he's experimenting. Maybe he'll find that there is no good solution, maybe he'll find a good solution. There are some successful auto conversions out there, after all. Maybe they're not common, but they do exist.

That said... personally, if I'm sourcing used auto engines for an airplane, the auto engine would be the starting point. Find a suitable engine, tear it down, inspect it, do whatever modifications might be needed, re-assemble, test run, and fly. But those two steps -- tear it down and inspect it -- really shouldn't be skipped. No matter how low the mileage or how benign you might think the reasons may be for an engine to be pulled from a car, you really are buying a complete unknown. How do you tell the difference between an engine that's in perfect internal condition, and one that has suffered hidden damage in a collision (or whatever) and is about to shred itself? Without a teardown and inspection, you really can't. I wouldn't even put a salvage yard engine in a car without a teardown and inspection, to be honest.
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Sounds like you'd have a clue what to look at in a used engine. I doubt peter has that knowledge. He had an engine failure. I'm replacing every line and thoroughly flushing every cooler. Not to mention finding the cause of the original failure. Peter did none of that. Instead just plugged the lines with paper towels and said "i'm good with that"
 
flightwriter said:
From YT comments on the high speed taxi video. He sounds a little testy.

"Just so you guys all don't wet your pants... I had a low oil light that was because I had slightly less oil in the sump than what is required. I followed my procedure to reduce throttle, flatten the prop and then restore throttle. The low oil light went off and everything else was normal. Tower asked me to continue the left base approach to 17 so I went ahead and did so. You guys never learn about speculating. It just amazes me."

This just amazes me, too, though likely for profoundly different reasons than his.
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Or the comment a few videos ago on the turbos needing proper sizing. Response "not going to happen on this bird so may as well stop asking". At this point it's more like begging.
 
unsafervguy said:
Actually, less oil means it goes through the cooler more often and will cool it better solving his heat problems........
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This isn't how heat exchange works. The oil is absorbing heat from a 500 lb mass, then giving that heat back to the atmosphere through the oil cooler. As long as the cooler is full and oil is moving through it at the same rate, there won't be any difference in the amount of heat exchanged, and the difference a quart or two of oil makes in the system's total mass is insignificant.
 
kyleb said:
This isn't how heat exchange works. The oil is absorbing heat from a 500 lb mass, then giving that heat back to the atmosphere through the oil cooler. As long as the cooler is full and oil is moving through it at the same rate, there won't be any difference in the amount of heat exchanged, and the difference a quart or two of oil makes in the system's total mass is insignificant.
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Yeah, this. And a smaller mass of oil overall would make the system get hotter faster with the same amount of heat input. It would also cool off faster after the flight, but that is not his issue.
 
He probably actually has no clue how much oil the system needs. Depending on all the additional coolers, plumbing, redrive, etc, and if some/all of that oil drains back into the motor sump after shut down, the marks on the factory dipstick are useless. Thats assuming the motor is at the same attitude as in a car. He needs to find out the sump level of a running engine in a car, fill his system to that level with the engine running in the plane, then shut it down and mark that point on the dip stick. I bet its alot higher than the factory mark. But tossing a couple more quarts should be fine....run it!

donjohnston said:
Why on earth do you begin a flight with less than required oil in the first place?
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He's back in the air now.
 
He seems to be pushing for higher altitude this time. Climbed pretty steadily to 3800, seems to be stopped there.
 
It appears the raptor survived another one.
 
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