His problem is he thought he was basically building a production model. He thought he was going build a prototype that had everything and he could show it to investors and get funds to go straight into production. He said probably a year or more ago that he didn’t know anything about manufacturing this kits and would bring in investors. Investors aren’t going to sell these kits at costs.

Odds it will fly this week?

Amazing that the test pilot is connected the way he is, with O2 and everything...
The pilot seem to think that it is going to happen...
It would be amazing if that thing can fly. Really hopping that it will. But I have the feeling that the test pilot will pull the plug before he goes into the pattern.
My thinking is that it may get it off the ground, bring is back down, and give an even longer list of things that need to be fixed...

Amazing that the test pilot is connected the way he is, with O2 and everything...
The pilot seem to think that it is going to happen...
It would be amazing if that thing can fly. Really hopping that it will. But I have the feeling that the test pilot will pull the plug before he goes into the pattern.
My thinking is that it may get it off the ground, bring is back down, and give an even longer list of things that need to be fixed...

I was guessing the mask and hose is for a “smoke in the cockpit” event.

Finally they are there to fly it. I hope it goes well.

Interesting the one thought I had while the test pilot was taxing is that Peter really has testing the systems pretty well. I bet for the most part the systems work and its really just up to aero at this point.

It is exciting to see the flying getting ready to happen. For Peter this is a very big week.

Hopefully we do not read more about it in Crashtalk. LOL

Mike

(unconfirmed)

Sounds like the test pilot declined further testing.

Apparently not happy with the off airport options.

But it's not like they didn't know that months ago.

Oh man, thats not cool. They are just thinking if this now?

I don't know these Wasabi guys but man they seem to be screwing Peter with last minute changes. They had already been to the airport.

I was surprised they were going to flight test at that airport when he moved there.

Mike

Agreed.

The only thing that I can think of is they found something that made them nervous about flying at that airport.

Didn't they express concerns about the single ECU and recommend a second one? Maybe the absence of that is what caused the issue with a first flight in a location with no suitable alternate landing site.

Be interesting to see if he moves the plane to Rome or Cartersville.

The slow acceleration on his last high speed taxi probably convinced them it was a bad idea. How is new information "screwing Peter"?

The slow acceleration on his last high speed taxi probably convinced them it was a bad idea. How is new information "screwing Peter"?

My guess is the unplanned er, "girthiness" and resulting performance impacts took some safety margins out...the original docs estimated a 1100ft takeoff roll. Seems like current numbers are closer to double that, although still vague/unknown of course.

Definitely curious on the next status update...I think he'll end up with a moderately viable personal experimental (serial 1 of 1) myself, albeit with not a lot of payload or range. Getting it to production with the originally promised specs, though, is a tall order.

The slow acceleration on his last high speed taxi probably convinced them it was a bad idea. How is new information "screwing Peter"?

the only place i would put this thing into ground effect would be on a dry lake...
regular airport, no way
got to see first how the wings will behave before pulling on the yoke.

I do not fault Wasabi.

Previously, the only performace data they had was Peter's. I am confident that Peter always had multiple excuses ready. Would you trust Peter's data/promises? I gotta believe that Wasabi has seen Peter's videos and his penchant for barnyard engineering, manufacturing and decision making. (I apologize to all the farmers.)

"these Wasabi guys" are experienced engineers and test pilots. They are literaly betting their lives. I suspect that there was a compromise; someting akin to: Okay Peter, we'll start with taxi testing here and defer the first flight (airport) decision until we have sufficient data.

Now they have first-hand performance data and the data says that this runway and this airport environment is not good (enough).

Raptor's verified takeoff performance significantly increases the risks of an off-airport excursion. Wanting adequate safety margins for accelerate:stop and increasing the obstacle-free departure corridor is not the least bit unreasonable. Rather; it is smart.

I still worry that Peter will play a round of Raptor Roulette and attempt the first (real) flight himself.