They accomplish that with education, experience, discipline, and sound judgement. Four areas where I find Peter to be extremely deficient.

It should be telling if no test pilot will fly it. he should be fine once he brushes up on his skills.

I truly want a successful first flight. I just worry that after almost 200 pages, Peter may be in over his head..... again. Let’s hope he can be successful

Who is starting the Crash Talk thread!?

Hopefully Peter is safe whenever those spindly legs come down. I suspect it will fly but worry about the nose coming down hard or a rotation causing the prop to depart. I feel for the DAR who has to sign this off.

My thing is I don't want some high publicity crash that gets more regulations in the home built area. This thing drops from 500 AGL into a home killing a family, it's going to be all over the news. That's the irritating thing about Peter. It was already brought up about the airport and he should already found something with 12000 ft and plenty of dirt to crash into. Not to mention how many times he has said "That's fine" "It's not a problem".

I really can't see how the prop would depart. His prop clearance isn't much different than mine or any other Velocity.

Canard aircraft don't takeoff like normal airplanes. As soon as you pull the stick back, the nose raises a bit and then the whole thing is airborne.

That does assume that the incidence on the main wing is correct though. But based on a prior video where he got the mains off the ground, I believe that's a safe assumption.

I don’t suspect it will come down in a neighborhood but I do not think the gear is strong enough to take a hard landing and I worry about maximum braking on the nose wheel. There is no doubt that he has it dialed in enough to get it airborne and found a way to stabilize the Raptor’s ailerons. Look at the second high speed taxi from last weekend and watch the nose gear at around 79 kts.

Honestly, I wished that he had started with a Velocity airframe. They have everything dialed in and those are amazing airframes! Have you seen the height of his winglets!?

I don’t think that anyone has to sign it off. It’s kinda like the test pilots; it doesn’t get signed off until the DAR says so.

As to affecting the home built community, Peter said in his recent video that one of the reasons the approval is harder is because the FAA doesn’t consider his project a homebuilt, but rather an R&D project. So there shouldn’t be any repercussions on the homebuilt world if things end badly.

Hopefully they prove me wrong and that nosegear is happy. I hope he babies that plane onto the runway so smooth that you don't even hear the wheels chirp. My hope is that Peter proves this skeptic wrong produces a sub $250k kit or sub-$500k plane that can haul 4 people at 230 kts on 10 GPH of diesel or Jet-A in pressurized comfort with a chute.

If all of our politicians think that the media isn't fair and doesn't do their research or doesn't do their research well - they should try Aviation. What we know as pilots and those faces in front of the camera even care to learn are two different things.

Sensationalism = Ratings

Hope is not a strategy.

If you look at the genesis of this thread, you'll find excitement and enthusiasm. Then as Peter releases video after video of his undisciplined and uninformed approach to building this "craft," the criticism amps up considerably.

Two jump the shark moments for me were the hair tie door safety, and the incessant fiddling with the stupid air conditioner.

I don’t think that anyone has to sign it off. It’s kinda like the test pilots; it doesn’t get signed off until the DAR says so.

As to affecting the home built community, Peter said in his recent video that one of the reasons the approval is harder is because the FAA doesn’t consider his project a homebuilt, but rather an R&D project. So there shouldn’t be any repercussions on the homebuilt world if things end badly.

re: DAR signature ... IIRC, a DAR already put his signature on the form. Relocating the Raptor will likely provoke the DAR changing the operating limitations to reflect operating from Valdosta.

re: Peter's engineering accumen ...

Watch Mike Patey's latest video where he tests his ballistic parachute ... anyone here truly believe that Peter has "engineered" his parachute to even 10% of Mike's work? Hint: The impulse loads of rocket ignition/launch are significant.

One curious thing about Mike P, why wait so long in the build to test the parachute for impulse loads? If ignition/launch impulse forces had mangled the airframe, it would have been a lot of wasted time, work and money.

No, but he is raising funds and planning a commercial 51% kit which means it is not an amateur build.

At least Mike P tested his chute system. Haha I don't know how he could have done it any earlier as he just finished the airframe recently. Mike didn't even start his Scrappy project until after the Raptor was "done" and should have been ready to fly. Yes Mike P thinks of everything and it is clear he has a ton of experience and knows what he is doing.

Its too bad for Peter that Mike is around to give us a comparison of a build. Haha. I do not fast forward any of Mikes videos.

Mike

I bet he ran the prelim numbers by BRS and they probably said it was highly likely to work.

Conversely, Peter is ignoring the voices of concern over his project.