Comments disabled on his recent video.

Lol

Reminds me of an old cartoon..

The first half of the latest video is complaining about FedEx being late delivering his fancy breadbox intercooler. Not worth flying without that -- "like going into battle with half my ammunition". The new intercooler reminds my of the setup in the 340 for the A/C condenser and heater combustion air inlet. Funny how Cessna chose to put blowers on both of those.

Since Peter’s been quietly hacking up the nose of the Raptor and not doing much to comment on, and since we’ve casually mentioned the Velocity in comparison, I thought of you all today as a Velocity flew over my house at about a thousand AGL, and he was RIPPING! I mean he was really fast. What does a Velocity cruise at, and why again would I not just want one of those?

I do want one... I would love to have the twin engine Velocity. Why would people pick the raptor over a velocity? Diesel engine, chute, pressurized, bigger cabin, and it was suppose to go faster, and further, while burning less fuel... however that was then and this is now. In the end Peter is going to have the same issue Velocity has. Few want to spend years building a kit plane, especially one that costs so much.

I just came back here after three months in a Siberian Gulag to find that the Raptor has gotten heavier and Peter even dumber and more stubborn and angle iron continues to fly off the shelves. I guess some things never change.

So do you think this thing will ever leave the pattern? Is Peter just messing with it now, too scared to try to fly it again, but too proud to admit it?

Oh, also, Peter owes the Wasabi guys a huge thank you. As bad as the Raptor still is, without all of the fixes they pushed him to do, I think he would have been dead.

I got a chance to sit in the factory V-twin a few years ago when it was at the Penn Yan 4th of July breakfast. I would certainly like to own one or the single engine XL, but they can eat up a lot of runway, and the room for baggage looked surprisingly limited for a 4-5 person cross country machine. On the plus side, the doors make it easy to get into and the interior was wide and comfortable compared to a Bo. If it fits your mission I think it would be a good plane to travel in.

I had a velocity XLRG for about a year. It trued right at 200 kts and I would fly it between 6000 to 11000. Burned just under 17 gph with the IO550.

It was a great cockpit with more baggage room than my A36 with factory air and a three across bench in the back that could seat 2 adults very comfortably.

It did like a lot of runway and landed very flat. It was a lot more sporty in the air than the A36, but after about 30 hrs you got used to it.

I never got used to watching the canard flap in turbulence. You could see 4-5" of deflection either way when it got bumpy. So I'd get scared and pull the power back. Eventually I realized I was scared to fly it and just a lot more comfortable in the A36 so I let it go.

If it wasn't for that, it was an excellent, efficient plane that was great to load and fly.

I got a chance to sit in the factory V-twin a few years ago when it was at the Penn Yan 4th of July breakfast. I would certainly like to own one or the single engine XL, but they can eat up a lot of runway, and the room for baggage looked surprisingly limited for a 4-5 person cross country machine. On the plus side, the doors make it easy to get into and the interior was wide and comfortable compared to a Bo. If it fits your mission I think it would be a good plane to travel in.

I have an XL-RG with an IO550. Between 6,000-8,000' I cruise at just under 200TAS (usually 198-199) on 13GPH. I have about 1,000nm range (closer to 1,100 at LOP).

Yes the canard and wings will move in turbulence. I don't notice it but I do notice how it smooths out the flight.

Why would you not want one? It's experimental. Some people are uncomfortable with that. It lands fast compared to conventional single engine airplanes. I'm over the numbers at 75 (faster if I'm heavy) and on the ground at 70. You do not want to be at 6'AGL when the canard stalls! So it can use a fair amount of runway to land. I'll never be taking this plane to Cedar Key. I guess those landing speeds are about the same as most twins.

The V-twins are slower. Friend of mine has one with IO-360's. I think he cruises at 170TAS. Someone has installed IO-390's but I don't know if he's flying yet or if he has what he cruises at.

Did you try adding some angle iron to stiffen it up a bit and reduce your useful load?

That flexing may not be comforting, but it is designed to do that and it can take a LOT more before failing.

In his latest video it seems like he is saying the new intercooler only works when the heater is on?

Clearly the engine is creating too much heat. He needs to deal with the cause of the excessive heat before he tries to get rid of the heat. This is such a train wreck.

I can see the take off checklist now. Before adding full power turn cabin heater to max.

What could possibly be his long term plan and why not do that now to test it? All the work he has done in the last month is a bandaid.


This is so frustrating to watch now. Each new video I feel more and more embarrassed for him.

Mike
Mike

Yea he plumbed in the forward tanks, expansion tank and heat exchanger to the heater loop.

Makes zero sense.

I've watched so many of the Raptor videos that Youtube recommended a video to me of a young guy that is a "financial expert" and has a plan to use his life insurance to pay for his Raptor aircraft. I watched it and realized there are lots of Peters in the world. Terrible plans, but lots of confidence in the execution.

i would think if you decided to build and fly one of these as-presented, it's a good bet your heirs get a chance to cash in your life insurance.