What the heck is it?
I designed the Raptor Compache to fill the niche for a little scale excitement without a lot of work. As the splash page explained it is sort of a cross between an Apache and a Comanche. I toyed with the desire for a scale Apache but it would not look right without the scale offset tail rotor(s).
The other really unique feature is the Hellfire missile system. It works! The missile launchers are designed to accept Estes-like rockets with 1/2A engines. I have built two 'live' rockets and 6 more (easily convertible) dummies. The weapon pods are both wired to provide juice two the rockets. I have built a switch system in the fuselage to selectively fire either the left or right rockets. Right now only the bottom outside launcher rails will be active.
The following links will take you show you a bit more. I will add more over the next few weeks especially as the test firing phase of the Hellfires progresses....
Live Fire!
Test firing occurred on Friday June 16th with two good launches. Both rockets traveled 'hot straight and normal' (borrowing a little Naval torpedo jargon) although the right side rocket was perhaps a bit straighter (it had more nose weight). The right pod lower outboard rocket firing was done at about 7ft of altitude and the rocket traveled about 100yds before bouncing and going another 50 or so. The left side rocket did a bit less before hitting the ground.
We had multiple cameras rolling for these first launches. Let me tell you those babies come off the rail fast! It's too bad video cameras are limited to 30 frames per sec because the rockets don't spend much time in front of the camera. When is somebody going to put slow motion capability in consumer cameras? My Dad had a 16mm Bolex camera (1950s vintage) that would shoot 64fms per sec. for nice slow motion. Here we are in the year 2000 and we don't have that capability....
I have put together a movie (2958kb, 21sec) in Mpeg format. I slowed down the rocket firings as best as possible with my video editing software (Adobe Premiere 5.1c) Click on the link below. Depending on your browser you might find it easier to right click and use the "Save Target As" option to save the file to your computer first. That's what I usually do to movies with IE5. I'm not sure if you have the same option in Netscape.
Raptor flying and firing movie - compache8.mpg 2.9meg
New AVI versions!
I have added three additional versions of the movie. One is a bare-bones itty-bitty version that is as small as practical (160x120 pixels). Another is a lower resolution version that works on almost any system and is 320x160pixels. The last is a high quality version but requires one of the newest Codecs from Microsoft. For the latter, if you have WindowsME, Windows2000, or if you have tinkered around with videos in the past you might already have it.
For you technocrats out there (I'm one too) that likes to know how all stuff works, I have put together a page describing the making of the movie.
Flying...
You can click on any of the pictures for a larger version.
The first flight was on an incredibly windy day 25-35mph (shamal in Saudi). The fuselage behaved very well. Fast forward flight was extremely stable with no tendency for nasty pitch habits. Ground stability is a little less then what you have with skids but no real problem.
Yours Truly flying the beast. The wind is howling....
Doing a little practice lineup for future targets...