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Landing in High Wind Conditions
(Excerpt from the KingCat manual - First Flight section)

In high wind conditions, apply a few clicks of down trim to avoid getting the KingCat too slow. Keep the power on and the airspeed up by 5 to 10mph. See KingCat "crow" setup for even better landings. The wing airfoil and washout is designed to make the KingCat very stable in the landing pattern.

1st Production KingCat
Flew Perfectly
(9/26/03)

Weight is 27.5lbs with a JetCat P-120.

Center of Gravity - as per drilled holes in the booms - no ballast required - let the nose drop slightly during C.G. check.

Trim required was two short beeps of down trim, no trim on the ailerons or rudders with the flaps up or down. Elevator trim adjustment for flaps per instruction manual is dead on. Because the critical wing tube and stab incidence holes in the booms are CNC machined at BVM, and because the wing tooling is accurate, every production KingCat will fly as good as this one. We are sure KingCat customers will be pleased. You will see this model and a few others at Superman '03. By Superman '04 they will dominate the skies over Metropolis, they are that good. Duralite Batteries Plus are powering the radio system and engine E.C.U. This KingCat will be David Shulman's primary demonstration machine for the foreseeable future. He flies a great aerobatic routine coupling extreme slow flight, vertical snapping maneuvers, long slow rolls and some 200mph stuff as well. We are sure you will enjoy the show. KingCats are destined to make all of us better jet pilots.

KingCat Flight Report

At this writing, we have just 23 flights on the first prototype. A one-half degree adjustment to the stab incidence and some adjustments to the control surface travels have been the only changes so far.
Besides doing the normal things jets do, the "King" has some interesting 3D capabilities and we are having some fun exploring this. The large, fat wing and generous control surface size, along with its relative light weight allows entry into this realm of flight defined by extreme slow speed and high alpha maneuvering.

In flight and just below a few early morning scud clouds.

The engine blast is kicking some sand up following a touch and go.

Indigenous to high altitude
and short field operations

These same light wing loading and high power loading features will allow the KingCat to operate at high density altitudes and from more confined grass field model flying sites with less challenge to the pilot.
The huge flaps produce a rapid lift off when set to about 15° deflection. At 40°, they allow you to drag the KingCat around the landing pattern at 40 to 45 mph and drop it in the landing zone with accuracy using the throttle as your primary altitude controller.

Notice the flap setting and the large elevator deflection just prior to touch down.

The KingCat is smooth inverted.

Touch and Go's on grass

To be sure that the flex system that we designed into the gear mounting was adequate, we flew the KingCat at a local grass field.
Multiple touch and go's provided a good test of the system and allowed us to fine tune a few part designs. Takeoff roll with 15° of flaps and 26 # of thrust was shy of 70ft from the not-so-freshly mowed turf.
Tire wear is zip from the grass field operation but there is some dirt to clean off the bottom of the model at the end of the day.
The engine mounting provides complete protection from any grass or grit ingestion.

The KingCat allows slow comfortable approaches in relatively confined club fields.

KingCat on rollout at the very nice Sanford Aeromodelers club field. Dana calling for BV while Tom D. took the photos.