“Who is JetManHuss?”
What do we know about this mysterious yet well-known X-Plane user? JetManHuss, also known as “Jan”, is an aircraft performance and simulation analyst and a professional pilot with almost twenty years’ instructing. Jan has flown a variety of aircraft in ultralights, light general aviation planes, and high performance jets. As part of his profession Jan analyzes a wide range of Flight Data Recorder data sampled from most phases of flight. This data includes information concerning runway performance, gliding performance, stalls, spins, high-g maneuvers, ballistic trajectories of physical bodies, and so on.
Example of JetManHuss powered flight and propulsion X-Plane projects is a ducted fan ultralight aircraft simulator module he designed for X-Plane, based on a research from the 24th International Congress of the Aeronautical Sciences regarding ducted fan propulsion and ultralight ducted fan design.
JetManHuss states, “X-Plane is a real part of my life, from pure hobby to a high-end reference professional calculator. Over the last couple of years I began developing aircraft for X-Plane, finding it the best way to combine science with my hobby that is both challenging and satisfying.”
Thirteen years ago he first discovered X-Plane.com while looking for the latest information about flight sims. After downloading the X-Plane 5.53 demo version he was enthralled by PlaneMaker’s capabilities for exploring aircraft performance in the simulated world. Jan exclaims, “This was exactly what I had been looking for!” He then purchased X-Plane versions 4 and 5.53.
He adds, “X-Plane is a wonderful physics and aerodynamics sandbox. Isaac Newton would have loved PlaneMaker! Some of my favorite features include those involving the complete cycle of designing and testing aerial vehicles in a wide world of simulation.”
He uses X-Plane version 9.70 for PlaneMaker, monitoring data involving in-flight scenarios, replay, weather, systems failures, and even the Mars environment. He also uses the most recent versions 10, and performs beta tests for the new versions. He enjoys X-Plane about 5 to 10 hours week, above and beyond his time spent using it for development. Jan says, “While I’m working on a project or using PlaneMaker for aircraft performance analysis as a part of my profession I often exceed 20 hours a week.”
R/C project JetManHuss developed for X-Plane: A Bell X-1 rocket glider sitting on the launch-pad, moments before ignition. The model’s powered flight phase is 3-5 seconds before it becomes an R/C glider. The craft lands on its belly.
Jan shares one of his favorite X-Plane experiences: “It was one of the advanced test and evaluation flights of my XB-70 remote control (R/C) model in X-Plane. I had spent hours tuning and getting the design to ‘look and feel’ just like the real R/C model. Suddenly, while flying it in X-Plane, it felt like it was ‘alive!’ The model was rocking its wings and drifting away all on its own. As if this was not challenging enough, I had to force myself into a high workload phase through touchdown. Although I missed a heartbeat or two, this was a great moment for me. It took my perception of X-Plane as a real training aid into a higher level.”
“The Mars environment is a precious gift to science and I miss this feature in the current version 10. The Mars environment allowed exploring the challenges of designing and operating aerial vehicles for Mars while learning Mars geography, the effects on actual flight routes, and aircraft specifications for future Mars operations.” JetManHuss continued, “My future vision would be to design and develop real-world microlight airplanes. I am in the initial phase of that development and it is going very well.”
Now that we have learned a little about the mysterious JetManHuss we have no doubt we will be seeing many new designs in our X-Plane future, including some exciting, new microlight airplanes!
