Velox VR1 On Borrowed Time

Of course, when you fly them with total disdain, they don't exactly last forever.

Zen And The 3DHS Vyper

My new 46" Vyper has gotten no love since it's single shakedown systems check a couple of weeks ago. I've been so busy with the new Velox, the big Vyper, and rediscovering my 47" SHP that it simply got shuffled back and I haven't had time for it.


We took care of the yesterday.

I wrecked my green Vyper getting a knife edge loop all wrong, so I needed a new one quick. I didn't have another one ready to go except my night Vypers, so it was a good thing I had a yellow spare that was nearly finished. On this new Vyper, I did all the work before hand, except putting the tail on. Then I put it back in the box for when I needed it. This worked out well because I had it ready in a couple of hours when a whole project takes me about two days.

I'm not that great of a builder. I can only do good work if I am very careful and deliberate, but that takes time, and it is worth it. I've built four Vypers and they all fly absolutely perfectly. From the way they fly, you really can't tell one from the other.

FLYING

I've gotten a lot of time on my Vypers this year. For a couple of months that was all I wanted to fly. The Vyper is very different from any other plane I have ever flown, and it requires you change your flying style to get the most out of it. You have to fly it smoother, because that's what it likes, but also, it doesn't just mindlessly float forever and refuse to fall out of the sky no matter how slowly you drag it around. You have to fly the Vyper. The Vyper is not a beginner's plane, but it's not evil or difficult either. It's just different.


Every time I fly a Vyper I come away scratching my head because it is a never ending, multi layered, cerebral puzzle. Now, this is not a bad thing, in fact, quite the opposite. To get the most out of a Vyper, you have to think about what the plane is doing, and why. Video is critical because it allows you to watch and analyze what you are doing wrong, and what you're doing right.


Maybe this seems like a lot of work, but if you want to get better, it takes effort. Of course, you can just fly the Vyper around and it's a great airplane, wonderful, actually, but to fully appreciate it, you have to explore it's limits, and go past what you thought they were last time you flew it. I get more and more out of the Vyper every day, simply because it teaches me how.


The benefit in the end is that because the Vyper has made me examine every aspect of it's performance, and every aspect of my flying game, I think I am now flying my other planes much better. For instance, I almost never knife edged my SHP much because I wasn't so good at it. Conversely, the Vyper is so good at KE that it taught me, and now I knife edge the SHP pretty decently. To harrier the Vyper well, you need nearly perfect form, and once you develop that, the Extra and other planes are so easy that it is ridiculous.


Bottom line on the Vyper is that is is an extremely precise airplane that looks best when you fly it as precisely as you can. Once you strive for, and achieve a higher level of precision with the Vyper , it all sort of falls into place with the other planes.

NAIL

The Vyper is an excellent airplane on all levels. With a gentle sport set up, not only is is a fantastic precision specific airframe, but it is also so sweet and easy to fly that it makes a remarkable basic aerobatic trainer. You don't even need to push the Vyper to enjoy it. She is so smooth, and tracks so well that even very low time pilots will find her very inviting.

It is when you put the 3D set up on her and start hammering on the limit that you truely begin to appreciate what she has to offer. Bad form doesn't look good on this plane, so she teaches you instead to take a deliberate approach and understand what makes her tick....and makes all airplanes tick. I suppose you could think this makes her more difficult, but the truth is that she is simply more rewarding

Extra Cooling

Most of you don't fly in the brutally oppressive Florida summer heat, so you have no worries about heat. This hasn't been a real problem with the Vyper yet, but the motors have been running a little hotter than in the rest of my planes. Part of this is because I tend to fly the Vyper faster for precision maneuvers and that's a lot of time on the throttle.

As a precaution, I opened up the nostril scoops that are just in front of the shark's eye, and I extended the top of the chin scoop upward to just before the spinner. This will pack more air into where the Torque 2818 motor sits, and also more to the ESC.

With the Airboss ESC on the bottom of the motorbox it sits right in the middle of the colossal chin scoop. The only way to get more air in would be to mount it on the outside of the plane.

More intake requires more exit to get the airflow working properly, so I cut the bottom of the cowling out on the paint line where the white used to meet the yellow.

Again, most of you don't have the kind of conditions we are forced to fly in every day, and the Vyper wasn't running that hot anyway. This was just for a little peace of mind so I can fly the crap out of the plane and not have to worry if it is too much for the cooling airflow available.

SET UP

Ailerons
I've found the large servo arm that comes with the Hi Tech HS65 servo is just right if you crank the endpoints up to 150%.. It is a pretty incedible roll rate, but I don't have the problem of running out of aileron authority to control torque roll in hovers. This is part of why my hover is coming along so well. After flying the Vyper like this, I knew why I was having trouble with my other planes. I set them up accordingly and now they all hover much better. Gotta work on the piloting thing a bit though.


As you can see, the best route is to shoot for clean and simple. I need to trim the end off the pushrod, but I usually do that after I have a few flights and know I am not going to make any changes. Not much to worry about on that because every Vyper I have ever built has flown perfectly right off the bench. I have still not changed my set up since the very first trim flight of my first Vyper.

Elevator
Something a bit odd on my last Vyper is that I accidentally got too much hinge gap, and seemingly as a result, I need less servo arm to get the same amount of throw. I suppose with a tight gap the servo doesn't have the torque to push the control past the point when the movement starts to tighten up. This elevator can travel a full 90 degrees each way (though you sure don't need that much) and is very free and smooth. Like this I need one less hole of throw at the servo arm. As a result, I don't need the extended arms, and I am saving the weight of four of them plus the mounting hardware. Maybe it's not that much, but everything you save adds up, and it makes a really clean layout.

One thing to remember, though, is that a big gap is aerodynamically not so good. To get around that, I seal the gap with clear Monokote. If you are going to do this, make sure it is a clean job, and it doesn't interfere with smoothness or the range of motion of the control surface.

Oh, and yes, that's a carbon fiber tube over the pushrod wire. It is not at all necessary, but it looks cool, so that's enough reason to put it on.

Rudder
This plane was coming out so nice that I went back to my thread and solder method of attaching the cable ends instead of messy crimp pieces. It's a lot of work, but if you appreciate a clean look, it pays off.

Battery Tray
The ESC is under the motorbox on my Vypers. All the wires run under the battery tray and this keeps them out of the way when you change out the pack. It also just looks clean, which is something I really obsess about.


If you look at the tray itself, you can see a little mark from a sharpie pen, though you can use pencil or pen.  Once I know exactly where I like the CG on the plane, I mark it where the trailing edge of the battery sits. That way, I know exactly where to put it new time.

SUPERSTITIONS

Coming from a racing background, there was no way to avoid taking a superstitious nature into flying. Women have always been very lucky for me, especially.....uhhhh, healthy ones. For this plane, Jana Defi rides with me. Both of her, that is.

Special Thanks