With Halloween coming up soon, it seemed appropriate to get one of the orange and black Velox VR1s in the air. The VR1 is quickly becoming one of those planes that you can't spend a single day without. I definately wanted a backup.
The red Velox is still in remarkably good shape in spite of numerous little biffs from falling out of hovers, harriers, cutting parachutes too close, or just plain blowing landings. I've flown that plane right on the edge the whole time I have owned it, even on the maiden, so the VR1 is clearly an airframe you can put a lot of confidence in.
Oddly the first time I flew the orange I didn't like it that much. I wasn't comfortable flying it hard. I'm sure some of this was not wanting to trash a new plane, but things like hinges, linkages, ball links, and glue joints stretch, flex and wear in. I also believe a living material like wood breaks in and actually learns how to fly. OK, that last part is probably a bit too zenish for the pragatic, but airframes certainly tend to get better with usage. New planes are simply too stiff.
So, it took a handful of flights for me to get really relaxed with the new orange, but now I have as much, or maybe even a bit more confidence with it than my red VR1. The VR1 is nearly perfect for my style of concentrated hard huckin'.
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