great planes VFO
 

hey guys, anybody out there have a VFO. there fairly new from GP. verticle take off electric heli-plane combo. there cheap around 35.00 without motor battery ,esc. i figure you can put one together for 100.00 less your rx. the vid looks cool maybe it can even fly outdoors in no wind. just checking it out and woulod like to here if anybody has flown one yet...........thanks.................RON

RE: great planes VFO
 

I bought one that is still in the box. I saw one flying at the JR Indoor Festival and had to have one. Don't know when I'll get around to flying it.

RE: great planes VFO
 

let us know . they look pretty cool. i flown many heli's and alot of airplanes over the years. just looks different . the LHS has them in stock..........looks like another play toy....LOL RON

RE: great planes VFO
 

As of late, it seems the primary purpose of the hobby "industry" seems to be delete the money in your wallet in any amont feasible be it in either large or small amounts and quantities.
I'm done with my small (but true) rant.
Red Baron Gary

RE: great planes VFO
 

The low prices on the ARFs are misleading. It usually takes another $200 to get them airborne.

RE: great planes VFO
 

i know what you mean............but at value hobby, here are the prices.......500 mah 3s battery,11.00, speed control 12-15 amp,15.00, motor for 10 oz plane, 15.00, 4 servos mini 16.00. prop 3.00. plane 35.00. thats under 100.00 and my 6100 rx from another plane. i say thats cheap stuff. you can get a motor for 50.00, speed control for 45.00, battery for 40.00 and 10.00 a peice servos but for something like the vfo this stuff is good enough IMHO................RON

RE: great planes VFO
 

I have one built and done. Will test fly on Friday night at our local indoor meet. Will let you know how it flies. Building wise is quite quick. Went together in 2 evenings including programing the radio. One thing I will say is make sure you have a high end radio with plenty of mixing capabilities. They offer up a simple setup in the instructions. However that is not what they recommend and not what you see in the video. Other wise get out the foam safe CA and go to town for a couple evenings.

RE: great planes VFO
 

are they for indoors only ? RON

RE: great planes VFO
 

Mainly an indoor flyer but can be flown outdoors on calm no wind days.

I had one of those days here today and put up a test flight at a local park. It was a relatively short flight, maybe 3-4 min total. Popped it up in a hover for a couple min to trim it out and then landed. Took back off and moved in to some forward flight to check my trims there and all was well. Made a couple laps and found I needed to adjust the rudder mix for trim. With that decided I better practice my transition back to hover anyway. It gains some altitude in transition. However with a bit of practice that should be able to be cut down. I got it back down into a hover and decided to land again. Unfortunately I got it a bit sideways on the landing and broke one of the wing tips. So that was the end of flying for the day. What I did learn from this is make sure you are flying from a hard surface. I was flying from grass and when it got sideways the grass was long enough to hold the tip and break it. It is now fixed and ready to go again. If you have one and are going to test fly indoors make sure you have a large area if you intend to get into forward flight. Only thing I can tell you from this flight is the VFO is very “groovy” It goes where you point it. It is actually a lot easier to use the rudder for turning. If you are used to flying with rudder this will be easy for you. If you don’t normally fly with rudder once you are done steering on the ground. Well then this will teach you quite a bit on flying coordinated. I will report more after our indoor meet on Friday.

RE: great planes VFO
 

Well I have several flights on it now. It is definitely for the 3D pilots. This thing is very responsive and fun to fly. I was flying in a gym the size of a basketball court. In that space in forward flight you can do figure 8's, rolls and loops. If you are new to flying 3D or unsure I would suggest having a buddy catch the VFO from slow flight vs. trying to land in the hover. The landing plates are quite fragile to bad landings. On one flight I cracked 2 and it was not that bad of a landing. Also you have to be careful of battery power. On my last flight of the night I was having so much fun in forward flight that I did not have the power to get back into the hover. Unfortunately I did not know it till to late and did a bit of a belly flop. The plane held up to that and was fine. This would have been a good spot to have that friend catch it out of forward flight vs. the hover anyway. The mixes are also critical. Right now I am fighting a little cross control in my rudders because they are not moving the exact same length. So as I apply left rudder I get a little right role. Will have to work that out after a few flights and continued trimming. A friend took some video I hope to have up shortly so you can see how it flies. Questions?