I recently say a Tower Hobbies Vista that had the nose block cut off, a firewall fabricated, and a Himax 2812-850 motor installed. It had a good climb and only took a few minutes to reach about 700'. After hooking a boomer of a thermal he decided to bring it down after 40 minutes. On another flight I saw him climb to over 500' and slowly glide down, repeating for a total of 5 climbs and well over an hour of flight time. The battery used was an 11.1v 1500 mAh LiPo.

Hogflyer