Fly-Guy,
That sux! Was it accidental, vandalism, or from a natural fire close by?

Did you lose a clubhouse too, or was it the field itself that burned?

Sorry to hear it.
Dennis-

Oh geez Dennis thanks, well I havent actually seen the field yet but all the surrounding bush was lost, no great loss easier to find crashed planes, but I am still unsure of how the clubhouse faired. Ill get some pics tommorrow if there is any damage.

I think it may have been dilliberaltely lit because there was four fires conincidenlty starting at rougly the time it would take you to drive to each of the places. The fire service hasnt daid anything yet.

Fly-guy

Well I hope your clubhouse is okay.

As for the brush, kind of wish someone would set fire to the stuff around our field! We've had planes lost in brush 10 to 15 feet high for a couple months at a time. When things are finally found, it's usually with paths passing within 20 feet of where the plane came to rest.
Dennis-

well we are fine. Alot of burnt out scrub but no other damge. Here is some pics.

Fly-guy

Looks almost like a controlled burn to me. Hm-m-m, hey Fly-Guy, what did you say you were doing last Wednesday?
Dennis-

it was not a controlled burn but I see what you mean, the runway didnt burn because it is regularly watered so it stays green and does not burn as well, all the unburnt areas are watered regularly.

Fly-guy

nice field, has neone ever mid aired with that windmill yet

funny you should ask, simple answer, yes many times.[X(] I have never done it, yet but have seen many come close.

Fly-guy

hope this pick will work.
it was my first plane, a vmar hotrod

oh well looks liek it didnt.

attatch .jpg files

SBR: How did you like it? Did it fly good? Did it have any bad habits at all?

I have 5 gallons of fuel through a .46 VMAX engine. It has been a very good engine for me.

i had their cap 232 and it flew like crap. loved snap rolling more than most caps and using the lightest components possible it had a wing loading of about 32 oz/sq foot! that is outrageous. the wing span was only 64 inches so it was a brick that loved to snap roll over at landing speeds. I am not sure what kind of wood it is they use but whatever it is, it is heavy, weak, and warps like crazy. it is not any of the hobby shop woods, i bet it is native viet namese balsa substitute. (they are made in vietnam). the covering looked great, but it did not look very good for long because it broke on everything from coliding with small insects in the air to toes, to foam padding. that is right, foam padding. the color that was supposed to be "in between the plastic" actually came off when i used rubbing alcohol to get excess epoxy off. i am not joking. when i wiped it off with rubbing alcohol, there was a light spot around the fin and the paper towel was blue. fins were weak, cowl was the wrong size, badly deformed, landing gear broke in just 6 landings, none of them bad. it was nowhere near worth the $200 for that arf. they should label them arc for two reasons. one, they could eleminate the covering and let you do it to keep some complaints off, or two, arc stands for almost ready to crash. after about a year of having it, my left wing ripped off in a simple shallow spin. it just folded back and headed in a heap for the ground from about 600 feet of altitude, with the engine running and all. the rogue wing simply fluttered away never to be seen again. i tried to shut it off but to no avail. luckily the simi valley fires had just swept through and it rained the day before so the ground was all soft ash. regardless, i managed to bend my crankshaft and broke most of my servos. on my way over to the crash site i found a high altitude weather probe lying there so i took the salvagable parts off the cap, and left the rest there so that i could carry the weather baloon. that is how much i hated it. i rathered to leave the plane and take the weather probe instead.

well, just as I sang praises for the plane, I need to give warning for the engine. I know some have had good success, but mine just broke. Was breaking in a new glow plug on the porch while ago, and the rod broke--right where it connects to the crankshaft. I'll send it back and see how good their customer support is--I'm not expecting much. I'll probably go and buy an evolution in the mean time, and maybe sell the VMAX if they replace it.

have had good luck the last few trips into the air am using the gear out of nexstar engine, rec. bat.motor, and trx. hope to solo in the next couple of weeks instructor took it to the max today it flew good. only good about this plane isss that he said it is betteer than nexstar. hope to solo soon so i can fly more. want to let the vetern pilots have the field when they want to They have been a great bunch to learn to fly with except when they show the spotss that they have had uncontrolled landings in the stories are great but scare me.

the same happened to me before putting engin into air something broke in the engine they said that i needed to run castrol base in the engine I didn't know wher to purchase this fuel. I also have one to send to the factory or richmond. something broke in the engine. i put engine out of nexstar (crap) into thix plane and it flys great

2slow, were you running the motor too lean? How long was it running before it went kaplooeeeyy

was running on test stand the motor was running for few munites beffore it broke. will send for warranty if there is one the motor ran as good as 46ax until something broke

i think the vmax engines are just gms engines under a different name...

I think so too, VMAR sells both engines, both have a gold top and look identical, except that I bought a GMS engine off of Tower and it runs like a top, never had a lick of trouble out of it...

maybe the vmax engines are the ones are made out of the parts that gms rejects from quality control which acounts for why they are so expensive?

2slow2matter. I was reading intently about the VMar and VMax since I have been thinking of getting a Stinger. Your last post was 10/04. What has been your experience since then?

As I said earlier, the plane was a good one. The quality is not so good, but if you treat it well then you will not have any problems with it. Be careful handeling it, the wood is thin. The plane flies awesome. In the air is is as aerobatic as you want it to be. Roll rate is incredible, and so is the climb since it's lightweight. I eventually burned mine in. Destroyed the fuse, but the wing survived. I've since put the wing on my hanger 9 alpha trainer (with some modifications to the wing saddle), and it flies on. In fact, I just flew it yesterday. Here is a picture of the stinger when I first got it. It really is a good looking plane. I might suggest that you get the red one, though. The blue can be hard to see in the air. Also, with the white leading edges, it's easy to lose it on glide slope against a gray sky! I'll post some pics later of the hanger 9 conversion.

Thanks for the input Grandad1, I'll look forward to seeing the pics of the conversion and await a reply from 2slow2matter. I saw the concern expressed a couple times about the quality of the wood. That's probably why they can sell them so cheap. But it still may be a good reasonable step-up from my Nexstar. I am also putting together a Great Planes Easy Sport 40 but it is always good to have a couple planes around, especially since I am a rank beginner....emphasis "RANK".