Hello All

I just put the finishing touches on my new Vanquish MkII and am really impressed with the build and quality of the airframe. It is all top notch. Not one wrinkle on the covering and very well done. All lines are symetrical and straight. It was extremely easy to put together. I was really happy to see that the bottom of the fuselage is sheeted rather than the open stringers that are shown on the prototype in the pictures that Chris had posted when he introduced it. Included is a really nice carbon tailwheel. First class!! The only gripe I had was the left wing had some pivoting movement (alignment pins hole oversized on the fuse) but with a little patience and three applications of thin C/A and then wiping it off it was tight. Oh yeah, the canopy latch took a wee bit of fiddling to get it to close properly but once again I spent maybe 10 minutes on it. I am impressed that it is truly a "shrunken" 2m. My Aspera fuse is quite a bit slimmer than the Vanquish. It is typical Extreme Flight quality..........top drawer. Maiden tomorrow!! Let you guys know how it went.

Cheers

MJ

And I thought the Aspera flew well!! I am very, verypleased with the flight characteristics of the new Vanquish. Virtually no pitch coupling on knife edge and rock solid tracking after going through the usual trimming process. There is no side or down thrust provided for on the stock motor mounting. With the CofG at the aft recommended position there is absolutely no need for down thrust. Full power to idle in level flight produces a very gradual sink with no pitching whatsoever. For the side thrust I have decided to go with the rudder mixed with throttle method. When done properly this produces very smooth power transitions in vertical figures such as the hammerhead with little need for rudder correction. Snap and spin recovery is immediate. Pitch is absolutely neutral in upright and inverted attitudes. It rolls very axially and precisely. I am going to have to unlearn some of my built in corrective muscle memory that have developed from previous models as I am inputting corrections that really don't need to be made. In my opinion it would be very competitive up to the Advanced catagory for the average pattern enthusiast. Talented pilots could take Masters with it as proven by Tony Frakowiak. I look forward to competing with it this year.

Try one......you'll like it!!!

Cheers

MJ

Mine should be here Monday. I'm excited! I'll be going with an E-Flite Power 15 with Castle Creations ICE Lite 50 ESC, probably a 12x6E prop, and JR DS388's all around. I'm really looking forward to getting it!

Hi Ryan,

I had the original Vanquish, and IMHO the Power 15 was not enough power, particularly to fly Masters. I went with a Power 25 on a 13 x 6.5 and 4S 3300 to 3850 packs. Then it was OK.

Now my Great Planes Sequence has a Neu geared inrunner on it turning a 15x10. Now there's adequate power!

Good to know, Tony. Thanks for the info!

Hi Guys

I am running the Torque 2812/720 in mine with a Turnigy 2650 4S battery and it is perfect. The airplane was designed around the Torque 2814/820 and I'm not sure about that being enough power. Having said that, I have not tried the 2814/820. The only thing with the 2812/720 is that it is longer than the other motor and I had to modify the firewall to get the engine to fit properly with the cowl on. All I did was dremel the firewall so the motor  passes through it and the radial mount is mounted on the back side of the FW. Easy enough to do. After posting a short flight report a couple of days ago I have put on another 6 flights and I have to say the more I fly it the more I like it. Actually the word love could come into play here. I have just about got it dialed the way I like it. I added a little more expo on the ailerons and elevator. To get the throttle/rudder perfect I went to a programmable mix (JR9303) and have a curve set up for the rudder. I was having trouble staying on line after pulling from a vertical downline just as the power was coming back on so I added some rudder mix at about 1/4 throttle and now it is perfect.  For those who will opt for this setup the curve I have is 0,-3,-7,INH,-9. It was also pulling to the belly very, very slightly when it was on it's right side so I added just a little up elevator mix and it will now fly knife edge all day long with no pitch or roll couple. It's perfect when it is on it's left side. No mix required. Those are the only things I have come across and now it's just practice, practice, practice!! EF has itself another winner (imho)!!

Cheers

MJ