Flyzone RTF Ventura Glider $109, Zippy ??

[phillipmorris]

Just maidened this one yesterday late, it was all put together other than snapping on the tail surfaces and screwing them together, fasten the clevis's, it assembles fast so charge the battery on receipt, note be sure and set the supplied DC charger to the 8 volt setting, failed to notice this and my first flight was brief because of not charging things correctly...but still flew well up with authority and it turns very tight making for a fun ride, deadsticked without throttle with ease...

Thought it flew abit quickly for a raw nebie, so an instructor here is not only advised but even a must, controls are responsive so certainly use the outer clevis settings for more forgiving throw, I liked its behavior, nothing unusual, but if she lost airspeed will dip a wing quicker than other trainer models, again reason for assistance on the first outings...

Glider will thermal if you find lift, so an added feature for extending flight times, the prop folds back, another nice addition, and they even give you an extra one..

Only wish I ordered an extra battery, but charges in only around 30 minutes...other issue so far encountered, anxious I twisted the timer too hard on the charger, also a neat feature, but managed to break the knob, gads, but found using a narrow dime fits in the slot for easy turning, other than that no complaints as yet...<>..its a complete ready to go flyer with transmitter, you need 8 AA'S and your off !!

Rain in the forecast today but still fingers crossed to make another flight, note I have flown the SkyFly and SkyFly 2, latter has better solid hookups, and find the SkyFly takes awhile to make altitude and turns also too slow to my liking, not with the Ventura, responds immediately, I like this one !!

BEST

Supplier, can check out the video and specs:
http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...&I=LXGFK0&P=ML

[phillipmorris]

Last charged the battery correctly for a full duration flight this AM, lucky to get the flight in as raining now and most of the day, but was out early before the drops, found a location free of obstructions...hand launch it took right off, only slightest up elevator with regular level throw into the breeze, zinged right up, now this one moves out abit for a sailplane, not the lazy smooth ride I'm accustom, the turns be careful here, turns too tight even with up-elevator she likes to drop a wing and lose altitude, just give her some elevation and even a sudden drop recovers quickly, smoother gradual movements here give safer turning and absolutely no issues, keep the throttle near full for best responses, this one is designed to move right along, unfortunately a tad above trainer level speed but no real suprises...it looped easily, tried a lazy roll later inflight, not the normal sailplane move, but she dropped more than I wanted so exited, but not before the flight battery emerged from the canopy, yikes, brought her right down and pushed the battery back in, a nice rubber band needed for aggresive manuvers, hi hi..up she went and finished with ease, running the battery all the way down, larger circles to a nice soft landing...enjoy its pick up but again perhaps more than the first trainer attempts for the newcomer, however with additional help from an experienced pilot is well within reach for some fun flights...

Has a good price at $109, with everything except AA's for the included transmiter
Nice pickup and elevates right along for thermal hunting...
Will tight turn for you but won't tolerate any loss of airspeed and wing drops for loss of altitude
Keep the nose level and down if needed will deadstick on the money for you, nice
Not quite a serious sailplane compared to others flown, drops faster without power etc...
But close to sporty, yes indeed, moves right along for some fun rides, I'm loving it...<>..
Newbie, get an instructor for this one, with its quickness likely to dive into the turf...
Othewise good handling with no issues provided you keep the surfaces flying, nice bird for the $$

The adds from FlyZone say this one responds better than most of their other flyers, compared to the SkyFly, I find the SkyFly slightly sluggish but a nice trainer, I have to agree, Ventura responds much better, nice work for a value buy..<>..

BEST ..<>..

Makes a nice sunday flyer, with a touch of zip, great ...<>..

[cliffh]

Great to hear you are enjoying your Ventura. I put about 200 flights on mine before retiring it. My thoughts and experiences are the same as yours. A great plane for the money and a bit fast for a brand new pilot.

I did run into some problems as the brushed motor and batteries got older. Once the batteries were not putting out the power of new ones, and the motor was getting a little tired, the plane got a bit more difficult to launch. Some times the plane would just "snap" over on launch. If it got speed and got going, things were fine. Throwing the plane into a little wind helped. Having someone else throw the plane so that my hands were on the controls helped also.

The type of fuselage would make converting to a small brushless and lipo a bit of a challange since it would be difficult to achieve a proper cg with much lighter equipment. I was ready to move on to aileron planes by then anyhow, so it wasn't a great big loss.

Good luck and enjoy your plane!

[phillipmorris]

200 flights, thats great for a value product, my Super Cub lasted over that as a wonderful trainer, like the speed on the Ventura tho, will watch for the power changes, I'm usually abit easy on the throttle tho this one likes to stay flying and behaves best with abit of speed...

Its a indeed a slightly zingy guy for the Sunday Flyer..<>..

[cbatters]

Have ~25 flights on mine. Fun plane - just a bit more prone to damage on the rough fields where I fly. (I have broken elevator twice on smooth landing due to ruts and rocks on the field where I fly.)

Pushed props and V tails fair better on my field.





Clint

[phillipmorris]

Most of our areas are thick grass, infact had to nose it in slightly due to smaller landing area I was flying today at work, too much going on and missing the fun as gets dark early now, decided to fly during my noon break, ate my lunch during early break and later at noon had the full 1/2 hour for fun flying, it hit some strong thermals for the first time only around my 5th flight, wall of the lift so strong turned the Ventura right over on its back, thought I was overcontrolling the stick, finally realized I had a boomer going, actually nosed it downward to get into the mega lift, yep up she went, with power completely off, had a nice ride, abit windy and thermal was moving and or collapsed but had around 20 minutes of pure enjoyment, Venutura is far from a light floater but stronger lift responds quite well, and zinging around finding things only adds to the fun, beginning to really like this one...<>..Have yet to experience Slope Soaring as most of the area here is flat, speed this one has, imagine it would do quite well at the Slope...BEST ..<>..

[phillipmorris]

Cliffh

Excellent info your giving, I threw my Ventura back up after several minutes of flight as loads of throttle going on and wanted to deplete the battery more, abit less power in the battery and yep tho it didn't back flip it dropped a wing on a snap turn around while I attempting to fly straight, keeping the nose down for airspeed made a nice recovery, it does have this nasty habit of turning on me with only 6 flights in, still getting the feel for it, loads of fun and waiting for some more thermal hunting tho to be cloudy today, I wouldn't suggest this one for a raw beginner, its speed makes up for some of its short comings, making a fun flyer...<>...

BEST ..<>..

[cbatters]

Fly out level for 50-100 feet to gain air speed before pulling back on the stick to begin climbing out. Also consider adding some down elevsator to keep nose down and airspeed up.


Clint

[phillipmorris]

Very good, at altitude during my max climbs I do have a tendency to stall things and all its quick turn arounds keep me busy, but does best as you suggest keep her flying even some down elevator for good flying speed and it responds normally...<>..take awhile before I'm comfortable at low altitudes...too much clouds today, as suspected didn't catch any lift, should be sunny Saturday...BEST ..<>..

[phillipmorris]

cbatters info is very accurate, still try to get climb for a quick lift with this puppie and every so often does a snap turn around, getting better where I can predict this now and down nose abit but I'm after some height for finding lift....nearing dozen flights now still enjoying this new value entry, its again sadly not quite for the beginner because of its flight handling and touch of speed, but a fun ship...amazingly at least for me it lands beautifully, mostly all deadstick with power off, cruise out at 20 foot elevation least over a block away and she comes in very nicely, no damage issues as yet, fly in grass areas, did make a shoe top landing at my feet yesterday, getting comfortable with it...

Going out early today for some fun flying, Ventura small enough to pack right in, will mess with my favored Stryker B, Docile version and difficult model to find as most like the swifter C mode, I'm an easy going Sunday Flyer, hi hi..Stryker B is an awsome Aileron ship, can't get enought of her, she's much faster than the Ventura, however downwind the glider will scream slightly for you...away we go..Best To Everyone..<>..

[cbatters]

Happy to hear about your success. You can improve the stall characteristic (so if stalls straight ahead iunstead of dropping a wing) by snugging the battery towards the nose, adding more weight in the nose or going with a slightly heavier battery. Flying with a lighter battery is not recommended because it will move the CG dangerously close or behind CL.

FYI - I have a like new 27B in the classified section. Great aileron trainer that can be flown fast or slow.
http://www.wattflyer.com/forums/showthread.php?t=39699

[phillipmorris]

Again all sound advice, the flight this AM was slightly windy, but steady, Stryker was flying super till I extended the low passes towards the end of the flight, either a glitch or battery stopped and no power too low near a line and it bumped the power line, nothing serious as made contact with heavier front of the wing, knocked a plug or two out, all easily snapped back inplace, been having fits with this certain battery will simply say its the issue, shorter flight or keeping elevated would have elimanted the problem altogether...

The Ventura flew great, believe mine is a smidged nose heavy, helps on the flying, it flew great, kept making trim adjustments with and without throttle helped as well, landed great all without power but stronger breeze drited further out than I usually land, but nice and smooth, been handling very well end of the flights...

There You Go, Great on having the Stryker B available, strongly suggest it to even a newbie after mastering the trainers, its a super all aileron ship...<>..

Now looking a DL sailplanes hand launched, etc, imagine use a short Hi-Start, tubing gizmo with line, launches the sailplanes w/out even a motor for raw true sailplane flying...

BEST ..<>..

[cbatters]

RE: Hi-Start - I have a highstart and a 2M glider but my EP Glider and the park flyers get most of the stick time.

Nexzt time you are out with the Ventura, try adding three quarters to the nose and see how it affects the stall characteristics. (Low or no power at 100-150', keep pullling back on stick slowly until it stalls.) With addiitonal weight moving CG forward, the nose should drop predictably before dropping a wing.


Clint

[phillipmorris]

I should do the basics and closely measure the COG Center Of Gravity, its approx correct, tho did fly it this afternoon in rather high winds today, around plus 15 MPH on the gusts and did rather well, careful to keep it up wind, it will slow down before the wing drop, so easy to detect, but believe this is also a habit on this one...handles deadstick, no throttle with some up elevator does not show stalling at all, now this is with no power, its only during the throttle that I detect the snap turns, wing drops, etc...simply nosing it down takes away most of the nastys, hi hi...<>..in otherwords, keep her flying with more even flow over the surfaces...<>..