Originally Posted by milehighjc

I had the opportunity to fly one of these tonight, and it was a complete blast. Ill be picking my BNF up tomorrow!

Im also thinking about buying one of these as a gift for a couple of boys that are close friends of the family (who were there when I flew it). They were fascinated by it (9 and 11). Actually, so was I

To me, it seemed like the NV was a bit "twitchier" than my Super cub, although since its a slow flyer, there is a lot of time to recover (WAAAAY more time than my T-28!)

Has anyone tried this as a first airplane? How much abuse will it take, and are "noob" crashes likely to be expensive in replacement parts?

Any thoughts appreciated - these guys are headed back home (Oregon) mid week, and if its decent idea, I would like to send it home with them.

jc

For a first plane I'd go with the Ember II. It can handle the wind a little better, and take more abuse without the worry of slicing the film.

Originally Posted by milehighjc

I had the opportunity to fly one of these tonight, and it was a complete blast. Ill be picking my BNF up tomorrow!

Im also thinking about buying one of these as a gift for a couple of boys that are close friends of the family (who were there when I flew it). They were fascinated by it (9 and 11). Actually, so was I

To me, it seemed like the NV was a bit "twitchier" than my Super cub, although since its a slow flyer, there is a lot of time to recover (WAAAAY more time than my T-28!)

Has anyone tried this as a first airplane? How much abuse will it take, and are "noob" crashes likely to be expensive in replacement parts?

Any thoughts appreciated - these guys are headed back home (Oregon) mid week, and if its decent idea, I would like to send it home with them.

jc

This was the first plane I flew in several years. It didn't take me long to get used to it and it can take some abuse. I flew mine into a pine tree a few times, hit a telephone wire, brushed tree branches in flight and still didn't tear the film. The only thing I broke was the propeller shaft from not being able to recover from a dive fast enough.

My old (unlit) Vapor has flown lots of missions and taken a beating. I decided on the Night Vapor because I wanted more opportunities to fly micro planes outside in my yard at the spur of the moment, without having to load the car and drive to the flying field. The best chance for zero-wind around here is at dusk so the lights just made sense. I purchased the BNF version and use my DX6i radio with it.

This was my 1st attempt at night flying and I loved it! The lights kept me oriented perfectly. I've been known to lose orientation with planes in the daylight because the eyes aren't what they used to be, but Night Vapor gave me no grief at all. The secret is, if you start to lose orientation, just make a gentle turn in either direction. That line of bright white lights at the leading edge of the wings swings around and jumps right out at you. Now, you know you have the plane headed back toward you, and you're ready to resume maneuvers.

With everything stock, I did loops, spins, hover and brief inverted flight. I flew in front of my house tonight and the only hazard was from passing cars with drivers looking UP at my Night Vapor instead of ahead as they motored by. If you have doubts about your ability to stay oriented during night flying, try this cool little plane...You won't be disappointed.

Originally Posted by BladeHead

My old (unlit) Vapor has flown lots of missions and taken a beating. I decided on the Night Vapor because I wanted more opportunities to fly micro planes outside in my yard at the spur of the moment, without having to load the car and drive to the flying field. The best chance for zero-wind around here is at dusk so the lights just made sense. I purchased the BNF version and use my DX6i radio with it.

This was my 1st attempt at night flying and I loved it! The lights kept me oriented perfectly. I've been known to lose orientation with planes in the daylight because the eyes aren't what they used to be, but Night Vapor gave me no grief at all. The secret is, if you start to lose orientation, just make a gentle turn in either direction. That line of bright white lights at the leading edge of the wings swings around and jumps right out at you. Now, you know you have the plane headed back toward you, and you're ready to resume maneuvers.


With everything stock, I did loops, spins, hover and brief inverted flight. I flew in front of my house tonight and the only hazard was from passing cars with drivers looking UP at my Night Vapor instead of ahead as they motored by. If you have doubts about your ability to stay oriented during night flying, try this cool little plane...You won't be disappointed.

How do yours to fly inverted and do loops. I can only do loops with pure luck. I always end up pulling a crazy s turn or split s.

Originally Posted by rclayton

How do yours to fly inverted and do loops. I can only do loops with pure luck. I always end up pulling a crazy s turn or split s.

To loop

• Zero wind
• Make sure rudder is trimmed neutral
• Full throttle
• Start a dive
• Pull full back on elevator and hold until she comes over the top and starts a dive
• level off at the bottom of the loop
• It helps if you're already having a lucky day

To fly inverted

• Zero wind
• Make sure rudder is trimmed neutral
• Full throttle
• Start a loop
• At apex of the loop, input full DOWN elevator
• Keep full throttle...If everything's balanced, you time it right, and the planets are properly aligned, she'll fly inverted a few seconds
• It helps if you say a prayer

Originally Posted by BladeHead

I decided on the Night Vapor because I wanted more opportunities to fly micro planes outside in my yard at the spur of the moment, without having to load the car and drive to the flying field. The best chance for zero-wind around here is at dusk so the lights just made sense. I purchased the BNF version and use my DX6i radio with it.
...
...
The secret is, if you start to lose orientation, just make a gentle turn in either direction. That line of bright white lights at the leading edge of the wings swings around and jumps right out at you. Now, you know you have the plane headed back toward you, and you're ready to resume maneuvers.

With everything stock, I did loops, spins, hover and brief inverted flight. I flew in front of my house tonight and the only hazard was from passing cars with drivers looking UP at my Night Vapor instead of ahead as they motored by. If you have doubts about your ability to stay oriented during night flying, try this cool little plane...You won't be disappointed.

I could have written those exact words in the first two paragraphs.

I picked mine up today (after having flown the LHS demo RTF). Took about 3 mins to unpack and get it bound to the DX6i, and a few more to top off the battery. The maiden was perfect, although I moved the battery forward about 1/4" from where it was shipped, and it was a bit more stable than the demo.

I also picked up an e-Flight 150maH battery as a spare, and took my second flight for over 10 mins. While this battery is a little heavier than stock (2g), it, Im not sure that I was anywhere near discharged, just had to come in thanks to the mosquitoes.

I couldnt get it to do any clean aerobatics (loops specifically) it was more like watching a dragonfly when I tried, but I suspect that may be related to moving the battery forward. Ill have to experiment with that. It did hover nicely... especially when there was a breath of wind.

This thing is an absolute kick to fly... and a nice way to cap off a day without the hassle of packing up to go to the field.

jc

Hello All,

I haven't been on the forums....well since 2004. I just recently saw the Night Vapor and just had to have it. Well I finally picked one up just a couple of weeks ago. My first flight I came down hard and broke one side of the landing gear...no problem with the Night Vapor, just pull off the other side. I've since landed it in a tree, (Thanks goes out to my son for climbing it and getting it out) I live on the Oregon Coast, so sometimes the Non-Windy days are rare! I fly at a little Elemenary School near my house and wind the North Wind kicks up, the roof of the school is just like a magnet for the poor Little Vapor! I've had it stuck up there twice now. The first time I got lucky and had a little gust of wind and I was able to fly it down off the roof. Last night as I was enjoying the little less breezy evening, I got the plane a little too high and the wind got a hold of it and it landed on the roof of the school again!! This time I wasn't so lucky and had to resort to a fishing pole with a bigl ole triple barbed hook. After llosing a few hooks, I finally got lucky and snagged the Night Vapor (remember its night and my only target is the lights) Once off the roof I couldn't believe that the thing was still in one piece!

So one tree, two roof top adventures and a lot of flying time and the mighty little Night Vapor is still going strong! Its been a lot of fun. Just had to share.

Kipp

Originally Posted by rclayton

What's you're flight time with the 130mah pack?

19 minutes

I found out over the weekend the Night Vapor's wings do not like Holly Tress. I now have a 1 inch rip on the one side. Patched with scotch tape and flying again.

Originally Posted by rclayton

How do yours to fly inverted and do loops. I can only do loops with pure luck. I always end up pulling a crazy s turn or split s.

Try shifting the battery back for a more rearward CG. You have to play with it a bit to find the CG that gives the right balance of stability and looping ability. I fly mine (regular Vapor) in my garage (9' ceiling) all the time and can do loops in there no problem. I've never flown mine outdoors, I'll have to try it on a calm day and see if I can get it to hold inverted. I suspect that with all the dihedral it'll just roll out rather than hold inverted, but you never know.

I think I'll have to get one of the Night Vapors, I love the lights! I wish they had directed a couple of the white LEDs onto the underside of the wing to increase visibility of the wing, the blue light (on the 5-in-1) doesn't seem to light up the wing very well. Very nicely done other than that though. I just picked up an MCX2 and really dig the lighting on it too! There were some of us on the Parkflyers forum here that used to build LED sets to put on our planes, it's pretty labor-intensive. I'm impressed that they're able to do this without needing to bump the price much.

Originally Posted by Tres Wright

Try shifting the battery back for a more rearward CG. You have to play with it a bit to find the CG that gives the right balance of stability and looping ability. I fly mine (regular Vapor) in my garage (9' ceiling) all the time and can do loops in there no problem. I've never flown mine outdoors, I'll have to try it on a calm day and see if I can get it to hold inverted. I suspect that with all the dihedral it'll just roll out rather than hold inverted, but you never know.

I think I'll have to get one of the Night Vapors, I love the lights! I wish they had directed a couple of the white LEDs onto the underside of the wing to increase visibility of the wing, the blue light (on the 5-in-1) doesn't seem to light up the wing very well. Very nicely done other than that though. I just picked up an MCX2 and really dig the lighting on it too! There were some of us on the Parkflyers forum here that used to build LED sets to put on our planes, it's pretty labor-intensive. I'm impressed that they're able to do this without needing to bump the price much.

I'm also able to get a few seconds of inverted with my PZ Ember... Long enough that I have to recover from it to turn, (since you can't make turns while inverted). I usually run with the battery all the way forward on it and my Vapor. My old (unlit) Vapor will no longer hold inverted, so maybe it's because I've pranged that airframe so many times that I have it unbalanced with scotch tape and hot glue.

I've been trying to figure out good looping with the night vapor and while I can induce a loop no problem, I have not really been able to do them cleanly and reliably and the aren't all that much like a big round loop like I can pull off on the ember or p51. More like a tiny loop or almost flip.

I notice that the wings bend a bit at higher speeds and much elevator action like when trying to loop as described above, which seems to dampen the control some. Anyone else have this or do anything to stabilize it?

Beautiful night to fly here in CO... almost no wind, occasionally JUST enough to let me hover the Night Vapor (very very cool looking with the lights). I still cant do well formed loops reliably, but I did get some fairly nice ones tonight (more by accident than by intent). I want to figure out the right sequence/technique to do them reliably. I couldn't get inverted at all.

I managed to get approximately 12 mins out of the stock 70maH battery (mostly half throttle cruising), and just over 21 out of the 150maH when the Mosquitoes drove me inside. I think there was still more in the pack. That was with some pretty aggressive (as aggressive as you can get anyway) flying, hovers, loops etc. The 150 has to be moved back a bit or it takes 3/4 throttle to maintain altitude.

This little plane is SOOOO relaxing to fly!

jc

Originally Posted by milehighjc

Beautiful night to fly here in CO... almost no wind, occasionally JUST enough to let me hover the Night Vapor... ...This little plane is SOOOO relaxing to fly!

jc

JC, you hit the nail right on the head with ur last sentence. I was out last night doing the same thing and the Jersey mosquitoes were at bay. I went through four 70mAh's and one 110mAh, just doing lazy figure eights over the front yard and slow-cruising up and down the block at altitude. You circle in to land on the driveway, and the plane illuminates the pavement in pale blue-white light just before it touches down. Doing that for awhile on a quiet evening with the crickets chirping in the grass...You start to feel as though life is good.

Im toying with the idea of taking some long exposure pictures of the Night Vapor flying. Ive seen some pictures around - kinda artistic "line drawings" in colored light.

Has anyone done this? If so, how was the camera set up (ISO speed, aperture, how long did you open the shutter for etc)? I have a tripod, and a decent Digital SLR.

jc