Has anyone heard anything about the BMJR Vegas Raven?

It’s in pre production. Kits are expected to be roughly $150 ish, and they can ship 2 to Australia for $85. I’m damn close. BMJR do nice planes.

It’s a little heavier than a lot of 2m birds but should thermal fine and handle medium winds. It’s got a huge chord.
It’s not on their website as yet but was featured in the last newsletter

Kit is $217.00 at https://www.bmjrmodels.com/vegas-raven as their featured kit for April 2021

Cool. I was basing my info on direct emails with Sandy and Brian at BMJR prior to it being up on their site. Good looking bird.

Wish they would have done a build and fly to let us see it go together. Love the shape, maybe a V-tail in the works?

The one in the pic is built and flown. I don’t think I’ve ever seen BMJR do a build log on rcg but they normally detail stuff well in their newsletter. Hook Brian an email. I’m sure he will supply you with any info you need. Good company.

I like elliptical planforms, its fun to look through the Model Aeronautic Year Books at the free flight designs from the past.

One thing I noticed on the Vegas Raven is what appears to me to be a short nose. I've done the extra work of lengthening the forward fuselage structure of model gliders because I have a thing about adding lead weight to a glider that I spent good money on for the light weight materials I built it with.
I once bought an "Early Bird" from a friend and I'm pretty sure that the nose weight likely equaled the weight of the airframe. It had a fiberglass fuse with a short nose.

I admit that it was fun to fly when the breeze picked up.

It’s a modern working of a vintage design so I’d suggest that there’s been some thought. I have the bmjr Condor and that’s excellent.


This will be my next vintage/ update project although it’s still prob 25-30 years old. Scratch build from plans. Got the magazine in the 90’s sometime. Bought the plan. Stored it safely somewhere.... will be electric for nice twilight flights I think

The wide chord makes the nose look a little shorter.
26 ounces is still reasonably light for a model of its size. It might not be very good for F3-RES on calm days, though.

It has a listed wing loading of 5.4 oz/ft. It might just surprise you.

I’ll let you know in a couple months. Decided I need a couple in the build que. It’s got a lot of wing. Not lite but loading is low enough to be interesting I thing

We tested my buddies Raven and it needed some trim changes to fly well. His motorized version flew very well once the decalage was reduced. IMHO, the horizontal stabilizer and elevator can be reduced, to reduce tail weight. Also, for the glider version, it might help to extend the nose to reduce the amount of ballast weight to achieve the initial center of gravity. It floats very well at minimum sink speed. The spoilers were very effective.

Very cool. Pics?

OK … need someone to post/ start a build log ...

I believe there is a V2 now being offered with refined tail design and a few other mods to address a couple issues. Really good looking plane.