PJAMESRC

My Feedback: (19)

ANY INFO SOURCE OTHER THAN RICHMOND RC FO A ARF 10 FT WINGSPAN DEHAVELIND BEAVER MADE BY VMAR THANKS PJAMESRC

planelazy

I have one and there are some good thing's and some bad.Bad is the shelve paper used for covering and when putting the wing's on {two piece wing] it had a very noticable forward sweep in the wing which will require sanding the wing root until it is straight.There a lot of accessories that come with it and over all not a bad plane for the money.It depends on how picky you are,Some guys hate them.Tim.

EASYTIGER

My Feedback: (119)

I have their A26. Had, actually. I crashed it. There were certain things I did NOT like about it. I strongly suggest you see one up close before buying it. Some are fine with this method of construction, I was really not.
Like planelazy said, it depends on how picky you are.

PJAMESRC

My Feedback: (19)

thanks for the reply. i saw a beaver and it looked acceptable

i would like to know if anyone had one for salie nib
thanks

hat

Hi,
Friend of mine just bought one from Doug's Hobby Shop in
Waldorf, Maryland 20601. Street address is 2935 Crain HWY.
Order Phone: 1-888-368-4772.

PJAMESRC

My Feedback: (19)

thanks for the info about dougs i will check it out pjamesrc

MANFRED

My Feedback: (27)

SAVE YOUR MONEY!!!! JUNK!

PJAMESRC

My Feedback: (19)

MANFRED, THANKS FOR THE INPUT. I SAW ONE OF THE VMAR BEAVERS,AND IT LOOK OK . TELL ME MORE. PLEASE BE SPECFIC, I APPRECIATE YOUR TIME 400DOLLARS PLUS SHIPPING IS A LOT OF SINGLE DOLLAR BILLS PJAMESRC YOU COULD EMAIL AT PJAMESRC@AOL. COM THANKS

richblin

I have the VMar Big Beaver and testflew it this weekend. It's equipped with a MVVS 215 (35cc) gas engine with BCM Pitts muffler and JR 591 servos (9).
The testflights were successful, although we had to mix in approx. 45 % rudder with ailerons (like a Cub) to make it turn nicely in the air. Ground handling is super, straight tracking during take-off and landings a piece of cake except you have to try three-pointers like many other taildraggers to avoid bouncing too much. The engine plus flaps was powerful enough to make takeoff on ca. 30feet from grass, rising like a helicopter against a fresh head wind. Extremely slow-flying with flaps down in this weather, no nasty stalling tendencies. Very easy to fly aeroplane, although it is slightly nose-heavy with the big MVVS.
The plane is a lot of kit for the money, although the quality of the as a whole is mediocre and the socalled "balsa" wood likewise. I stripped the kitchen-covering off and covered it with Solarfilm, saving quite some weight in the process. Before flying the undercarriage supports aswell as tailwheel were reinforced by epoxy and fibreglass, in addition to the fuselage top behind the wing since we will use it for towing sailplanes of 3-4 meters wingspan.

Blackie

I questioned at our club to members about buying the VMAR product and was told that the wood used was not the greatest, construction had downfalls and the cover was cheap. In others words I was cautioned to stay away from them.

Randy

Tailman

My Feedback: (3)

HI, I import a Pilatus Porter PC-6 . It is 95" on the wing and will take engines from 20 to 40cc bas or glow. Top grade wood and great! contruction. Real covering. 2 piece wing removable stab and fin. shock absorbing gear.

PJAMESRC

My Feedback: (19)

RICBLIN / RCPLANEPOWER THANKS FOR THE RESPONSE.
WHAT WAS THE WEIGHT OF THE BEAVER. I WAS PLANING TO USE A RCS140 GAS ENGINE.THE ENGINE SWINGS A 16-8 PROP @9000 RPM. IF THE PLANE IS ABOUT 16-17 LBS I'LL BE OK.
THE PORTER ON THE OTHER HANDIS A NICE LOOKING PLANE.
THE QUALITY SOUND VERY GOOD. ARE YOU NEAR RAYS HOBBY ?
WHAT IS THE WEIGHT? DOES THE TAIL COME OFF TOO?
IM INTERESTED. IS THE 1.4 ENOUGH ? PLEASE EMAIL ME AT
[email protected] WITH MORE DETAILS PJAMESRC

EASYTIGER

My Feedback: (119)

The Vmar models are DEFINITELY not balsa. Some sort of cheap packing crate type wood.
And construction is mediocre at best.
STILL...they fly well, from the one I have owned, and DO represet a good value for the money.

EASYTIGER

My Feedback: (119)

Randy, I would not and am not outright say STAY AWAY from them. They are quite useable airplanes! I just would want anybody who is thinking of buying one to look at it up close and make sure they are okay with how they are made before buying.

propnut8

My two cents,

There are a lot of good ARFs out there. In the last two
years I have built 14 of them from 5 manufacturers. Every
one has some shortcomings. None of the 6 VMARs were
perfect, but neither were any from the other companies.

Look at the pluses: VMAR have good looking designs others
don't offer. Canadian Chipmunk, Australian Pilatus PC-9, Texan II,
Harvard, Tucano, Mentor, DH Beaver in 3 sizes, and the new
Piper Tomahawk, and Van RV-4, plus the Mustang, and
Corsair. No other company matches such a complete line
of semi-scale planes. They also have a complete line of
trainers and sport designs.

Each model is more completely assembled than any other
ARF. The finishes have very detailed markings, The surfaces
are hinged and pinned, the push rods are installed, pilots are
supplied and installed, the canopies are installed, adjustable
servo trays that need no drilling are supplied.

The new ECS covering is gorgeous! I have the new Cessna 182
with the GMS 61 ringed engine. Where else can you get a combo
price as low as offered by Richmond RC? And It flies like a
dream. At first it was nose heavy, but I moved the batteries
back and now get the best aerobatics you can from a Cessna.

Every model I have seen, has a film that sags and wrinkles
from time to time. Usually it is prolonged exposure to hot
weather here in Florida. They all require a hot air gun to
tighten them up. Do not use an Iron, just a hot air gun and
don't get too close.

Now for the really good part. Every VMAR model I have
has flown extremely well. They fly straight and true, and
are very maneuverable.

I correct any warps, and make sure the tail surfaces are
glued on square and straight. A couple of times I had to
do some sanding and shimming. Two other famous brands
also have had bad stab openings cut. They also had to be
reworked to get the stabs level.

I am careful to get the engine mounted with the specified
thrust line, plus I add 2 degrees down thrust and 2 degrees
right thrust. Be careful here, and make the thrust line go
through the center of the cowl opening. Some of their thrust
line instructions are not correct. Also balance the model
carefully using their metric dimensions, as some of their
conversions to English are not accurate.

If you fly off of a paved runway, replace the wheels, as
the ones supplied are not round and do not roll smoothly.

My current favorite plane is the VMAR Texan II with the
GMS 120 ringed engine. It is a beautiful semi scale plane
with USAF colors that will perform as well as any aerobatic
model I have flown. It outperforms all of those ugly stick
types, and looks good at the same time.

I have both the new ECS Tomahawk, and Van RV-4
on order. They should be as beautiful as my Cessna,
and I know, because they are VMAR they will fly great.

To all those who have knocked VMAR, I recommend
you give them another look. Over the last 2 years every
new model has shown improvement and elimination
of earlier problems. The latest designs are unique plus
they look and fly great.

By George

tlpayne

My Feedback: (1)

George. Do you work for Richmonds? I keep seeing your sales pitch in different posts concerning vmars.

propnut8

Tim,

No, I am retired in Florida.

OUTCAST

I have owned two and still have one. In my opinion they are not very good by the standards set from other companies. They are however "cheap" and I guess that word say's it all.

cap10b

Where ??? Whats the Web site ......been looking for this plane for 6 months......

RickVB

My Feedback: (24)

Here's the link for the larger version at Richmond R/C:

[link=http://www.richmondrc.com/vma/storecusavma/productpages/productpage%20cusa%20vma%20p190a.htm]Richmond R/C Pilatus PC-6[/link]

akflyer

My Feedback: (7)

I am tasked with assembling this POS for a buddy of mine. The firewall is crap, with HUGE voids in the 3 ply sorta plywood. The pushrods are REALLY soft, and I would suggest replacing them. Alot of the joints have big globs of glue in them trying to fill the voinds from pi$$ poor cutting. This one was full of wood shavings and balsa dust... You would think that would have been cleaned out at the factory. I hope it flys better than it is constructed, or this will be another POS hanging in the hangar collecting dust.

On the bright side, it does come with the pilot AND passenger, a full cloth interior including seat belts, and a few other items that are allmost enough to make me want to get this put together instead of sittingin the corner like it has been for the last year.

Carlos Murphy

My Feedback: (72)

easytigerrcu...

You said VMar A-26? Didn't know they had one, did you mean "VQ" models?

taildragger21

My Feedback: (197)

[sm=drowning.gif] whine, whine, whine.............oh no............vmar sucks so bad.................they have ruined my life.............For the price I dont mind some sanding, and replacing hardware. I have a hanger 9 t-6.......top end name..hanger 9...yeah right. Those retracts are #@@#% Hardware sucks as well. I got a vmar for 100 less and after new hardware I dont have nearly as much as in the hanger 9 stuff I have. POINT IS ALL ARF'S HAVE FLAWS. THEY ARE BUILT BY HUMANS. HUMANS MESS UP. COMPANYS MARKET AS CHEAP AS POSSIBLE. IF YOU DONT WANT TO BUILD EXPECT TO SAND AND PUT IN SOME GOOD HARDWARE. Dont knock vmar. I have seen some bad ones, but all companys have them. They look more scale than many others arf's out there.[8D]

IronCross

I am on my third Vmar HotRod. The construction itself isn't bad, the wood itself is
something else. Been told it looks like Bass wood. Tends to be on the brittle side.
Each one I have gotten has shown definite improvements over the previous one.
They go together pretty easy. The covering on the HotRod is sticky back self paper
that looks nice out of the box but really fade's in the sun. If you can get the warps out
of them etc they fly great. The HotRod is fast with a .46 in it. Really a blast to fly.
Kind of get to be habit forming

Hattoni

I recently brought the VMAR Big Ten Beaver. I fitted it with a Macky 45cc petrol engine which flys it like a dream. There are a few things to watch out for though. Throw away the complete undercarriage assembly and fit a good dural unit with high tensile steel wheel bolts.

The first flight ended with a good 3 point landing nice and gentle, but to my amazement the model would not taxi back. The wheel axles had bent seizing the wheels.

On the second flight the undercarriage collapsed and broke big time, it touched down very gently was rolling to a stop when one wheel hit a small hole in the ground. The wheel leg in question simply snapped off like a old tree twig.

To be honest I was quiet pleased, because it forced me into producing a stronger and more scale like undercarriage.

My only other concern with the model is its total lack of dihedral, I know the full size only has a small amount of dihedral, I think it spoils the models otherwise reasonable looks.

Ian Hatton