Flight Review - Durafly D.H.100 Vampire V3, "RAF Camo Edition", 70mm EDF Jet, 1100mm (PNF)

I'm going to turn to the right away from us, or the left. Oh that's the windsock! Hello and welcome to HobbyKing.com, my name is Stuart and I'm here to present to you a classic Durafly model, this is the Vampire V3. Now I say classic because those of you who have been in this hobby for a while know that the Vampire has been around for some time from Durafly and this is probably the final iteration that you'll see of the much-loved Vampire. I'm going to talk you through the changes that we've made to this, the V3 and the Pinalta version of the Vampire, and then we're going to go out and give you a quick flight demonstration of this beautiful V3 that you see ahead of us. So let's dive into the changes. Okay now the most obvious change is the colour scheme. Originally it was a silver RAF scheme back in the day, then it was a silver Vampire scheme, in between that there was a limited edition camo version. We've now gone back to that camo pattern but a different scheme. It's got this striking yellow on and it's a scheme from a squadron that was based in Germany in the Cold War period, and this camo scheme really sets to set it apart from the previous Canadian silver V2 version. And again that yellow really helps it stand out because you would think camo might be a bit hidden and in terms of visibility, but actually once it's up in the sky and with the striking yellow on the wings and on the nose and on the underside you'll see too, it actually stands out really really nicely. Now in terms of other changes, we've added some additional spars to the wing so you'll see less flexing of the wing in flight. In terms of power, the power system itself is the same, but efficiency and thrust has increased because we've added a thrust pipe to the rear of the fuselage. Let me show you that now. Now here is that thrust pipe if you've got a shot of it there. What we've done there, we've optimised the FSA, the fan sweep area, and that's just given it additional thrust so it appears to have more performance in the air. It is still the original 4S setup on that Outrunner fan and the 4S battery which is anything from a 3000 to a 4000. But speaking of batteries, one of the other things we've done in the battery area is giving you more room for said batteries. If you take off the hatch, you'll see that we've removed some foam there to give you more access to the electronics inside and more room for your packs. Now in terms of internals, here you'll see the 4S 3300 that I'm using. That's installed pretty much spot-on for CG. Note on the CG by the way, it's at that point there if you're wondering, just in front of the booms. So that's the 3300 4S installed nice and neatly and my 6-channel receiver at the front. Pretty bog standard installation and again with that hatch now having some foam removed, it makes fitting a real pleasure. The hatch is magnetically held on as you heard and if I turn it over so you can see on this side. So the additional spot I spoke about has been installed here in the wing and this is the blue on the underside pre-applied decals but also note that we've got these fairings now around the retract just helps streamline it a little more and we've lost the fake Odeos that were on the struts. That was just additional weight and it wasn't really necessary. Now in terms of assembly, it's quite judicial in the sense that there is glue in this but if you've used glue before, which I hope most of you have, it's not a problem. Follow the instruction manual and it's pretty straightforward but you glue the booms on, you glue the tail on and you glue the wing on. It transports pretty much as a one piece. Once it's all glued together, it's really quite solid and it transports easily because of the size of it, it's very practical too. I don't think I covered it at the beginning of the video but this is an 1100 mil model and it is running on a 16 amp speed controller. All of that of course electronics wise is pre-installed because this is plug and fly so you will only need that six channel receiver and that 4s pack. Now one other change is quite noticeable, you'll probably see it here, it now has a hardened plastic nose. What a lot of you would have found previously when with the V2 and V1, you often have it up on its nose when you're changing the pack on the ground or just in transport and the nose would often get damaged. Now with this plastic nose, that's not going to be a problem, it will stay pretty pristine for the majority of its life. And with that, I think I've pretty much covered all the changes with the V3. Only thing to do now is to take it out and give you a flight demonstration. Now it's a little bit brisk the wind here, the grass is A, long and B, wet because it's winter here right now but you'll see it still copes admirably. Now it's a basic four channel control in that you've got aileron, elevator and throttle and rudder but the rudder is in fact just steering for the retractable nose wheel. But we'll give you a demonstration of that when we're out in the field so let's go over and give you a flight review of the Durafly Vampire V3. Okay so the wind's about 10 to 15 miles an hour. One thing I forgot to tell you, there is a plastic fairing now covering on the nose wheel as well. Hopefully you guys can get a bit of a shot of that. Let's take it out and put it on the ground and then we'll give you a demonstration of the V3. Give me a second because I just want to carry it out a little way and then I'll walk back to you. All right now I said around 15 miles an hour and Dries is insisting it's not. Anyway the windsock is getting near the horizontal. You can argue about it in the comments but anyway we're not here to talk about wind, we're here to talk about this, the Vampire. Now when I take off it's going to be right into the sun which might be a bit of a problem so I'll quickly bring it around into this nice blue bit of sky. Ready for takeoff? Okay so with this, it's not the fastest on the ground. Remember it is only 4s but it's quite a light model so just get it going up to full speed and it should just gradually and naturally lift off of its own accord. You can correct the steering with the steerable nose wheel. I might have to do that because the wind has swung around a little bit. Wait for the air traffic. Yeah we are quite near a full-size airfield. We very kindly have permission to fly here and they are much further away than they look. Ready? Okay Vampire, it's clear for takeoff. All right, taking off. Full power, let the speed build up, correct with the rudder which is the nose wheel and then see how it just bounces up? Pretty much goes up of its own accord. Okay, a little bit of wind rocking it around. I'm on half power now. Look at that. And look at, see what I mean about the colour? Very, very nice. Full power now. Now again this is quite an old model. It's only 4S, it's a 70mm but it just still flies very, very well with this power. I'm going to do a loop now for that. It's got power for that. And for those of you that have had the Vampire, you know it's been flying for a good many years and it's quite the classic now in terms of EDF. It was one of the original plug-and-fly EDFs back in the day and it's still got some legs. I'm going to come off the top and also with ailerons only you can do a stall turn. Just cut the power, ailerons over there and there it stall turns. I'll slow things down a bit. How's that looking? Really nice. Look at that yellow. Against the blue that's especially good. Now I've said it's gusty. Well, it's windy. There's a bit of wind and it's affecting it just a little bit. Not so much but it's cruising past nicely. I'll come to the left now because we don't want to find that sun. There's the underside. See the colours. It's quite a different blue on the underside from the top side. Yeah, so it is only a 4S setup but it doesn't really need much more. I'll do another full speed pass. Here we go. All power on 4S. Yes, scooting nicely. I'll come by again and give it a little bit of a roll in this direction. You ready? Ready. Roll left. Really quite a high roll rate. Sorry, that was quite a sloppy roll. I'll do another one. Now I'm going to go into wind and give it a roll to the right. Nice. And it doesn't have rudder control but it still holds at the turn. Coming around. Again, the colours. Really, really popping. And you can tell compared to the old V2 version that that thrust pipe really gives it a little more thrust. I'm going to do a loop now. Are we good on camera? We're good. Looping, looping, looping, looping, looping. Nice. Now the other thing with the Vampire, it really, really glides. So I'll come around and I'll do a low power-off pass. Power on now but I'm going to cut the throttle now. And now. And I'm just going to power off. Because it does. When you're coming to land, keep in mind that it really, really glides. Bring it right down. And away she goes. I think I'll do another low pass in this direction, keeping the power on. I'm going to turn to the right away from us, through the left. Oh, that's the windsock. Nice. Okay. I got it. Lost my orientation there. All right. I'm bringing it in to do another loop. And then I think I'll just like, my hands are getting rather cold. Okay, looping. I'm going to roll off the top of that one. Roll off. Nice. And the big yellow nose. We'll do one low pass coming between us here because there's no one on the field. So if you zoom out wide. Yep. And do a pass this way and then you will lose it after. That's the pass I wanted. All right. I don't want to fly over the pit. So I'm going to loop up and then come around. You've probably lost it at that point. I'm sure. All right. And then I'm going to, time is going. So I'm going to loop into a power off landing. Gear's coming down. Power's going off. Rolled it around. Now it will glide and glide forever. So I'm going to take it out really quite far. This is all power off now. Okay. I shouldn't need to touch the throttle anymore. Look at that. Floats. Don't let it stall. So keep the nose and then. Well, there you go. Stops pretty abrupt. Now I do have power. I can bring it back in. That's not a problem. And what you can see there, even on this long grass, I mean, if you look at the wheel, they're quite small. If you get the camera gets down, you look at the wheel there, you know, they're pretty much hidden in the grass. So even if you're flying in winter time, such as we are in long, wet grass, the V3 Vampire still handles like a champ. I'll put the gear up just to make this a bit easier. Oh, here is the gear cycling in case you wanted to see that. Nothing spectacular, but it works all the same. And because it's got that hardened nose now, I can comfortably put it on the nose and not worry about any damage to the phone. So I hope that came out and I hope you're in the video there and I hope you was able to see just what a good little flyer she is. Even though she is only a 4S set up on this 70 mil, you'll get around a good four or five minutes on that 3300. You can fit up to a 4000 in there. And it's a 60 amp speed controller on the Fireblade Outrunner EDF. So that's it. That's the Durafly Vampire V3. Thank you very much for watching and please look out for more products coming soon here at hobbykin.com.