Scale Experimental Aircraft Models 80" Velocity XL

[Flyfalcons]

I was at the Northwest Hobby Expo earlier this month, and this kit caught my eye at the swap meet. It's an Experimental Aircraft Models 80" Velocity XL, later sold by Kondor Model Products. I remember seeing the EAM ads a while back and thought they had a neat lineup of scale homebuilts, and I'm glad I jumped on the chance to finally bring one home. I liked the idea of trying something a bit different this year, and I think this ARF certainly fits the bill. I'm not really setting out to make a scale version of one particular Velocity out there or make a highly detailed scale masterpiece. Just enjoying this unique design at the field will be plenty of fun for me.

I have done some internet searches to find info on this kit, and have really come up with very little. There is a short video on Youtube of one flying, a thread on RCU that ended with a crash report after the maiden flight, and a couple other threads found where people are asking if anyone else has flown one. EAM is out of business now and I don't think KMP sells these anymore, so I think I'm on my own. That's okay though, I'm looking forward to the project.

I haven't taken home a brand new kit in a while, and I was pretty excited about scoring this one at the show. Here's my little helper at the expo and the box for the plane, as well as a pic of the full scale version. Most Velocity homebuilts are built with retracts, though fixed gear is standard. EAM didn't set up their kit to accept retracts, and I have no desire to refit a set of retracts to my plane, so fixed gear it is.

 

[ryan_m]

Not sure if it's exactly the same kit or not, but a couple of local guys had those, one went glow, and the other electric. The electric flew once, and the owner didn't have proper ESC cooling, it got hot and began having reduced power 3-4 minutes into the flight. He got it around and landed it. I asked him about cooling air on the ESC and motor size/temp, and my input didn't seem welcome, so I never asked more. It never flew again that I know of. The other, glow powered one, died on the third or fourth flight. Motor quit, plane never made it back to the runway. Tragic.
Beautiful kits, and they looked great!

 

[Flyfalcons]

I wanted to get an idea of the fit and quality of the parts, so a mock-up was the first thing I accomplished. In general, the parts are pretty good quality. The formers in the fiberglass fuse weren't glued in very well, but the kit actually includes some fiberglass and microballoons so you can reinforce those joints. The built-up wings, winglets, and canard seem sturdy, and are covered in Ultracote. A little CA here and there will make me feel better but the parts seem plenty strong for flight. The aluminum wing tube was a bit of a tight fit, so some light sanding on it helped there. I haven't used an aluminum tube in some time and forgot about how they oxidize and get on your hands. Yuck.

The canard is removable with four screws, the wings are two-piece, and the winglets remove from the wings with four screws. The servos are mounted right to the canard and winglets, making it very easy to break this plane down quite a bit for transport if needed.

The canopy is one-piece lexan, so that will need to be painted to give the proper cabin look. The window frames are molded into the canopy and paint mask decals come with the kit, so painting it shouldn't be much of an issue. The fiberglass fuse is white but doesn't match the Ultracote very well, so I'll be painting that and the wheel pants for a better match. I want to capture the look of the full scale Velocity, so my plane will be mostly white with some trim here and here to add a little color.

 

[Flyfalcons]

Ryan, my plan for this plane is to go with a Rimfire 1.20 electric setup on 6S lipo. There are several cooling vents in the top of the fuselage into the cowl area, and my plan is to place the ESC there with some baffling to direct the airflow over the ESC, then onto the motor. The kit does come with an additional scoop if needed, mostly meant for glow engines. I think I'll be saving a whole lot of headache going electric, as there are inherant difficulties setting up a glow or gasser in a pusher configuration, but cooling is definitely something I've been putting a lot of thought into.

 

[N726AC]

Full scale Velocity, I call this one 'Speed in a can'.

 

[Flyfalcons]

I found an online Kitplanes review on a modified (more HP) Velocity that, in a very polite way, said it's a fast, efficient plane that handles like a turd. Fortunately I have my transmitter sticks adjusted just the way I like them, so no worries about control harmony here.

 

[Flyfalcons]

Here's a shot of the winglet being epoxied to its mounting plate. The instructions call for epoxying the winglet to the plate first, then drilling the screw holes and mounting the plate to the wing. If I had done that, the winglets would have had a bit of a gap between them and the wing tips. What I did was drill and screw the plates in place first, then fit the winglet to the plate. In doing so, I found I needed to trim about 1/4" off the ends of the plates so the winglets would sit up against the wing. A little wax paper in place while the epoxy cures, and the end result is a nice, tight joint. I got a little more work done but didn't take any pics before heading out on a trip, so that's all for now. I'm hoping to get more garage time in soon so I can have this plane flying by the beginning of summer.

 

[ryan_m]

Funny, I believe the one I saw was a Rimfire also. Wasn't baffled, just had the stock inlets. And it wasn't enough at all. I would definitely shoot for baffling, and keep a close eye on the temps. His was flown in the summer here, which is hard on electrics anyways as we get temps in the upper 90's a lot. If you can get yours up in the air while it's still cool outside and then just watch the temps as it gets warmer over the next few months I bet you will have much better luck!
Saw a full scale one land once at an airport that I used to live near. I was almost right under the approach path to the airport and saw it fly over. Had never seen one before, so I jumped in the car and drove over real quick. The owner was just getting out of it and let me poke around and look at it. It was very very nicely done. Was always fascinated with the plane after that. In my early days of flying I bought an old .40 sized glow powered one, and found it incredibly challenging to fly. Wouldn't ever hardly land, did NOT want to slow down and land either. The bigger ones are much better though, the extra weight helped them to settle down nicely. The .40 sized glow one is a turd though!

 

[Flyfalcons]

Got some more work done on the Velocity last week. The nose gear is a very beefy double-strut unit that gets soldered into a brass pivot unit. This will stick outside the scale nosewheel pant and fairing, but there will be quite a bit of weight on the nosewheel so the manufacturer found it necessary to go with this setup.

 

[Flyfalcons]

Here is the nose gear mount. Very beefy setup. Looking at the CG, nearly half of the model's weight will be on the nosewheel. This is much more than a typical tricycle gear setup. A hole will be drilled in the belly to allow the brass unit to slide into the mount.