RICK9303

My Feedback: (172)

Would like to hear from anyone that has finished the DV and has flown it. The DA50 will be
most likely the engine of choice. What kind of weight did you end up with? How does it fly at that weight? Verticle? I'm torn between the DV and the new Aero Works 27% Ultimate. I already have a DP Ultimate, which flys great, and thats why I have the interest in the DV bipe
Thanks for your time.
Rick

DKjens

My Feedback: (50)

Rick,
I had one, put 5 flights on it, and sold it. It flew very well, I was just once again reminded, that I really like mono wings better. Here are my experiences with the kit and flying.
1. It's a very nice ARF, but should be at that price. Well built and covered, butt run an iron over all the trim or you'll lose it. I didn't do the horizontal stab mod., I figured it was so slight, that at a slow flying plane like this, it wouldn't have a heck of an effect to not do it.
2. The building instructions are not very good, and the cabane mounting instructions are wrong, or at least they were for my plane. If I assembled the center cabanes per instructions, I wwould get a positive incidence on the top wing, and the outer cabanes would not fit. If you look at different pictures of the plane, you will see the cabanes fitted both ways. I assembled the cabanes against instructions, and top and bottom wing botth had 0 degree incidence.
3. The engine template (for the DA50-R) is great and makes engine mounting a no-brainer. I cut a larger square hole in the front bottom behind the engine to gain access to mount ignition and batery, etc.
4. I did not use the stock tail wheel assembly, but the $10.00 Thunder Tiger assembly which resembles the older Klett assemblies, works great.
5. The clevises that connect to the control horns with the bearings are hard to fit. The pins are to thick and will not go through te bearing on some of them, and the are very small and hard to sand or otherwise work on.
Don't be afraid that the plane is going to end up nose heavy, it is more likely to end up tail heavy with the DA50-R, but easy to balance without adding weight.
Flying - It flyes great, elevators are rock steady and it drops very vertical, like ALL lift goes away, harriers easy and fast. On high rate it has a crazy roll rate, and I would actually fly it more on middle rate (10X w. triple rates). The placement of the rudder horns limit the elevator throw, so try to modify that. The elevators limit the rudder throw, but that is not a problem - the rudder is big and very effective.

I was flying a 24 lb Composite-ARF 2.6m Extra before this plane, which is so light on the wing and so incredible elevator sensitive at all speeds, that I decided to keep something like that in place of the DV. I am right now assembling a Composite-ARF 3m Extra w. DA150 and I have the Composite-ARF 2.6m Yak coming and a DA100, they will be my planes.

If you like the way bipes fly different than mono wings, you'll like the DV. It glides better than traditional bipes and flyes very true and predictable.

I didn't weigh mine, so I don't even want to speculate. My DA50-R was still running in swinging a MenzS22x8 and it had no problem with hover, vertical acceleration out of hover, no reason to worry that the DA50-R won't have the power for this plane, because it does. I was running the stock DA side muffler.
DKjens

quist

My Feedback: (198)

Mine has not been on a scale. But my broke it DA 50 with a slimline pitts muffler will pull the plane out of a hover with no problem. There are only 5 flights on the plane so all the bugs are not worked out. I nned to check the lateral balance. It falls to the right hard on a waterfall if you don't watch it. Also the stab is very loose. I think I might put flying wires on the stab. One last thing on the back side of a knife edge loop when you start adding power it pulls hard to the canopy. Overall a very cool plane.

saddler

My Feedback: (93)

Best advice i can give is set all incidence to 0 degrees. The bottom wing comes set at 0, the top wing will need 1/8" shim under front cabane and stab needs dropped about 2 degrees. Got this advice from Mark Trent and wouldn't do it any other way. I never would have believed a Bipe should be set to 0 but for whatever reason this one should. I have flown them both ways and it flies sooooo much better set to 0. Have built 2 this way and they both built exactly the same. The DA 50 with a 24X8 prop is plenty of power. Mine gave it excellent vertical (acceleration) out of a hover. I haven't weighed the airplane but it flies awesome and balanced perfect. The battery pack is strapped to the bottom wing tube with the ignition and ignition battery on the bottom plate behind the firewall.

Maudib

My Feedback: (51)

Mine weighed in a little over 17 lbs... And flew great at that weight... does not feel heavy and floats in for landings with the CG set to the rearmost suggested.


The plane will wall quite well without snapping and will snap very well even with it's longer tail moment.

I have a DA-50 on mine and it's powered very well...Hovers at about 40% throttle but that's with expo on the throttle to make it linear... so 40% is great... climbs out with authority... not a rocket, but more than enough to get out of trouble. Running a 22x8 MSC...

Needs slight opposite aileron in either direction knife edge and tucks a little to the gear... normal in many planes especially bipes... all minor and easily mixed out.

Use red loctite on the cabane screws going up into the center rib... mine came out even with blue loctite but luckily I noticed the incidence change because it ballooned badly...

Carefully flew it in for a soft landing and found the two 4mm bolts gone....

I ended up pushing a piano wire up thru the bottom, thru the blind nut and up thru the top. Drill two 1/2" holes and ran two longer 4mm bolts down thru the blind nut (with loctite) and then attached the center rib to the cabanes with nylock nuts... it ain't goin' nowheres now!

I really like the plane a lot and look forward to tweaking it out and getting comfortable with it. It's pretty solid in harriers, and I setup airbrake where all 4 raise about 15% and it is dead solid with no wing rock at all...

I guess back to your original question... 17+ lbs, DA50... great combo... you'll love it.

-JDavid

JBrannon

My Feedback: (3)

I am concerned about that also, I noticed that the screws go thru a lot of balsa before getting to the T nuts and that wipes all the locktight off.

Joe

AnthonyW

I ordered my combo plane/DA-50 yesterday from Cheif Aircraft. pretty excited. Tis is the third one here in this area and no one else has even started on theirs yet. My have to have a DV building party.
Anthony Wiencek
Raleigh, NC

zonker123

My Feedback: (21)

Anthony
Make that the 4th one in the eastern NC area! I have one and have started on it . Should be ready by middle of the month.
I am east of you in "little" Washington.

take care
zonk

Kitman

My Feedback: (13)

Antoneeeeeeeeeeee,

Can I come to your DV building party??

Kitman
Cooks Creek

AnthonyW

"RE-KITMAN"
Sure you are invited. Bring the clubs, beer and cigars.
See you in August.
Anthony

bvmjethead

My Feedback: (10)

mmmmmmmmmmmmmm beer & cigars mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm