Tag Archives: Bonanza

Flight Review — VQ Warbirds Beechcraft Bonanza Vtail 62″ Wingspan ARF

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Flight of the Bonanza Vtail…at last!

At the point I had finished the assembly of the VQ Warbirds Beechcraft Bonanza Vtail we were still on Coronavirus quarantine here in SoCal and all of our flying sites were closed.  Well, when our fields opened up again I could not wait to get the airplane in the air!  So, the first day out I brought her along and promptly logged 6 flights on the airplane.  It took a few flights to get dialed in, and once tuned, I fell in love with the flight characteristics.  It has great power and speed and looks awesome in the air with that characteristic vtail.

WHAT’S IN THE AIRPLANE

To recap from our Assembly review, the VQ Warbirds Bonanza Vtail is a nicely sized ARF of all wood construction coming in at a 62″ wingspan.  At final ready to fly weight of 9.75lb the airplane flies beautifully and has a really wide flight envelope.  The power from the E-flite Power 52 and Master Airscrew prop is awesome as the airplane is quick and maneuvers extremely well (and is happy performing any sort of non-scale high performance aerobatics).  Here are the final specs and equipment that are in the airplane:

 

AIRCRAFT SETUP & CG

As mentioned at the beginning of the article, it took a few flights to get the Bonanza Vtail dialed in.  Most notably, the airplane wanted to carry down elevator for trim and also would climb at full throttle.  I adjusted the CG and thrust line to try and mitigate those characteristics and ultimately they didn’t make significant enough differences to continue exploring (i.e. a much larger thrust line change would be required than I cared to explore as it would require realigning and remounting the cowl).  Ultimately, I moved the CG a bit further forward than the recommendation (stock location definitely felt tail heavy) and then added Continue reading →

VQ Warbirds Beechcraft Bonanza V-tail 62″ Wingspan Assembly Review

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Bonanza V-tail for the win!

There’s something about the less traditional aircraft designs that really draw me in.  Most notably they are the v-tail and the delta wing/tailless aircraft.  Maybe it has to do with the less conventional nature, I’m not really sure, but when I saw the VQ Warbirds Beechcraft Bonanza Vtail, I was pretty excited about the model.  The bonanza is an icon in the private aircraft world and one of the few production aircraft I’m aware of that features a vtail into its design, especially in the private aircraft industry.

Though, commercial and private aircraft aren’t typically in my wheelhouse (I love my military aircraft!), the Bonanza Vtail is one that I do really like the looks of.  The Vtail gives an unconventional look to an otherwise conventional airplane and the proportions of the wing and the long tail moment really should make for a really good flying model.  Add to that the really nice covering and look of the VQ Warbirds Bonanza Vtail model, it was not a hard sell to get this one in my hangar.

Bonanza Vtail

 

WHAT’S IN THE BOX

This is the second VQ Warbirds airplane I’ve had the pleasure to assemble (first was the B-24 Liberator) and in each case, I have been thoroughly impressed with the quality of the build of the airframes.  Pulling this airplane from the box, I was reminded of this as the airplane was a beautifully built and finished representation of the Bonanza.  The parts count is generally low, but there is quite a bit of hardware included for pushrods, etc.  One of the nice things that became readily apparent was that all of the control surfaces were pre-glued at the factory, so that alleviated one extra step in the assembly process which was nice!

In addition to the airframe, I picked up my power system and servos of course which are listed and linked below.  I love keeping the looks of a scale model intact Continue reading →