Post by thevon on Apr 18, 2008 9:27:43 GMT 10
Prepare for a long story ...!
A few months ago I got interested in getting a moldie that was good for DSing, but also a beautiful frontside flyer too, and able to fly well in the all-too-frequent marginal winds we get on inland slopes. I posted a thread on RC Groups, and got lots and lots of advice. www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=817025
I didn't make any decision and put the whole thing on the back burner for a while. A few weeks later I looked at the For Sale thread, and there was a Wizard Compact BPV for sale. I remembered that in my thread had said something like "... if you can afford it, it's simple, just go for the Wizard". So I enquired, ... and the guy still had it. Here's the advert:
www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=823101&highlight=wizard+BPV
But ... the plane was in San Francisco! It was a challenge organizing to buy it! Matt (the seller) and I got lots of freight quotes and nearly gave up. Prices between $450 and $700. But then a friend who was going to the US for a conference agreed to carry it back as baggage for me, and the deal was clinched. So after about 6 weeks of waiting, and the Wizard being shipped from SF to Denver, then all the way to Australia, it arrived at the aiport 2 days ago and was eagerly collected on the spot by me!
I have to say lots of good words about Matt Galland, who sold me the Wiz. He couldn't have done more to help, and gave me a lot of confidence in dealing with him. This plane has really been around! I'm not sure if I have the whole story, but this one was built by Rob Hurd, an expert builder. It was bought by Nick (Jantar2A). He also bought an X-tail and cracked the Colorado Wizard speed record at 226 mph with the X-Tail. He sold both p planes to Matt - the X-tail went to his friend Adam, and Matt kept, but never flew, the V-tail, and finally sold it to me.
Now ... I feel embarrassed to say that during this process a lot of people advised me to consider an F3B 3 metre plane. Then Ezza brought up his Stratos, which Sean and I flew and loved. I read again and again about how Ian (Daemon) in Colorado loves flying and DSing his Fazer more than anything else ... flies in any conditions and fantastic performer. Check out this Youtube video - he won a video competition with this one:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Y58Cg2j668
Everything pointed to this being a "must have" thermal/ sloper/ light DSer and I made a mental tick that one day, I'd snap one up when it came up 2nd hand fully built. But I didn't expect it to happen so fast! A competition guy in Tassie advertised one, excellent condition, great price and I took a deep breath and went for it. So that's the budget blown for a while!!! (Apart from the Ocelot I have on order too! !!!)
Here's one happy customer last Monday!
Amazingly after 6 weeks wait the Wizard turned up a day after the Fazer! So it was total overload with getting to know these planes and dialling them in (both fully built so I only had to add my Rx then it was only fine tuning and radio programming). I could hardly sleep with the excitement.
The Wizard looks unreal, like a Ferrari. Beautiful colours. Looks like new. Incredibly well, and solidly built. The linkages are all totally rock solid. Volz servos in the wings and 368's in the fuse.
The Fazer is bigger, lighter, but still very strong and stiff. There's a "Fazer F3J " which is the main one sold in Europe and it's lighter than this, but in Australia they only imported the F3B version to withstand the hard winch launches we apparently have. Mine is just plain white on top and red under, and really needs some good stripes.
Money-wise, the Wizard cost me nearly $1300, including freight to ship it to Denver. The Fazer was $1170 including freight. I know this is huge bucks for planes, but to give you an idea, the Wizard airframe would cost around $2000 plus 6 or 12 months wait. The Volz and JR M/G digital servos in it would cost $800+.
A new Fazer was around $1900 2 yrs ago, and again, it would cost me $600+ to equip it with the quality of servos that are in it.
But a huge benefit for me is buying them built! At my point in life, with too much other stuff going on, I just don't wanna spend time building planes if I can avoid it! It's worth many hundreds of dollars to me to save that hassle!
I spent many hours setting everything to the specifications for both planes, setting up flaps and spoiler, up/down throws till they were all perfect. Since these are carbon planes I ran the aerials outside the fuselage and spiralled them around it, and added length to the ends. It paid off because I got huge range checks.
Then got the chance to go to Bald Knob yesterday. I was a bundle of nerves! Greg H agreed to come up to give me a hand.
I took these photos in case I never saw them again ...
YOu can see the comparison with the size of the Reaper.
We maidened them both! No problems at all. The Fazer first. The big 3.2m span felt totally stable and slow until you point it down. Greg helped by dialling the flap compensations on my radio while I flew. Big and small loops, easy inverted ... it was absolutely great - the first landing was a soft "plop" in the grass! (and I whooped with joy!)The roll rate is a lot slower than I'm used to. We flew on the Camel Hump ridge which is covered in soft deep grass and great for landings as you can fly along the ridge slowly and land as the ridge rises up to meet the plane.
Then the Wizard. With the wind being a side-on and not very strong, I wondered if the heavier and smaller (2.5m) Wizard would struggle, but no way! It climbed just as well as the Fazer but the Wizard stamped its authority on the sky with much more energy. I felt more comfortable flying it - I think it's just that I'm got used to faster planes like the Bat and Reaper. It was beautifully behaved - as nice to fly as anything else I've flown. I had only flown it for 10 mins or so and thought ... well, I'm flying a superbly behaved plane and I'm standing on a DS ridge here, in reasonable conditions - why not?? So I dived over the back and all I can say is ... it's just beautiful! This is my first moldie that can DS, and it feels so much more on rails than DS foamie planks. This plane is beautiful on the frontside, even in patchy lift, and it DS's very nicely! The conditions weren't great and I was being conservative, and I got it to 100 or so and it felt EEEEASY! Top stuff!
When the wind went SE we flew on the top, swapping between planes and practicing landings. Then later it went south again so we went back down the Hump. The lift out there was now sooo clean and strong, and perfect for getting the Wizard howling! Scared the crap out of myself DSing a few different lines. Flew till it was too dark to be safe. Did lots of flaps landings - need lots more practice at that. But, all I can say is, just beautiful.
I know moldies are expensive, but they fly like nothing else and are exhilarating!
A few months ago I got interested in getting a moldie that was good for DSing, but also a beautiful frontside flyer too, and able to fly well in the all-too-frequent marginal winds we get on inland slopes. I posted a thread on RC Groups, and got lots and lots of advice. www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=817025
I didn't make any decision and put the whole thing on the back burner for a while. A few weeks later I looked at the For Sale thread, and there was a Wizard Compact BPV for sale. I remembered that in my thread had said something like "... if you can afford it, it's simple, just go for the Wizard". So I enquired, ... and the guy still had it. Here's the advert:
www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=823101&highlight=wizard+BPV
But ... the plane was in San Francisco! It was a challenge organizing to buy it! Matt (the seller) and I got lots of freight quotes and nearly gave up. Prices between $450 and $700. But then a friend who was going to the US for a conference agreed to carry it back as baggage for me, and the deal was clinched. So after about 6 weeks of waiting, and the Wizard being shipped from SF to Denver, then all the way to Australia, it arrived at the aiport 2 days ago and was eagerly collected on the spot by me!
I have to say lots of good words about Matt Galland, who sold me the Wiz. He couldn't have done more to help, and gave me a lot of confidence in dealing with him. This plane has really been around! I'm not sure if I have the whole story, but this one was built by Rob Hurd, an expert builder. It was bought by Nick (Jantar2A). He also bought an X-tail and cracked the Colorado Wizard speed record at 226 mph with the X-Tail. He sold both p planes to Matt - the X-tail went to his friend Adam, and Matt kept, but never flew, the V-tail, and finally sold it to me.
Now ... I feel embarrassed to say that during this process a lot of people advised me to consider an F3B 3 metre plane. Then Ezza brought up his Stratos, which Sean and I flew and loved. I read again and again about how Ian (Daemon) in Colorado loves flying and DSing his Fazer more than anything else ... flies in any conditions and fantastic performer. Check out this Youtube video - he won a video competition with this one:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Y58Cg2j668
Everything pointed to this being a "must have" thermal/ sloper/ light DSer and I made a mental tick that one day, I'd snap one up when it came up 2nd hand fully built. But I didn't expect it to happen so fast! A competition guy in Tassie advertised one, excellent condition, great price and I took a deep breath and went for it. So that's the budget blown for a while!!! (Apart from the Ocelot I have on order too! !!!)
Here's one happy customer last Monday!
Amazingly after 6 weeks wait the Wizard turned up a day after the Fazer! So it was total overload with getting to know these planes and dialling them in (both fully built so I only had to add my Rx then it was only fine tuning and radio programming). I could hardly sleep with the excitement.
The Wizard looks unreal, like a Ferrari. Beautiful colours. Looks like new. Incredibly well, and solidly built. The linkages are all totally rock solid. Volz servos in the wings and 368's in the fuse.
The Fazer is bigger, lighter, but still very strong and stiff. There's a "Fazer F3J " which is the main one sold in Europe and it's lighter than this, but in Australia they only imported the F3B version to withstand the hard winch launches we apparently have. Mine is just plain white on top and red under, and really needs some good stripes.
Money-wise, the Wizard cost me nearly $1300, including freight to ship it to Denver. The Fazer was $1170 including freight. I know this is huge bucks for planes, but to give you an idea, the Wizard airframe would cost around $2000 plus 6 or 12 months wait. The Volz and JR M/G digital servos in it would cost $800+.
A new Fazer was around $1900 2 yrs ago, and again, it would cost me $600+ to equip it with the quality of servos that are in it.
But a huge benefit for me is buying them built! At my point in life, with too much other stuff going on, I just don't wanna spend time building planes if I can avoid it! It's worth many hundreds of dollars to me to save that hassle!
I spent many hours setting everything to the specifications for both planes, setting up flaps and spoiler, up/down throws till they were all perfect. Since these are carbon planes I ran the aerials outside the fuselage and spiralled them around it, and added length to the ends. It paid off because I got huge range checks.
Then got the chance to go to Bald Knob yesterday. I was a bundle of nerves! Greg H agreed to come up to give me a hand.
I took these photos in case I never saw them again ...
YOu can see the comparison with the size of the Reaper.
We maidened them both! No problems at all. The Fazer first. The big 3.2m span felt totally stable and slow until you point it down. Greg helped by dialling the flap compensations on my radio while I flew. Big and small loops, easy inverted ... it was absolutely great - the first landing was a soft "plop" in the grass! (and I whooped with joy!)The roll rate is a lot slower than I'm used to. We flew on the Camel Hump ridge which is covered in soft deep grass and great for landings as you can fly along the ridge slowly and land as the ridge rises up to meet the plane.
Then the Wizard. With the wind being a side-on and not very strong, I wondered if the heavier and smaller (2.5m) Wizard would struggle, but no way! It climbed just as well as the Fazer but the Wizard stamped its authority on the sky with much more energy. I felt more comfortable flying it - I think it's just that I'm got used to faster planes like the Bat and Reaper. It was beautifully behaved - as nice to fly as anything else I've flown. I had only flown it for 10 mins or so and thought ... well, I'm flying a superbly behaved plane and I'm standing on a DS ridge here, in reasonable conditions - why not?? So I dived over the back and all I can say is ... it's just beautiful! This is my first moldie that can DS, and it feels so much more on rails than DS foamie planks. This plane is beautiful on the frontside, even in patchy lift, and it DS's very nicely! The conditions weren't great and I was being conservative, and I got it to 100 or so and it felt EEEEASY! Top stuff!
When the wind went SE we flew on the top, swapping between planes and practicing landings. Then later it went south again so we went back down the Hump. The lift out there was now sooo clean and strong, and perfect for getting the Wizard howling! Scared the crap out of myself DSing a few different lines. Flew till it was too dark to be safe. Did lots of flaps landings - need lots more practice at that. But, all I can say is, just beautiful.
I know moldies are expensive, but they fly like nothing else and are exhilarating!
Andrew.
