The Hobbyking Durafly D.H. 100 Vampire is a great bang for buck EDF. Should it be your first EDF? I say Yes! Watch the video to see why and stick around to the end for some tips and tricks to improve performance and reliability
Hi ALL RC, I wish I could send to you some tricks I've tried on my Vampire. My buddy Will sold it to me for $60 and it was the Canadian silver all over; I didn't care for it as silver disappears in our sky. I camouflaged the top and painted the bottom super-lite blue... like I said, I wish I could send some photos to you! I replaced the nose gear steering with a clevis and slider post. After still trying to get it to take off straight and failing, I added one servo to the tailplane to add rudders. You are so correct; it is such a floater... I had to go around three times to get it down at the end of our 550' runway it floats so much! I bought a FW EDF to replace the "unbalanced" EDF that comes with the plane, yes it powers it fine, but that sound is horrific as compared to the newer 11-12 bladed EDFs! I cannot manage to get my old EDF out of the plane, I think it's glued in because of the wing to fuselage proximity! I bought a 4S EDF that comes in the Motion RC Vulcan; so, for now until it breaks on me or something, I'll fly the old 5 blade! You are absolutely correct; this place floats forever and would make a wonderful first EDF. I love the grey top paint, and I would like to know what batteries you're using and how long they fly? I'm using a 3300/45C as my go to 6 minute battery and a 3700/70C to get 7 minutes; both allow go-around time as needed but that one time I had to go around three times I ran the 3300/45 down to 1%... it's fine now as I always balance charge my batteries to storage charge when I get home... this is an awesome plane man... like to learn some of those particulars I asked, but thank you for this video, it's really good to see someone enjoy it as much as I do!
Yep. It's an underrated edf! I was thinking of changing out the nose gear to a system like yours but never got around to it. I gave mine away to a beginner EDF guy that crashed his vampire... mine was getting a bit old and worn so I figure he could do some work to it and have a great flying plane. I didn't think that hobby king would be out of stock in the US! So I'm bummed I don't have one at the moment. I had a spare Assan steering gyro and that took care of the take off and landing roll out. Smooth as silk with that gyro (gyro just for the nose steering). Yes, the stock EDF is glued in. Gentle prying just with your hands should unstick it. Just go slow. It's not that hard to do. We've run many different sized batteries. I started out with 3000mah 60c HRBs and have tried everything up to 5200mah 100c (yeah right!) Zee batteries. As long as you can CG the plane, battery weight doesn't seem to matter. It'll still fly nice and slow with a bigger, heavier battery. My last Vampire had a 6S 4000 battery and a 6s EDF unit. Honestly, the speed difference wasn't worth it. A good 70mm 4s setup is perfect for this plane. Anyways enjoy it, I miss mine. Just waiting for it to come back to the US warehouse.
I literally just got a vampire, it's on my bench right now. Thank you so much for posting this. Very helpful for my maiden. I'm adding a 12 blade, boom spares. Paint job.
Glad to help. Another thing I forgot to mention. Especially if you plan on a motor / fan upgrade, do this test.... hold the plane and point it up. Then go full throttle and feel the thrust. Repeat the same thing except with the canopy off. You'll notice much more thrust with the canopy off. It needs more intake. I cut out the cheater hole vents, cut a hole in the top and made a scoop and then I cut out the rear canopy window and the foam below it. This really improved airflow and speed.
really good video I have the later version in Canadian colours still in my loft and it will be a race between the vampire or the panther witch is another smaller edf with a good reputation for a beginners model . your videos and style are a tremendous help to others and will at least give them some idea of the challenges facing them. many thanks
Took the fan and undercarriage out of mine and fly it on the slope. Also filled all the silly non scale grooves on the airframe and paper covered it then spray silver. Very strong.
Something about the airframe really gives it a great sound in the air. Check out our other video of the 90mm version. One of the best sounding EDFs for sure. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-l_pHEDZytbo.html
It's incredible the de-Havilland Venum was the next generation Vampire that was the first fighter jet to brake the sound barrier with a more powerful jet engine. The even produces a movie about it name. Braking the sound barrier.
I gotta check out that movie! I also have the Freewing Venom. Its awesome and i take it to the field all the time. My Vampire needs surgery. Mishap in transport unfortunatley
That video is the stock version. Stock fan and a 4s battery, I believe 3000ma. At the end of the vid, I did recommend a nice cheap upgrade. Go to Amazon and search powerfun 4s 70mm edf. They come either with or without esc. You'll need to upgrade the esc as well since the one in the vampire is only 60a. I've run both the powerfun 6s and 4s versions. Both are fine. I personally think the 4s version is good enough as it keeps the weight down and the difference between the 4s and 6s isn't huge in the plane. I've done tandem flights with both versions in the air at the same time and while the 6s is faster, it isn't by a lot. You can go with XFly or FMS.... Haven't tried them but they should be even better than the powerfun. But powerfun is cheap and in this plane, works very well. You'll need to reinforce the booms and the wings. I use carbon strips 1mm by 5mm or so that I also got from Amazon. Yes, the edf is glued in. I just (carefully) pry it out with my hands. Go slow and it'll pop out. My personal one is 6s now. My friend has a 4s version and we fly them formation together. If I was to build another one, it would be 4s. Although I have some much bigger and faster edfs, I still fly that little Vampire regularly. It's so fun and easy to fly. Battery, I recommend 3000 to 4000ma. I've run up to 5000mah and it's fine on that but the slow speed glide is half the reason I like this plane so much so I try and keep it light.
Yes. At least for the foam they are using on this plane. I've used epoxy in the past on other planes and haven't had any problems but I also assume that the wing joint is subject a lot more flex so using a hard adhesive just won't work. If you use Foam Tac or Beacon 3n1 it should be much better.
@@all_rc Thank you! We have the other glues sold here. I glued my several last planes with hot (very hot) glue (sounds weird, holds ok - it melts the foam a little) and with some Chineese 5 min epoxy containing tons of plastifier. Works by now.
