E Flite Viper

[becevit]

I'm planning on taking my first step to EDF jets and eyeing E Flite Viper, so my question is does anybody know if they would be coming with a newer version of it soon? How about any other beginner jets?

Thanks

[Bill Sanford]

The Viper is a great first jet if you're flying off of a hard surface. If you're flying off grass, it's not so good because it has no suspension and tends to bounce on both takeoff and landing. It was my first jet and I did pretty well with it, but it can bite you on both takeoff and landings. If you're comfortable with something fast, get an FMS YAK32 v2. It's in a similar size and price range The YAK32 is a great jet to fly off of grass because it has great landing gear. It has less wing than the Viper and likes to fly fast and will bite you if you slow it down too much... especially in turns. That said, it flies great and is a very fun aircraft. If you have a bit more cash and aren't afraid of something a bit bigger, get a Freewing Avanti S. Is is a real *****cat.

No jet will slow down like a prop airplane without FULL flaps, so make sure that on final you go to full flaps on the approach. Don't go to full flaps until you are done with your turns and are on final.

If you're not comfortable with a fast model, save your money and get there first before you buy an EDF.

Bill

[mshagg]

Good advice ^

Also something like the FMS Avanti is a good alternative, sport jets can be flown super slow and the new V3 has great retracts.

Depending on your experience - you might be more comfortable with a 4s/64mm jet to get a feel for EDFs before jumping into the 6s stuff. I understand the arrows marlin is quite good. I personally started on the elite F15, which is an amazing bit of kit that I still enjoy flying even with a hangar full of 70, 80 and 90mm jets. SAFE is amazing for hand launching. Although a 3ch plane without flaps means you'll be missing some crucial skills for landing larger jets.

[Vintage Racer]

I love my e-flite Viper. it is helping me tremendously becoming a confident EDF flyer. 5 minute flight times, and it glides great. Landing it is not so bad. I love flying it, no longer afraid of flying an EDF thanks to the little Viper.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWkvU1FRm8w&t=194s

[mr.frankenjet]

+1 on the viper, it's a very good flying jet and a great first EDF

[Vintage Racer]

I just wanted to add this, I just bumped my flight timer to 6 minutes on my Viper. I am using 4000 mah HRB batteries, and I was landing at 50-60% capacity, and am tired of waiting to bring them down to storage level on the charger. 1 minute in the sky is one minute not on the ground. I fly the airplane reserved, but still have plenty of fun with it, and not yet has it becoming boring.

VR.

[Spencer Keith]

Flying grass? If so just buy some extra wings when you order it. I have one I just made new again and won’t fly it on grass anymore. If you can fly then one of the above, if looking for safe the f15 or f16.

[becevit]

Hi guys, thanks for all the feedback. I finally pulled the trigger and got the Viper. After my maiden with some minor trim, I got her to fly perfectly. It's really a beginner's first jet as it's easy to take off, fly and even land. I had no trouble landing with full flaps on as they really slow the plane down. I flew 5 more packs after the maiden and it was a lot of fun, really fast when you want and slow if you need it to be. The only thing I felt was when it's on full flaps and slowing down the turns feel like the plane is almost uncontrollable as if it will wing stall. Should I not be turning with full flaps?

[Vintage Racer]

I hold full flaps until established and short straight in final. I do his with all the planes I fly.

VR

[GBLynden]

This is a good jet, but I still feel the Bae Hawk is the better choice with its lights, that it is now HP with better landing gear than I have on my Hawk.

With that being said, here is my Maiden Flight with my Viper!

[Bellairvideo]

Love these Jets (they are actually the same but with different paint) The Eflite Viper has the 636 SAFE receiver whereas the FMS you have to supply your own. I have tried the 636 receiver by swapping it into the FMS Viper & the FMS Avanti with no changes & they fly so good.

Here are the video comparisons with multicam shots showing ground & aerial footage

FMS VIPER

Eflite Viper

[Vintage Racer]

I have 92 flights on mine, on flight 89 one of the flaps tore loose, so I removed them that day and flew two more flights, the Gyro was earning its keep for sure! You could see the unstable condition with the blunt trailing edge of the inboard wing area. It was funny as the airplane flys so well normally. No flap landings were actually very good.

[scooter genie]

I had a hard time seeing the blue on this plane, so I went with the loudest color I could find. Neon purple.

[scooter genie]

Here's a better picture before I painted the canopy

[Ron1950]

best flying small jet so far,,, id be in line for the 90mm nocel if the darn price wasent so darn high as it will fly great also

[xviper]

best flying small jet so far,,, id be in line for the 90mm nocel if the darn price wasent so darn high as it will fly great also

HH just raised the price of the 90mm Viper another 50 bucks. I'm hoping they'll hold the price for all the pre-orders that the LHS put in many weeks ago. The 70mm Viper, by contrast is a steal.

[rifleman_btx]

I've flown the 70mm, it's a very nice flying model

[Hugh Wiedman]

HH just raised the price of the 90mm Viper another 50 bucks. I'm hoping they'll hold the price for all the pre-orders that the LHS put in many weeks ago. The 70mm Viper, by contrast is a steal.

Looks like HH increased the prices on a lot of stuff. The SU-30 and the Viper are at $600 US. Is it just me or is $600 for a 90mm foam sport jet seem a little high?

[xviper]

Looks like HH increased the prices on a lot of stuff. The SU-30 and the Viper are at $600 US. Is it just me or is $600 for a 90mm foam sport jet seem a little high?

It is, however, I believe the N. American market will pay it. There was ample warning from HH that their prices across the board was going up as high as 30% for some items. In this case, it's about 10%. I think the rumours (likely started by HH) that the 30% was a ploy to make people feel less inflamed when the actual increase is much less. It didn't work. A 10% increase on an already pricey product still stings and will raise eyebrows in the marketplace. Of course, this is not terribly different when MotionRC announced their price increase a while back, which we are now beginning to see.
There's really nothing else quite like it for the money when it comes to the Viper. Thrust reverse is a game changer for today's EDFs. I think one day, we'll look back and realize that thrust reversing for EDFs was a milestone in this hobby, just like LiPo batteries were and EDFs themselves.
I had one of the original Taft ViperJets years ago and it was a great airplane even though it had all kinds of deficiencies. Before the new Eflite 90mm was announced, I was going to buy another Taft ViperJet in 8s form. It's got upgrade retracts but insofar as the rest of it, most of the previous deficiencies are still there. The old pricing was $420.00 for the 8s version but as with most of the Freewing planes at RC Castle, much of it is "out of stock". I think it's in preparation for new increased pricing there as well. Most certainly I could buy the Taft when it comes back into stock (at likely a new, increased price tag) and replace the ESC with the Avian ESC (assuming it will even come in a HV version) and buy an AR637T and I'd have my high powered Viper. It would likely amount to way over the $600.00 price tag of the Eflite Viper and still have all the deficiencies of the of Taft product.

[SanExup]

It's pretty much across the board. The P51 and FW190 $50 increase. All of the planes prices have gone up a big percentage actually. I'm glad I bought some of them when I did. But it's definitely curbing my enthusiasm for future purchases of HH products. Infusing quality is worthy of some increase, but they already had increased the prices. I'm pretty much at the point of being over HH. When I compare the planes I have with other brands, not just Freewing or FL, only some of the Eflite are equal. They seemed like a deal when the included RX is lower than buying it standalone, but now it just all seems overpriced. For foamies, as you say. I am not seeing the value. Servos and esc's and motors are just not that expensive.