Customer Reviews

Parkzone Vapor RTF

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Interesting aircraft....Be sure you have enough room when flying indoors and that you are careful that there is no wind at all when flying outdoors. Throttle power is much better than I expected and controls are very responsive. The best thing I have learned flying this airplane is that if you lose control simply kill the power. Even if the airplane is 30 feet off the ground it will simply fall like a leaf with no damage.

Radio control RC airplane electric

I have played with many RC airplanes and helicopters, both cheap toys and more expensive ones.

The Parkzone Vapor and Ember2 are at the very top of my list. I love trying to fly, but on all of my previous planes I just didn't do well. I must admit I play at it and don't get super serious, just don't have much time.

But the Vapor and Ember2 made it possible to fly and be successful at it. Both of them are unbelievably easy to fly but are able to do some very great things.

THESE ARE NOT TOY LEVEL PLANES. The Vapor according to my scales weight 3/8 of a once and have a very small motor and servos to control this plane. It is a very responsive plane but also you can do loops and many other tricks. The Vapor can almost fly straight up, but not quite, but you can have it almost dead stop inches from the ground and then pour on the power and pull out of there.

The Vapor is a no wind airplane. I do fly it outside but there has to be no wind and even the slightest breeze makes flying hard. The Ember2 is its cousin and you can fly it in very minor breeze, it is best to fly in a no wind situation. Both planes have the same receiver, motor, battery and can use the same transmitter. Buy one with the transmitter then buy the other one in the Bind-N-Fly version which is cheaper and doesn't have the transmitter which you share with both planes.

These planes use the DSM2 technology for the transmitter/receiver. The planes learn which transmitter to listen to. I range is far, never gone far enough to get out of range.

These planes are RTF ready to fly out of the box.

As far as being tough. They can take a lot of abuse. I have crashed them often. But because they are so light they tend not to break. I have broken the Ember2 because it goes faster and is heavier, but there are plenty of spare parts and easy to fix. The Vapor I broke the prop and got a $3 replacement which just screws on.

I can barely fly the Vapor inside my house, just really not enough room. But it flies outside great with no breeze. I did take it to work and flew it in a meeting room and then on a dare flew it down the middle of our large building, got quite the crowd.

So don't hesitate, buy it now!

I hate to be negative, but this is my first fixed wing RC model plane and I have yet to fly it. I picked out the Vapor because of its large wing surface area and what appeared to be a lightweight durable plane suited for someone learning to fly his first fixed wing RC model. I purchased the Vapor on Thursday and today is Saturday and I find myself still gluing the plastic to the structure which started to separate from the Vapor just out out the box. What's more the plastic sheeting on the elevator has started to tear and does not seem to be mylar as I was told. I do not recommend that a newbe who is excited about his first plane getting this as a RTF plane. Maybe in another week I will be able to add a happier update on the Vapor, but for right now it is an expensive purchase that is getting heavier because of all of the glue and tape added to it. The hobby shop guy said that I can buy the parts to replace what seems to me to be a bad manufacturing process. I'm not sure I want to invest any more $$ into this item.
Unhappily waiting for the glue to dry.

Tons of fun. With a little practice you can practically fly this thing in a closet. Its normal speed is about that of a brisk walk, but it can harrier to practically a stand still. Find a straightaway though, and you can probably get it to at least 10mph. It can loop, fly upside down, one time I even got it to pop a snap roll. This thing is so light that if you fly straight into a wall, it'll bounce back and keep going. If you do manage to damage it, pretty much any component can either be repaired using hot glue (it works the best) or a bit of tape, and if all else fails, replacement parts are pretty much all between 3 and 10 bucks. I highly recommend this product.

My apologies for going against the grain with the rest of the reviews.

Not sure how some of these people repaired this product and still didn't affect the flight characteristics. Horizon hobby recommended I use
CA-Unglue to undo the joints . Now I have over 5 years of aero-modelling experience with RTF and Balsa-monokote kits. This thing is not easily repairable!!!.

The couple of times I flew it, it flew well. With my first crash, I had to fix the rudder assembly and that wasn't easy. Later the landing gear broke and I couldn't get to unglue the joint to take the gear off.


If you want to spend over a 100 bucks for a couple of flights, its a great product :-)

If you are flying it outdoors , make sure the air is still like on the moon.


Regards
UnhappyWithVapor

Package arrived in a timely fashion.
This plane is easy to fly, responds well to controls. I like the relatively slow flight; it can almost hover. It takes off from the ground on two feet of carboard, lands just as easily. I fly it outside in a gentle breeze, though a dead calm is better. I'm not a good enough pilot to fly it in my house--too much furniture. I'd need a very large, empty room, but a good pilot could fly it indoors.
The extremely thin plastic that covers the frame tends to pull away from the supports but can be glued back again.
I give the plane and the vendor a good review.

As a new pilot, I bought this plane to practice with before trying my Hobby Zone Super Cub RTF. I wanted to get the throttle and rudder/elevator dexterity before flying something bigger. Because I have a MAC and the flight simulator software they had at the hobby shop only worked on Windows, this was the next best thing.

This plane is very rugged, based on my multiple crashes in the park.

Flight time is only 10 to 15 minutes, but the charger is portable and will charge right where you are at because you don't need to go back to the car or house to hook it up (the charger uses its four AA batteries to charge the plane's battery). It takes about 20 minutes to charge it. So, you can take the plane and charger out to the middle of the park and stay there all day if you'd like.

If you've never flown before do not try to fly this plane indoors unless you are in a gym! Even though it is slow flying you will probably fly it into walls. I recommend flying it over grass in the beginning since grass is so forgiving when you crash.

You definitely need calm conditions outdoors if you are a beginning pilot. I can see how you could fly this in a very light wind if you are an experienced pilot.

I was very pleasantly surprised to find all eight batteries (four for the charger and four for the transmitter) included in the box.

I was able to fly it in calm conditions with a few crashes. After just an hour or so I was flying it pretty well compared to when I started!

The only problem I have with the plane is that the battery is held onto the plane with velcro. This is fine if you don't crash, but gets to be a little annoying having to push it back onto the velcro after almost every crash. But, near the end of my flying I was crashing less and less so it began to be a moot point. I think you can keep it attached with a twist tie if need be. Not much to complain about, though, since at least nothing has broken in my many crashes.

4/4/09 update: If you are a beginning pilot like me, then I take that back about the plane being rugged. You really need to be an experienced pilot and fly it only in calm conditions or indoors, like the instructions specify. I was able to gain experience flying it, but now one of the servos isn't working ($69 part because the servos are on a circuit board - you have to buy the whole component) and the motor has come off the mount. I glued it back on once and it came off again. If you are an experience pilot and fly it indoors then you might not run into the trouble I had. Maybe flying it against the wind was too much for one of the servos.

1/8/11 update: I've been flying the Ember 2 and it is much better for flying outdoors. It's perfect in parks that have a little bit of concrete for takeoffs and landings. You'll have better control over it because it handles wind better. This means fewer crashes and longer plane life. I did take my first Ember 2 into too much wind (got a little too adventurous with it) and so now it is somewhere west of Picacho Peak Arizona in the desert :-). I ordered a new one yesterday.

My plane lasted just 15 minutes. It is ridiculously fragile and to make matters worse the battery died and the charger won't charge it. I really think I just waste my money on this plane. [...]

This item was listed as museum quality?

The covering on the model was torn and off the carbon fiber frame. This is a very light weight R/C model. It was not really mentioned that it was second hand. It was designed to fly with a one to one power ratio. With all the and parts that were not even attached its no longer a flier. The asking price on your Amazon site was around 300 or 400 hundred dollars. Wow this on was less than a hundred. Yep a fool is born every day. The person that sold this wreck knew is was wreck. I wasted my money now I guess I am wasting my time. Not a good deal.

PS

This plane is no longer being produced. I am going to ask Santa for a Nite vaper.

What are my chances? No more you get the Idea.

Please check that the price of $499.99 on the Parkzone Vapor RC airplane is correct.

$499.99 is much higher that the $129.99 price that ParkZone has on a newer model of the same airplane with LEDs for night flying.

Please make sure this is not a mistake.

Thanks,
Al

Product link: Vapor RTF