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GREAT PLANES VENUS 40 ARF  SPECIFICATIONS RCM PROTOTYPE SUMMARY There is a lot to be said about a well-made pattern bird. These models are the most honest planes in the sky with their neutral stability and "point it where you want it" handling. I used to tell the guys who bragged about being good pilots that they should do their bragging after they show us how to handle a pattern ship ... the plane will tell you the truth! A good pattern bird shows you every little mistake a pilot can make. There is also a lot to be said about a good, well-made ARF model. With the modern production-line process of making models, we are finding ARF models that are all wood in construction and very lightweight. It was not that long ago when modelers typically used engines that were 50% larger than what was recommended in order to get the performance level they desired. The subject of this review is not only a very modern pattern bird, but also a very high quality ARF model that seems to rival anything a good model builder can put out. The Venus 40 is a smaller version of the current 2-meter generation of FAI pattern birds. They are larger birds with tons of wing and very large volume fuselages. The planes fly at a fairly constant speed in order to gain best performance points during the aerobatic routines. Throttle control plays a big role in this, but the model itself has thicker wings, large tail surfaces, and lots of lateral area on the fuselage for clean and easy knife-edge flight. The Venus follows this trend quite nicely, blending lightweight and good looks in the mix for a pleasing model. Let's look at the Venus and how it goes together.
Assembly: The Venus arrives to you in a box measuring 46" x 14" x 6", making it suitable to ship by any ground delivery system without penalty. Inside the box, we found everything well packed and suspended by corrugated material to prevent damage. All sub-assemblies and parts were plastic-wrapped to maintain the fresh finish. The wings are shipped in two pieces, with an assembled tail section, assembled fuselage and belly pan, and then a couple of bags containing the canopy, cowling, landing gear, and hardware. Not a lot of parts in this box, and there is no reason for it. This model has a lot of pre-fab going for it. There is a 28-page assembly manual that is well adorned with photos and illustrations to assist in the assembly work. No drawings are supplied and none are needed. The hardware package is very complete, right down to the proper number of nuts, screws, and bolts. On the nose you will find a very high quality fiberglass cowling with a very well matched color coat. This same high quality is also present in the fiberglass wheel pants. There is no finishing required whatsoever to either cowl or wheel pants. Rounding out the hardware package is the kit-supplied wheels, aluminum landing gear, and steerable tail wheel assembly.
We begin the assembly work with the wings. There are the two halves, plus the ailerons and wing joiner to work with. Pretty simple stuff so far. We start with mounting the ailerons with the kit-supplied CA hinge strips. The wing trailing edge and the aileron leading edge is already slotted for you underneath the covering. Simply locate the slot, slit the covering, and insert a hinge. Once you mate the flight control surface to the wing, wick a few drops of CA thin glue into the hinge and allow the adhesive to cure. So much for that.
The Venus 40 with an O.S. Max .46 LA engine mated to the nose. Note the spacer at the rear of the engine mount to get the proper distance for the cowl. The underside of each wing half has servo bays already prepared and ready to accept standard size servos. Again, you need only remove the covering and begin mounting the servo in place. The kit also provides a drawstring in the servo bay leading to the wing center section. This allows easy threading of the servo wire to the center and is a nice touch. When the servo is mounted, it will sit on the surface of the wing with the mounting lugs. Many competition pilots would prefer the servo to sit below the surface with only the servo arm exposed above the skin. But, in the scheme of life, the effect is minimal and should not be a cause for concern. Once this task is completed on both wing halves, the two panels are joined using the shaped hardwood joiner. Just smear a generous serving of epoxy along the inside ribs and inside the spar box and mate the halves together. Once the wing is cured, you need only add the front wing dowels to the leading edge and the wing is basically done. We move to the fuselage now, where we start with installing the wing hold-down plate and blind nuts. If you place the plate exactly where they tell you, you will have no problem with wing bolt alignment. Once the plate is installed, we turn back to the wing to place the wing bolt reinforcement plate on the bottom of the wing where the wing bolts pass through the trailing edge. Once set, you drill through the wing bolt holes in the wing to punch through the plate and then mount the wing to the fuselage. Now you get to install the wood belly pan, and this will require you to remove a narrow slice of the covering to do it right. There are some nice advanced tips in the text of the instructions that are worth remembering, so pay attention to them. Once the belly pan is in place, we can move to mounting the tail feathers.
Like the entire rest of Venus 40, the tail feathers are completely covered with MonoKote film covering. It is well done all over and I admit that I did not have to re-shrink the film when I removed the model from the box. Installation of the vertical stab and horizontal stab goes very quickly, and I used Team Patrick CA adhesives here to mount the tail feathers. I find this adhesive to be high quality and easy handling. At this point, you may begin installing the elevator and rudder surfaces, and like the wings, the hinge slots are already there for you. The elevator is a two-piece affair, requiring the use of a split pushrod. There is hardware in the kit to make this assembly quickly. By this time, you might think this model is going together very fast, and it is. With all the little things that take time done for you, the amount of work you perform is really reduced. Prior to installing the rudder, you will mount the steerable tail wheel as the upper tip of the tail wheel wire is inserted into the rudder to allow ground steering. At the nose of the Venus, we begin the engine installation. The kit calls for engine sizes ranging from a .40 to .51 2-stroke, or .52 through .70 4-stroke engines. The instructions show them installing an O.S. .46 FX engine; however, the engine we installed is the slightly shorter O.S. .46 LA version. This requires you to place a firewall spacer on the nose, and you are on your own to locate this item. I used two thicknesses of 1/4" plywood to make the spacer and then epoxied this to the firewall, as per the instructions. This item is the only item not found in the kit. I had been spoiled by the completeness of the kit up to this point, and so I felt a little let down by having to provide the spacer on my own. Once the spacer was in place, I mounted the .46 LA on the kit-supplied engine mount. The Venus comes with a typical plastic fuel tank, which holds about 8 ounces of fuel. From here, the hard work is done and now we begin installing the radio equipment. Inside the main radio bay, we mounted standard size S3003 Futaba servos for all control surfaces, plus two more in the wings for the ailerons. Sure, you could use smaller servos for lighter weight, but in the event you have only standard servos, they fit like a glove. The controls are the typical four functions, but you will need two servos for the ailerons. If you use a four-channel radio, you will need a "Y" connector for the aileron servos; however, the use of a computer radio will allow you to mix the aileron channel to another one for separate connections. You might find this to be an enhancement later on for flaperons or mixed flap with elevator on square stunt maneuvers.
We're almost finished, and for now, we will mount the landing gear. This is a beaded finish aluminum strut with foam style lightweight wheels and very nice fiberglass wheel pants. The gear strut is held in place with 6/32 machine screws and the fuselage is already drilled with blind nuts in place for the screws, then on the nose we mount the fiberglass cowl. If you take your time it's not hard to figure out how to mount the cowl without putting large holes into it for the muffler and needle valve. We did find that the muffler for the O.S. .46 LA sits in closely, and will be in contact with the cowl when mounted. In flight, the cowl will not get too hot, but it will eventually mar the cowl being in contact with it. The solution would be to use a muffler extension, but we did not bother with it. Last, we mounted the large canopy using Shoo Goo adhesive. Voila! We have a Venus 40 assembled! By the way, I just thought I had to tell you that I was very impressed by the light weight of the completed model. With standard size radio gear and an 800 mAh battery on board, the model comes in at 79 ounces; just under 5 pounds. With this kind of weight, it is very feasible that this model would be an excellent candidate for converting to electric power.
Flying: We did about 30 minutes on the bench running in the O.S. .46 LA engine, and then set the idle. Once we had the engine running well, the cowl was replaced and we did a final control surface check. All control surfaces were set to the recommended throws and then the balance point checked. We needed no ballast to achieve the correct balance point. A Zinger 10 x 6 was placed on the nose followed by the kit-supplied plastic spinner. A Futaba 8-UAPS transmitter was used for control. At the field, we were greeted with a gorgeous California day, with temperature at 80 degrees and the wind steady at 5 mph down the runway. We did have one hitch right here with the spinner. I hand-started the engine when it kicked back from being a bit rich, which required me to re-tighten the prop nut. It was then that I discovered the spinner had cracked where both mounting screws in the spinner were located. There was no doubt in my mind that the spinner required replacement, and that dashed our first day out. On our second time out, the O.S. .46 LA fired up again by hand, and everything was found to be good this time. We stood behind the Venus and opened up the throttle gingerly. The Venus required only a slight hint of right rudder to maintain its heading and she was off the deck in only 50 feet. Given three clicks of up trim, the Venus was on her own, hands-off across the sky. She is very solid up there, and shows no wavering or quirkiness. Elevator response with the recommended throws is fine, providing smooth pitching movements at all speeds. I personally like a fast roll rate, and the Venus did not disappoint me. The roll rate is about 1.5 rolls per second and very axial ... like on a string! My low rate setting on ailerons had her doing about half that speed, making point rolls and slow rolls very easy to perform. There is not much rudder needed to do point rolls, and about 2/3 rudder input to hold sustained knife-edge flight across the sky. All this time, the Venus was just solid. To prove the point, I informed my photographer that I was going to fly a knife-edge pass for the camera ... on the deck! The Venus did it without complaint at about 3/4 throttle. The O.S. .46 LA is a fine engine for this model, but more serious pilots will want more power. The LA version will not sustain long vertical lines with the Venus, being a more conservative and user-friendly engine. I have no doubt the FX version engine will provide more power for better verticals, but I also am not unhappy with the performance of the LA engine. It does a good job of hauling the Venus around the sky. It really does most anything you ask of her. Overall, if you are in the market for a good handling pattern-type bird without spending a lot of money and without the time invested to build it, the Venus 40 will be an excellent candidate for that job. It has the looks, she's lightweight, and it performs like it's supposed to perform; like a pattern bird. I've made this one my everyday model. Reprinted with permission.August, 2003 R/C Modeler Magazine Editor: Patricia Crews
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