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Author Topic: Flite Line Vampire  (Read 2262 times)

Online Dave_Trible

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Flite Line Vampire
« on: January 26, 2020, 07:27:12 PM »
This should be more of a classified ad but I would be interested in buying an unbuilt kit of Riley's Vampire foam winged airplane if anyone has one stashed in the rafters.  It was my favorite airplane for combat until I got into Guillotines and would like to build another for Nostalgia.   If you have one please PM me since I don't typically get back here to this section much.  Thanks!

Dave
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Online Dave_Trible

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Re: Flite Line Vampire
« Reply #1 on: February 02, 2020, 04:40:12 PM »
A BIG THANK YOU to Mike Londke.  He spread the word around and found a gent in Oklahoma who had a pristine kit.  I'd bet this is the sole survivor on the planet.  I will build the kit but before I do I will draw full-size drawings and make templates of the foam cores so it could be duplicated and the design not lost to history.  Again thanks to Mike and Larry Mormino.

Dave
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Offline Bob Mears

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Re: Flite Line Vampire
« Reply #2 on: February 03, 2020, 07:31:45 AM »
Th kit will come with a pair of butt tips. There's your template. The covering material is probably yellowed. You can go to hobby lobby and find all sorts of thickness's of poster board. I cant recall the thickness of the kits material, but I did match it up at Hobby Lobby. I used 3m77 to attach the covering. Plane flies very well I might add.

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Offline Andre Ming

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Re: Flite Line Vampire
« Reply #3 on: February 03, 2020, 08:07:56 AM »
The built up wingtips are worth it. Used to fly Vampires back in the day. Bought them by the stacks.

Andre
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Offline mike londke

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Re: Flite Line Vampire
« Reply #4 on: February 04, 2020, 01:27:39 PM »
A BIG THANK YOU to Mike Londke.  He spread the word around and found a gent in Oklahoma who had a pristine kit.  I'd bet this is the sole survivor on the planet.  I will build the kit but before I do I will draw full-size drawings and make templates of the foam cores so it could be duplicated and the design not lost to history.  Again thanks to Mike and Larry Mormino.

Dave
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Offline Terrence Durrill

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Re: Flite Line Vampire
« Reply #5 on: February 04, 2020, 03:58:02 PM »
A BIG THANK YOU to Mike Londke.  He spread the word around and found a gent in Oklahoma who had a pristine kit.  I'd bet this is the sole survivor on the planet.  I will build the kit but before I do I will draw full-size drawings and make templates of the foam cores so it could be duplicated and the design not lost to history.  Again thanks to Mike and Larry Mormino.

Dave

                 No, Dave..........that is not "the sole survivor on the planet".  I still have two Flite Line Vampire kits in the shop, (and several finished/flyable  Vampires as well) but I expect that the covering material, as was pointed out by someone else here, will need replacing.  I flew them in the 1960's with Fox .36x BB's (Riley's choice by the way...he won the 1968 Nats with that combo).  I was finished in 5th place in the 1968 Nats flying Flite Line Vampires with Super Tigre G-21 35's.  Riley's Flite Line Vampires were great airplanes in their day..........no doubt about it.  ......   D>K  ......   H^^

Offline Bob Mears

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Re: Flite Line Vampire
« Reply #6 on: February 04, 2020, 04:04:57 PM »
I have one built and flying. I have two more in kits, but not ready to get rid of them. I also have several Shadow's and Sizzors. Havent bothered building them since they dont actually qualify as nostalgia
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Online Dave_Trible

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Re: Flite Line Vampire
« Reply #7 on: February 04, 2020, 04:50:20 PM »
Well it's good to see a few more out there...........let's hope they don't end up in the land fill.   That's why I like the idea of Nostalgia combat.  Maybe it will draw some of the 'stash' out to be used.  I got a couple Sneaker kits from Marvin Denny shortly before he passed.  I built them, have flown one so far and consider them treasures.  I have no idea what happened to the Tigers I had in the day but I latched onto several 36Xs on the Bay and I discovered I'm not that teenage combat flier I once was!  I put the Sneaker in the dirt and Doc reminded me not to allow too much elevator travel.

Dave
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Offline john e. holliday

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Re: Flite Line Vampire
« Reply #8 on: February 05, 2020, 11:28:15 AM »
Yep, they are a little faster than a stunt plane.  I think 15 degrees each way was the max setting on the stabilizer. D>K
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Offline Terrence Durrill

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Re: Flite Line Vampire
« Reply #9 on: February 05, 2020, 11:44:06 AM »
Well it's good to see a few more out there...........let's hope they don't end up in the land fill.   That's why I like the idea of Nostalgia combat.  Maybe it will draw some of the 'stash' out to be used.  I got a couple Sneaker kits from Marvin Denny shortly before he passed.  I built them, have flown one so far and consider them treasures.  I have no idea what happened to the Tigers I had in the day but I latched onto several 36Xs on the Bay and I discovered I'm not that teenage combat flier I once was!  I put the Sneaker in the dirt and Doc reminded me not to allow too much elevator travel.

Dave

                      I don't have any more of Riley's Flite Line Sneaker kits left, but I have three Sneakers built and flyable.  I always flew my Sneakers with the Fox .36x BB engines.  They were very good airplanes and a lot of fun to fly.  I always thought of them as sort of a sports car type combat plane from the way they handled in the air.  The Sneaker is a pretty simple plane to scratch build if you have the one on hand to take measurements from.  ......   D>K  ......   H^^

Online Dave_Trible

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Re: Flite Line Vampire
« Reply #10 on: February 06, 2020, 06:35:49 PM »
It arrived.  Thanks guys!
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Offline mike londke

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Re: Flite Line Vampire
« Reply #11 on: February 07, 2020, 08:50:30 PM »
It arrived.  Thanks guys!
I'll be honest Dave I didn't think it would happen. I haven't seen one of those kits in many years. Not as common as some of the others from that era. The internet is amazing. lol
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Offline john e. holliday

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Re: Flite Line Vampire
« Reply #12 on: February 08, 2020, 10:06:47 AM »
I built the only one that Charley's Hobby Shop had when they acme out.  Could not get consistent settings with metal tanks.   I never used pacifiers. D>K
John E. "DOC" Holliday
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Offline Frank Imbriaco

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Re: Flite Line Vampire
« Reply #13 on: February 09, 2020, 05:19:53 PM »
The Vampire, as I recall, had moderate popularity in the N.E.
Bill "Butcher" Staubach  had a half  dozen, maybe more.  Harold "Slippery" Brown had a bunch, too. I had just  two. They flew well- very well in fact, but their weight slowed them up a bit in the turns. That heavy paper covering over foam wasn't all that pretty(or fun to apply)and most got dirty and stained after just a few flights. The idea was to offer a quick assemble ship and it succeeded on that mission.

The Butcher complained about repairs. At first, we  first shoved 1/4" dowels lengths coated with Titebond glue to re-connect damaged panels. Some of them folded, so we  then used lengths of vertical  1/8" 5 ply aircraft plywood, cut with grain span wise to reconnect the damaged panels. Fiberglass cloth/resin covered the joint. Yuck. So, even more weight.
When their popularity faded, built up ships came back in vogue; long tail Voodoos and a few others.
Those were the days-  During the contest season,there were 2-3 fast combat contests a month. Everyone built and repaired like crazy during the week only to wreck'em on weekends.
I remember Scarinzi wincing when he saw them.His feather-weight silk n'dope jobs the Gold Standard in that neck of the woods.

Offline Bob Mears

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Re: Flite Line Vampire
« Reply #14 on: February 10, 2020, 07:33:54 AM »
Back in Vampire days as I recall, we put only three very light coats of dope on the paper. Just enough to keep fuel from soaking in. Now I spray on some polly u and it looks great and shiny. Probably heavier than the dope, but today I dont care all that much about weight.
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Offline Andre Ming

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Re: Flite Line Vampire
« Reply #15 on: February 10, 2020, 11:56:59 AM »
Enjoyed your reminiscing, Frank.

I had one Vampire fold: My very first one. All of mine flew well for their day.

Larry's airplanes are indeed works of art. He is an amazing craftsman.

Andre
Searching to find my new place in this hobby!

Offline Frank Imbriaco

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Re: Flite Line Vampire
« Reply #16 on: February 10, 2020, 05:30:07 PM »
Enjoyed your reminiscing, Frank.

I had one Vampire fold: My very first one. All of mine flew well for their day.

Larry's airplanes are indeed works of art. He is an amazing craftsman.

Andre

Hey Andre:
 Good to hear from you. Yes, we did fold a few- lol. The Butcher  folded one , then it  fluttered the entire bladder's worth at the Johnsville, Pa. meet. He kept it up, but level only.  God, that was over  50 years ago!
I think he was flying against Sam Bridges.
 Bob is right. Some finish definitely required. There is one constant here. All of ole' Riley's ships flew very well. I really enjoyed my Voodoos, Demon , Sneekers( my favorite) and of course,  two Vampires.
« Last Edit: February 11, 2020, 06:26:05 PM by Frank Imbriaco »

Offline Bob Mears

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Re: Flite Line Vampire
« Reply #17 on: February 11, 2020, 10:15:45 AM »
All I ever flew was Riley's kits since he was right here in town, and best buds with my Pop's. I didnt realize, until I started building airplanes for the museum, just how simple Riley's kits were. Some of these other models  are poor designs with over complicated assembly, and a poor use wood economics. Riley's planes were designed to use all the wood that could be used out of a single sheet. I remember him telling me back in the day, that the box cost more than the wood in a kit. I recall the tapered trailing edge on the Sneeker was just ingenious. I was about 11 at the time. He took a straight trailing edge and just trimmed the taper off the back, then just glued that trimmed off piece back to the front. So simple. It's obvious that so many folks might buy one of these old consolidated kits one time and done. I can build any of Riley's old kits twice as fast as anything else. And it's a better airplane when finished.
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Offline Bill Adair

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Re: Flite Line Vampire
« Reply #18 on: February 13, 2020, 03:59:37 PM »
Riley also kitted the most stable R/C kit (Rat Skat?) that I've ever flown. It was rock stable in any attitude, but finally smacked in out of a knife edge pass, when the aileron servo apparently self destructed during the roll out. Rolled right into the ground, and exploded into bits of foam and balsa.

Has anyone kept in touch with Riley since his stroke?

I read every story he ever posted on the forums, and truly enjoyed all of them.

Bill
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Offline Bob Mears

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Re: Flite Line Vampire
« Reply #19 on: February 14, 2020, 07:35:18 AM »
I do. I'll try t get him going again on his stories. Those are very entertaining.
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Offline Bill Adair

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Re: Flite Line Vampire
« Reply #20 on: February 14, 2020, 10:43:54 AM »
Thanks Bob, that would be great.  H^^

After all his bad luck, and health problems I'm just happy to hear he is still around.

Bill
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Offline Dennis Leonhardi

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Re: Flite Line Vampire
« Reply #21 on: October 28, 2020, 10:19:31 PM »
Just ran across this post as I seldom look here.  Loved the Vampire!  Of all Riley's designs / kits I think the Sneeker is by far the best - especially in the wind - but the Vampires literally fell together.  Three of us flew together here in MN and got our kits directly from Riley.

We always joked the Vampire was good for (exactly) ONE REALLY TIGHT TURN and then would be "squishy".  Never had one fold up in flight, probably because we sensed a second tight turn wasn't in the cards.

I didn't really sweat it because my strategy was almost always to go fast and make big turns.  Fun memories!

Dennis
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