Originally Posted by pkquat

If you have the RealFlight Sim The Edge540T (also a small electric) flies very similar to this plane. Their are 4 main things to be aware of. One is that you need to land fairly fast compared to trainers. This plane is not floaty and will tip stall. It also prefers smooth runways or a dirt road. Grass with the stock wheels is marginal. If you have grass it should be fairly smooth, and I would recommend getting the landing gear set for the Parkzone BF109. It comes with larger wheels that fit the rod size and they are actually the cheapest option. Either wrap the strap around the end of the battery near the leads, or push it all the way forward (a little nose heavy for me) and wrap the strap tightly around the leads. Lastly even on low rates, if you have a good deal of speed and you yank the elevator back the plane will tend to roll to the right. It will not pull out of a dive like other Parkzone planes or a trainer.

For your first flight I would get a good deal of altitude and get an idea how slow you can fly it before it tip stalls. Then land a little faster than that. Also pulse the throttle on landing, especially with the stock prop. This will help keep air over the surfaces.

With the stock prop the plane is quite fast. A common change is to the APC 12x6e prop. It slows the planes down some overall and it will decelerate faster. It also allows for slightly slower landings with a more control due to more prop wash over the surfaces. An 11x7 is pretty much in between the stock prop and the 12x6.

Without much WOT throttle flight times are around 8 min max with a fully charged battery. I would recommend to try to bring it down after about 5 min to account for aborted landings.

Also knowing what you have flow before would help. Do you have other electrics - are you familiar with LiPo planes and batteries. Do you have any other LiPo chargers or will you be using the stock one?

Did yours come with the flipped wings?

Originally Posted by Bobshack

I just bought this plane and i dont get it to christamas. Can some tell me what i need to do to it before i fly it.

If you fly from grass, you will need bigger wheels, 2.5" hangar9 light weight wheels works fine for me. If you fly off of pavement or dirt, then the included wheels and pants are fine, but you definitely want to use some blue loc-tite on the outer retainer caps, they back out, and strip easily. The plastic gear mount also is not glued in all that well, more an issue of putting glue over the paint than a problem with the glue itself, and a lot of people had theirs come loose, or fall of on hard landings. I pried mine out carefully, took the paint off of the foam, roughed up the plastic with sandpaper, and epoxied them back in, and they have held up for hundreds of landings. THey might have been fine without this, and even if the gear came off during a landing, the plane would have just belly landed, and probably wouldn't have been that big of a deal.

I also wrap packing tape around the leading edge of the wings and tips, the trailing edge of the rudder. It is very easy to damage these if you crash it on landings, low and slow flight, or when transporting the plane, the tape keeps these from getting gouged or roughed up without adding a lot of weight or tape to the plane. You also want to straighten any control surfaces if they are warped out of the box. This is easy to accomplish with a straight edge, hairdryer, and some time. check the surface with the straightedge, to make sure it is both straight and square, the horizontal stabilizer should be parralel to the wings, the rudder should be perpendicular. My rudder was warped a good bit, heat it up evenly with the hair dryer, then use your hands to put pressure on it and straighten out, hold it for a couple minutes, and it should have changed shape just a bit.

You also want to unhook the control rods and flex the hinges repeatedly about as far as they go, this loosens the hinges up, helps speed them up and puts less stress on the servos and linkages. check to make sure all the screws are tight, and none of the hardware is damaged. If you are not going to be taking the wings off to transport the plane, then you can tape down the aileron servo wires in the grooves inside the fuse. You can also change the colors under the wings if you need to. They are basically the same color, but a different pattern than the top of the wings, changing the color to something that contrasts more like black or silver might help with orientation once you get deeper into fast rolls and spins. Mine has the orange on the bottom of the wings and tail covered in black, for a white and black checker pattern, I also have a white spinner on the nose instead of the grey one that is hard to pick out, so it is a good bit easier for me to keep track of in the air.


There are 2 sets of throws in the manual, and 2 CGs. The plane comes with the lower "sport" rates, 15/12mm on aileron, 13/10 on elevator and 35/28mm on the rudder (high rate/low rate about 75%). With these rates, you don't absolutely "need" expo, but if you do want to add some, the manual suggests 40% across the board, I set mine to 20%rudder, 30%aileron, 40% elevator. Once you get completely comfortable flying with these rates, then you can start upping the rates by moving the rods to the outer holes on the servo arms, and inner holes on the control surfaces. You will need to take the elevator servo arm out to move the rod on that servo, all the rest IIRC already have the rod on the outermost holes. Once you max out the throws, you basically get to the "advanced" settings, 30mm aileron, 37mm elevator, 55mm rudder on high rates with expo suggested at 55% aileron, 70% elevator, 45% rudder, these work OK for me. They suggest the same low rate throws from the "sport" settings for use with the advanced settings, but mine are higher, pretty much the high rates from the sport settings are my low rates with the advanced settings. On high rates/advanced settings, the plane is EXTREMELY sensitive, especially on elevator, and it takes just a touch of the stick to throw the plane around really agressively at speed, these big rates also drop a lot of speed, and can stall the plane if you don't add a good dose of throttle with most any control input, I mostly use the high rates for spins and post stall harriers, hovers, and the mild 3D that the plane can do. The plane is also very sensitive to CG, especially on the advanced high rates, with the battery pushed all the way forward it is about 2.75" back from the leading edge, and works well for most all aerobatic flight, move it back so the strap wraps around the battery leaving about 1/2" sticking out and you end up with a CG about 3" back from the leading edge, this makes the plane even more sensitive, and very difficult to fly for most, works well for harriers and slow flight, but a mistake with the plane on high rates with the tail heavy CG can take a hundred feet or more of altitude to recover from if you are not used to the counter inputs needed, or flying a stalled plane.

Changing the prop also makes a huge difference. The plane is very powerful for it's size, and the factory prop is definitely geared twards speed, it can pull the plane past 70MPH, and has unlimited vertical, although just barely, this is a good choice for fast sport flying. The APC 12X6 prop is on the other end of the spektrum, it adds about a full pound of static thrust, but loses at least 10mph from the top speed, with it, the plane will go vertical like a rocket, and can hover at a bit more than 1/2 throttle, this is probably the best for slower pattern aerobatics and post stall flight. In the middle you can use an 11X8 or the 7.5X10.5X3 BF-109 prop for the best of both. The 12" APC prop does cut a lot of ground clearance, and the tips will cut the grass on takeoffs and landings, larger wheels help, but even still, this is a big prop for the plane, and takes nice 3 point takeoffs and landings to minimise the tips from hitting the ground. Any plane will stall if you slow down too much, the Extra is no exception, you need to start flying as soon as you start raising the trottle for takeoff, and keep flying until it is back on the ground, you do need to land with a bit more speed than a trainer, but that is common with most any aerobatic plane, and the Extra is still a good bit floatier than many balsa planes, just fly it down with just a touch of throttle, and just set it down gently by lowering the throttle, and pulling on the elevator, it takes timing and some experience to tell how exactly to do this, there really isn't an exact formula or procedure that will work for everyone, you have to get a feel for it yourself. Some wind can help, about 5mph can allow you to slow the plane a bit faster, and slow the ground speed a bit more making landing a bit easier than when it is calm.

Just take yor time, the plane is very versatile over a wide range of skill levels, and you do not want to push it if you are not comfortable. On the low sport rates, it can be flown by anyone with some aileron experience, coming up from the PKZ warbirds will immediately get you at least somewhat confident with the plane. Once you get some time with it, and up the rates to max, you will have plenty of skill to go to a full 3D plane, and handle it well, I went to a 51" slick after spending a few months with the PKZ Extra, and it was no sweat, I was able to use what I had learned with the Extra, and jump right into 3D with a more capable airplane, and with confidence. Where many people first taught themselves to fly with Supercubs, and many more learned simple aerobatics with the Warbirds, the Extra will take you from an aerobatic novice to a confident and advanced 3D and pattern pilot.

Originally Posted by Bobshack

Yes i have other electric planes such as the skyfly max and homemade planes. I have an acucell lipo charger that use with other planes. I have had alot of flight time on a sim flying a nitro powered edge.

Originally Posted by Bobshack

Did yours come with the flipped wings?

I did not flip the wings. Mine were pretty good. I would check to make sure the wings are not flattened near the fuselage due to being packed to tight. If they are, I would see about an exchange. I got mine late this summer and the wings were packed fairly light and were not flat near the fuselage. I don't think that is an issue any more. The tips may be slightly flat, but I think that is close to as designed and flipping them in this case will have little effect.

I am not sure what the homemade planes were, but if they were high wing, the extra will most likely be a BIG step. I would say the skyfly max is pretty basic compared to the extra. Also, I would not recommend using the skyfly battery in the extra since the extra might have too much draw. I have heard of a few people who used the Parkzone T-28 11.1V 1800mAh 15C battery and had a brown out from a full throttle pull during a missed landing.

I have flown a lot of edge's, extra's, and caps on sims. Some fly closer to 3D planes and don't tip stall super easy. The ElectriFly Edge 540T was the closest I found. If I got too slow on landings (still faster than trainer speed) the tips would drop, and if I pulled back hard, even on low rates it would roll right. There are a few cap versions that also tip stalled pretty easy. The problem is that rc models based of the same plane designation can fly completely different. There are some extra 300's or 330's in the sim that I would say are much easier.

As a note the T-28 Trojan is much easier, and actually really fun to fly. If the winds are too turbulent and around 10mph the extra becomes a handful to land. The T-28 is much easier. Its the everyday flyer and more fun than I thought it would be.

For an intro into aerobatics the UM Su-26 Sukhoi XP is really good and a blast to fly. It flies very well without much tip stall tendencies, and floats pretty well for landings. It also takes a LOT of abuse. It is very aerobatic and was a handful on low rates with expo until I got the hang of it. It really helped with reaction times and small movement precision with a real plane, especially how to recover when it did something unexpected, ie not be level for a quick loop could induce a roll during the loop and sometimes I would over correct with the aileron, etc. After that the Extra was pretty easy aside from landing (Due to rough grass my first landings had to be real slow and precise {almost 3 pointers} which they weren't and I still ended up on the nose or aborting because of too much wing waggles keeping up with tip stalls. An experienced friend passed on some tips and tricks such as pulsing the throttle, and helped me change my approach and speed to hit my marks on landing and better time my flare).

Lastly as an FYI the Parkzone battery is assumed to have only a 1C charge rate. Somewhere there was a post where someone tried charging a similar Parkzone battery at 2C and it got fairly warm, so they didn't recommend it.

Is it possible to run a bigger battery with this and still keep the came cg?

Originally Posted by Bobshack

Is it possible to run a bigger battery with this and still keep the came cg?

It's not really a matter of CG, most of the "extra" capacity will be in the length of the battery, and that extra length would sit right under the spar, right at the plane's CG. Problem is that most larger batteries are wider by a good bit, and some are thicker. There is precious little room to carve the bay wider, being you need to clear the mounts for the wing screws on either side, you can carve it a hair bit taller, but the spar limits the ammount of room you have to work there too. Thats a lot of work to streach a 6 minute flight another minute or two.

Originally Posted by alucard0822

It's not really a matter of CG, most of the "extra" capacity will be in the length of the battery, and that extra length would sit right under the spar, right at the plane's CG. Problem is that most larger batteries are wider by a good bit, and some are thicker. There is precious little room to carve the bay wider, being you need to clear the mounts for the wing screws on either side, you can carve it a hair bit taller, but the spar limits the ammount of room you have to work there too. Thats a lot of work to streach a 6 minute flight another minute or two.

1 or 2 minutes more if you stay on 3 cell. but what about if i want more power 4s. hobbyking have a few 4s that will fit without any mod. also I have an akku battery from ebay 2800 and is almost the same size as parkzone 2200 a little bit longer and fit perfect..

Originally Posted by DaxFX

1 or 2 minutes more if you stay on 3 cell. but what about if i want more power 4s. hobbyking have a few 4s that will fit without any mod. also I have an akku battery from ebay 2800 and is almost the same size as parkzone 2200 a little bit longer and fit perfect..

does it still fly te same just with longer flight time.

Originally Posted by Bobshack

Is it possible to run a bigger battery with this and still keep the came cg?

I fly my Extra pretty hard for 7 minutes a flight and come down with 11.4v on the pack. I guess you could run 4s if you wanted extra power (with a different ESC)... but it seems that 7 minutes feels like a long time when you are flying this thing on the edge.

Originally Posted by FireyFate

I fly my Extra pretty hard for 7 minutes a flight and come down with 11.4v on the pack. I guess you could run 4s if you wanted extra power (with a different ESC)... but it seems that 7 minutes feels like a long time when you are flying this thing on the edge.

& minutes seems to be the avarage flight time is is that full throttle the whole time?

Originally Posted by Bobshack

& minutes seems to be the avarage flight time is is that full throttle the whole time?

This plane goes really fast at full throttle... There is really no reason for it unless you are going straight vertical.

Originally Posted by FireyFate

This plane goes really fast at full throttle... There is really no reason for it unless you are going straight vertical.

How does the plane fly in the wind ?

Originally Posted by DaxFX

1 or 2 minutes more if you stay on 3 cell. but what about if i want more power 4s. hobbyking have a few 4s that will fit without any mod. also I have an akku battery from ebay 2800 and is almost the same size as parkzone 2200 a little bit longer and fit perfect..

The ESC can be switched to 4S.
http://www.e-fliterc.com/ProdInfo/Fi...CInstSheet.pdf

Originally Posted by Bobshack

How does the plane fly in the wind ?

It flies through the wind just fine, and does well as long as the wind is consistent and you can land into the wind. If winds are over 10mph usually I don't fly it unless they are very consistent and I can land into them. Cross winds really push it around and a tip stall becomes more prevalent. If the winds are turbulent it becomes pretty difficult especially if you have to land cross wind. The plane seems to reach a point where you are going fast enough to keep it stable, but then you pretty much have to fly it into the ground or cut the throttle about 1 foot (6 in if you are lucky) and hope a gust doesn't toss it before it lands or after it most likely bounces.

The T-28 does a little better with the wind mostly because it is less sensitive. Keep in mind these are foam planes, and are very light. I prefer around 5mph with gusts below 10. If the winds are moving the plane while on the ground or would blow it off a picnic table (especially little gusts), I don't fly it. That would also be marginal for the T-28 as well. I would fly , and have flown my .40 size plane in those type winds.

No need for a bigger battery, 2200mah gets me 8 minutes. And you don't really need to do anything if you use a paved runway, just set up your radio and fly.

Oh and I've tried other 2200mah batteries the parkzone is the only one that will fit without cutting. Unfortunatly the parkzone's only charge at 1C and are way over priced.

Originally Posted by lazor 22

No need for a bigger battery, 2200mah gets me 8 minutes. And you don't really need to do anything if you use a paved runway, just set up your radio and fly.

Oh and I've tried other 2200mah batteries the parkzone is the only one that will fit without cutting. Unfortunatly the parkzone's only charge at 1C and are way over priced.

I have a blue lipo from Hobbypartz and a couple Turnigy Nanotechs, all are 2200mah 25C, they fit just fine without any cutting, the blue lipo can charge at 2C, the nanotechs at 5C.

The turnigy (regulars) that I tried didn't fit. Blue Lipoz are never in stock :/