FLIGHT UPDATE:

I took the edge 540 out to where I like to fly my small birds ( a park about 4 football feilds long and 2 wide, no trees). It was a little windy. The airport was reporting 6 mph winds. So I thought I would give it a go. I launched and climbed streight up to about 100 feet and was doing some hover practice. I could not hold it long but i am getting the hang of it.

A huge gust of wind came and took the plane. I tried to do battle with the winds. The plane was moving away from me farther and farther and climbing even though I had shut down the motor and had the plane nose down to desend. It was kind of tough trying to keep the plane level. Once the plane was level for a bit and the the nose still down I gave it some power and was able to get out of the updraft that had a hold of my bird. At this point I was flying over the tops of some really tall pine trees and trying to weave between them and still stay relatively low until I could get back over the huge field and land.

The winds where not letting me have none of that. So I killed the motor again when I saw her being dropped behind the tree line. Pulled up and lowered the flaps to slow her down as much as I could and hoped for the best. A young couple who were driving down the road along the outside of the park, came into the park and said they saw the plane drop down behind the tree line and was just off the side of the road.

I hopped in my car and drove around to the place they said it was. Yep, there it was hanging in a pepper tree about 7 feet off the ground. I'm glad it wasent one of those massive pine trees. I had a Aerobird challenger get caught in one of them one time and had to wait 3 hours for a good breeze to dislodge it from the top of the tree.

I have a couple dings in the wing where the plane hit the branches and the prop shaft is bent. For the dings I am thinking of taking a compass and drawing a circle on the wing just passed the ding. Without altering the compass make another circle on a scrape piece of Depron. Cut out the ding at the circle line and then cut out the circle from the scrap piece of depron to make a plug and epoxy it into place. There is a crack in the wing near the fusealge which I will epoxy and it should be fine.

I tought for sure the plane would be a total loss and beyond repair. The plane is pretty tough! I did not see it hit behind the tree line. But it is in great shape for the height it came down from! I'm really quite impressed with this Depron material! Vantastic stuff!

John

John-

You should use ZAP odorless CA, it works great on Fancy Foam models for repairs. I have used it on all of my FF planes, it's great to have some in your field box for quick repairs. I have torn the whole rear end of the plane off flying inverted over a tree, the plane came down in 5 pieces but was back in the air in 10 mins. I also use a foam safe kicker but dont know who the manufacturer is. The kicker usually has the hobby stores name printed on the bottle. Its in a brown bottle with a brown lable, this combo of glue and kicker work great.

Zap Odorless CA (Foam Safe)

Andrew

Originally Posted by Surftek516

The kicker usually has the hobby stores name printed on the bottle. Its in a brown bottle with a brown lable, this combo of glue and kicker work great.

More than likely Bob Smith Indistries stuff.

I have some Flash oderless CA. I guess I will have to get some of this Kicker and give it a shot. I did the whole build with 30 min. Z-Poxy except for the wing spar I used the Gorilla Glue. I don't really like the Gorilla Glue. But, I do know it won't bend like the epoxy. Everything else on the plane is to specs.

I did find the epoxy to be a benift when I did the tail section. I got some of the epoxy on the carbon fiber elevator joiner and the tube. I was able to flush it out with rubbing alcohol. A drop of oil and have no problems with it. I think next time I will apply a bit of oil to the CF rod before hand to keep any epoxy from locking up the rod in the tube.

Thanks for the input guys, I will try this CA and Kicker combo on the next one!

John

That looks like a great plane... do you have to have a 6 channel flapperon compatible radio? Or can you just use a regular 4 channel, like the hitec laser 4? hmmm... i cant afford a comp radio right now. Do i need one for this plane?

4 channels would be fine providing the radio has Expo (makes it softer around center). I don't think the laser does. You could get by without the Expo, but you won't be able to get the most from the airframe/power system. On low rates I have no expo, and it flies just fine, and still can do more than 90% of the sport planes out there. But on high rate w/ expo ( I prefer only about 25%, others prefer more) you can exploit the things that the plane was designed for. I have hovered mine on low rates just to see what it was like. You stil have plenty of control to hover, but you need to be on top of it more as if it gets bent out of shape, you'll have less of a chance of saving it. I do 99% of the flying on high rates w/ expo

As far as mixing. I have both ailerons going down w/ up elevator ( converse too), and on another mix I have both ailerons going up about 15% ( speed brake of sorts). I've found I don't use either mix with this plane. These mixes are useful on some of my heavier fun fly types, but they don't seem to do much on such a light, over powered airframe.

BTW, you can pre-order the new Polk tracker radios for a GREAT price. ( I belive they are due in Jan). I have the Tracker II and it is a GREAT radio for what I paid. And the new ones cost even less.

Just my $0.02

I have about 50 flights on the edge now. I don't fly in high winds (7+) anymore, as the plane has a hard time fighting the wind. 7 mph winds is not high for a 3 lb. plane. But, for a 14 oz. plane its a challenge, at least for me anyway. I am really starting to have better control when approaching a particular manuver. I owe it all to having the ability to fly the plane whenever I want. With the winds permission of course! You do not have to have a lot of room to fly in, due to its ability to turn on a dime. With the large control surfaces of this plane I don't worry about the trees as much as I did. Knowing you can stear clear in a heartbeat has helped that. I will still get a gust of wind every now and then which makes me thankful I wasen't near a tree.

So far, the plane has been a very good purchase and have absolutly no regrets! I have bent a few prop shafts though. Looking a round for a better shaft. I am using the GWS shafts and at $1.25 each I am not going to gripe. I've bent two and have been able to streighten one in the drill press by pulling on it a little and letting it go slowly.

I am on the lookout for some light weight, thin, reflective tape. Green, red and white. I want to see if I can setup some way of night flying the bird, since the wind is almost always zero at night here. I am thinking I may be able to use the big halogen light I bought during the hurricanes and shine it up. If anyone knows where I can get some of this tape let me know.

John

I got some highly refective, paper thin, sticker material ( about a 3x6 sheet) at the local craft store. It's metalic in color, and has a fake prisim etched into it. I use it on the tail of my gliders to help with orentation when thermaling. This MAY work for you.

Yea, wind is no fun with this bird. For the small stuff, my Fomosa does oh so much better.

BTW, I have some high intensity LEDs that I plan on adding to my Edge... Just need to get some resisters, and I'll be ready to scare the neighbors

Still looking for the reflective tape. I also saw a Radio Shack a set of lights that are used on the little mini RC cars they carry. I was in a hurry and needed to move on with Christmas shopping so I did not get a chance to check them out real good. I am planning to get back there when I have a bit more time to investigate.

Good to hear from you!

Happy Holidays!

John

Did you check out any craft stores for reflective stickers. Ours had a ton of various stickers to the sheets in my above post.
I got my LEDs from fatsquid.com. Still don't have the resisters though. Our local Radio Crap doesn't carry them anymore

Great thread!

Just about to complete a FF 300L - my first electric (normally fly glo/gas). I was looking for something to practice 3D on.

I did a lot of research before this purchase, and of course Mikes "niceness" helped with my decision!

I'm sure I'll be having some questions as I begin to set up, and I hope you guys will be able to assist.

Blessings!

Albert

Let us know how you make out and supply a link to your thread if you start one!

John

I recently added a lighting system to this Edge 540.

The all up weight of the bird is 14.9 oz / 421 grams (with battery).

The flight performance is still great with unlimited verticle. Punch out is not as fast a it used to be. But, you can still punch out. Proly not the type of punchout the Pro 3D pilots like to have, but it's good enough for me!

The review on the lights cane be found here:

FlightLites - Ultralight Aircraft Lighting System

John