drbebob

I maidened my Edge today. Started out very nose heavy at 5" and moved the flight battery back to the wing tube area. Still nose heavy. I think John (Sydythers) is correct about the eventual location of CG-- probably center of tube. My DA50 was new so did not do anything low and slow. What 3d I did was at altitude and more difficult to observe. Slow flight is excellent, transitions to a harrier well and floats like a feather. KE flight is good except for a small amount of proverse roll coupling. Pulled a bit to the canopy but that may be due to the up trim from the nose heavy condition. Very responsive to all control inputs and very agile. Up lines forever and straight with wind correction, very windy today. Downlines impressively straight with again a slight pull to canopy due to up trim. Slow flight and landings were excellent. This is where the Edge wing excels. Able to three point at walking speed consistently. Gear has just the right amount of spring for a no bounce 3 point. My bellcrank system on elevator worked fine using one 5955. The two 1800 mah NiMH packs went 6 flights and still had plenty of juice for 3-4 more flights. I was the one who ran out of juice. No need for bigger batteries. The DA50 did not miss a beat and seemed to improve with each flight particularly the idle to midrange response. The speed with 23X8 Mejzlik was perfect. Rain predicted for tomorrow; but if not; more trim flights with CG back. So far nothing but good stuff. I had no complaint about roll rate but probably not its strong point; the Yak will reign as fastest roll in town. The rolling ability of the airplane was excellent for an airplane that is no way in pattern trim. Bodes well for the future. More later.

Bob