bemeson

Hey Goose,
Have not heard from you in a bit...how is the plane.

Brian

v6goose

Gidday Brian...

Great! Thanks... I have 19 flights on it so far and the trimming is pretty sweet.

I am being cautious with this as I want it to last and it cost a fair bit. I have been flying both the basic IMAC sequence and some silly stuff (higher up) and enjoying every minute.

It also looks fantastic on the ground and in the air so it gets a lot of comments. It won a pilots choice prize a couple of weeks ago.

One thing I should mention is I lost both lower cowl screws during a flight despite blue Loctite. I noticed that the holes in the cowl had been slotted by vibration against the screws.

I put a pair of rubber servo grommets in the slots but because the holes are now slotted, the cowl wasn't being held in place properly.

I epoxied two 20mm square pieces of 3/16" ply inside the cowl over the lower screw holes and then redrilled the holes.

Perfectly secured now, subsequent flights will tell.

I'm off to lots of events over summer including the Giant Rally in Binghamton in a couple of weeks and expect to fly lots over the four days.

Cheers!

Goose

daveopam

My Feedback: (9)

Goose, they are not scale, but the cowl binders from www.pspmfg.com are really nice.

David

v6goose

Hey David...

Those do look pretty cool. I might look at them when my cowl bolt holes are all flogged out.

Cheers

Goose

Tumalik

Hey Guys!

daveopam

My Feedback: (9)

For future reference. If you drill a small hole at the end of the crack in ALUM. It will stop it from running. You will have to cover the hole, but you were going to JB Weld anyway. As it is, the crack my continue run out from under the JB.

David

bemeson

Sir,
I would guess say, I bet you allowed the muffler to come loose and you flew it for a while. The cracks develop from the vibration coming from the motor or a prop that is out of balance. I agree drilling a hole to stop the cracking, but if it was me, I would find a good tig welder and have it corrected. I am sure someone in your area has a tig welder. It will be worth it otherwise it is going to get worse with JB weld. Now this is just my opinion...remember a picture is worth a thousand words.

Brian

By the way I have never had a JTEC muffler fail in a weld or crack....I have had plenty of cheap chinese ones do this... I dont buy them anymore.

Tumalik

Brian,
I highly doubt "i allowed the muffler to come loose". I am guessing it came loose sometime in my last flight. I will look for a tig welder this week and post the photos of the muffler after the weekend so you can help me determine the cause.

I normaly like to inspect my edge every gallon or two. This would be my 4 th service and noticed the oil leak, only to discover the crack. The tension on the bolts seemed to be good and there was no sign of rattling muffler. I did notice that the jtec muffler had a slight in-dent by the manifold opening. I am worried i may have over tightened, thus causing the leak and later leading to the crack. That would be possible as the opening on the engine is sticking out a bit and the tensin could have caused the in-dent.

Thank you again for helping out.

Taimoor

*Thanks David!

Tumalik

Hey Goose,

v6goose

Hey Taimoor...

The leading edge of the ProX is not straight and might be throwing you off when balancing at the tips or the root.

Stick to the recommendations (balance at the tips) and get it close. Go fly and adjust as needed.

Mine needed 1.5oz added to the tail when I was flying it with a pipe. After I broke the header and went back to the stock muffler, I removed the weight and it continues to fly exceptionally well.

Good luck!

Goose

v6goose

Well, this is probably the last thing you want to see, me either, but as this thread marked the birth and construction of my Edge, so shall it mark the death.

This is the end result of flight number 43, 8:00 hours exactly to the minute of actual flying time and yes... it was my fault.

The Edge has been performing just beautifully and was flown 5 times during the Rally of the Giants in New York recently without incident. I was practicing the basic IMAC sequence for a competition at our club this past weekend and was half way through the second run when two other giant scale aerobats took off to share the sky.

I was pulling the upline of the second sharks tooth and was distracted for a split second as one plane flew behind mine. I pulled out of the maneuver too early (mistake 1) which left me lower than normal. I held the elevator too long (mistake 2) which meant I was now flying inverted at about 70 degrees nose down at the ground. I abort the maneuver and roll wings level but with the throttle at about 1/2, I was dangerously low to the ground and pulled elevator.

I should mention that I had recently programmed a mix between elevator and rudder to correct the left yaw when pulling into vertical uplines and it had worked very well. Thinking about the end of this flight (a lot!) I realize now that the rudder was pulled right as per the mix and the resulting savage snap left me no time or altitude to save the plane.

I've had two weeks off flying to mourn and decide what to do next but I still haven't decided.

Anyways... that's how the cookie crumbles...

Goose

daveopam

My Feedback: (9)

Sorry to hear it Goose. I know how disheartening it can be to loose a plane. I hope the DA and most of the servos survived at least. Thank you for being so honest in your crash report. Too many times when a plane goes in the flyer blames everything but himself. I lost my first 1/4 scale on the maiden. I wish I could have put 40 plus flights on it.

david

v6goose

Cheers Dave...

Don't know the condition of the expensive bits yet as it's still sitting in the corner of my workshop, but I had better sift through it smartly if I want to fly again this season.

How are your planes going? Haven't heard much since your maiden so I'm assuming it's all going well?

Good on ya

Goose

daveopam

My Feedback: (9)

All is well but the weather. Days off without strong winds and 100 plus degree days are hard to hit. I only have 7 flights on the Extra. I like it better every time I fly it. But when it's this hot and windy it's easier to throw the profile in the truck and run to the field for an hour or two than it is to load and assemble the Extra. Getting lazy in my old age I guess. This fall i plan on putting some serious time on it. I need to spend a day doing some fine tuning on the trim. It is a little snappy on the elevator when I am off the power. It also needs a little rudder to aile mix for knife edge. Maybe 2-3%, it's pretty close. this thing really does straight and level slow rolls great even without the mix. If nothing else I need to get some time on the DA so I can hover it a little more. I have been keeping the hover time and up lines to 15 seconds or less. Don't want to overheat the new engine. I did lean it a little last week. i pulled the cowl to check everything, and noticed the carb has been spitting raw fuel into the front of the engine box. I could here it burble in the air, but did not realize how rich it really was. It was about 70 the day we tuned it for break in, so being 100 the last 5 times I've flown it did not help with the mixture.

Keep your chin up!!!!!

Looking forward to the next build or rebuild thread, david

I am going to build a Mojo 65 this winter. Maybe we should both do one????

v6goose

Good news...

Yeah, they really do fly so nice, straight and smooth with a little care. Too bad about the weather.

Still not sure what my next step is... I had plans for the next few years but work uncertainty is putting a spin on the larger ones.

The Mojo's are pretty cool from what I have seen and fly similar if not better than my ProX260 which is what I am going to fly for the rest of the season.

Cheers!

Goose

v6goose

I'll just leave this here

daveopam

My Feedback: (9)

Put me down for a 50 gallon drum of that stuff.


David

v6goose

I had to do it, there is just too much flying season left...

How's your ship going Dave?

Goose

daveopam

My Feedback: (9)

Put 5 more flights on it Sunday. Still have not taken the time to set the mixes up. But I like it more every time I fly it. I set the radio up differently on this one than any other plane I have. I have all the rates on one switch. Every other plane I own has a separate rate switch for elev, aile and rudder. I thought this might be easier, but i just don't like it. Doing rolling circles for example, I like high rate elev and mid rate aile. Rolling circles with the Extra are a little sloppy having everything on one switch. I did add 5% more expo to the elev to try and take out some of the off power snap. It did not change it much. So i flew most of the time on mid rate. It flies fine there, but hovers better on high. Most of the snap I run into is slow speed climbs setting up for a hover, So i need to find a happy medium there someplace. I know it will come with stick time. Flying the profile just spoils you. I can stand it up into a wall just above stall speed and there is no sign of any snap. I did lean the DA out a few more clicks. It still burbles at 30% power but i want to get both gallons of break in fuel/oil through it before I lean it out any more. It's not lacking for power so leaning it really wont help me much anyway. I had to lean it some though because it was spitting fuel in to the front of the fuse and making it stink like gas every time I pulled the canopy. It has turned the ply a little green from the oil up there also. Running it rich sure makes a mess though. It spits out little black dots of unburned fuel/oil all over the bottom the fuse, LE of the gear, and LE of the stabs.
Sorry to ramble on, it was good to hear from you, david

v6goose

Ramble away sir, this is all very interesting stuff.

I too set mine up differently than all my previous planes and like you, I have been spoilt with the ProX profile. Reverse to your setup though, I always setup my aerobats with triple rates on one switch but split them to separate switches this time around after several conversations with fellow pilots.

Because I'm flying the IMAC sequences, I find I don't have time to find and switch the right switch and back again all while maintaining the super smoothness I'm looking for.

Also, that rudder to elevator mix to stop yaw when pulling into the uplines (which ultimately assisted the death of Edge #1) seems like a bad idea now and has been left off #2.

I maidened #2 yesterday and it flies just like the first one albeit another 1/2lb heavier with exactly the same gear in it. Goes to show how much variance in weight there is from the factory and that we all too easily get bent out of shape by grams and ounces.

Although I love AW, have owned several aircraft from them, and will continue buying and flying their products... I did find the overall build quality of Edge #2 to not be as good in several areas, none of which stop me from loving the plane. Differences include:

* 1/2lb heavier, 20lbs RTF
* 1.5mm gap between canopy and cowl (fixed).
* Rudder pull cable plastic guide tube on right side blocked with glue (fixed but man...)
* Canopy screw holes (4) always out of alignment (both models).
* Black wheel pants as per the 100cc model versus the orange ones of #1.
* Wing tubes in both wings and fuse so tight I can't get the wings off (fixed).
* Paint doesn't match the Oracote for canopy and cowl. #1 paint was perfect.

Even so, it's now to a point where I like it and will continue to do so while getting as much flying as possible done

Cheers!

Goose

daveopam

My Feedback: (9)

I did not realize you had another one coming Goose. Glad to hear you did. I guess anything mass produced is going to be different from plane to plane. I am a little surprised at your weight. I know the Edge is a little bigger, but I am at 17.5 lbs. Maybe I got the light one out of the batch?? I also don't have a pilot or canister or cockpit, so I guess there is a little savings there. Even at 17.5 lbs I have to fly mine in, which surprised me a little. If I don't keep a high idle the bottom will fall out at about 10' of ALT. I've done it twice and thought the gear was bent on the second one. The landing issue could be CG related, but hands off inverted is almost hands off. Only a slight drop. I think moving the CG any more AFT could also amplify my snap issue. Knife edge has a little roll, but almost no tuck. Changing the CG might make KE flight worse. So maybe it's another case of profile spoiling. :-)
Have you tried putting a piece of fuel line on your dual rate switches? I use a piece for the elev and aile rate switches. I don't use any on the rudder D/R, but I know it's next to the elev switch so it still helps me find it. Something else you might try. I have mixes on the low rate side of the rudder switch but not on the high. I switch to low rate rudder for KE flight, but for stall turns and snaps and blenders, I don't like having the mixes on. It sounds like a lot switching back and forth but once you do it for a while, it comes natural.

Later, David

v6goose

No one did because I didn't tell anyone and I decided at the last minute 30 hours going hard at it from getting the boxes to first run-up. The CC company love me right now and I will figure out how to pay for it during winter *lol*

I really like this plane for both how it flies and how it looks. It feels like I can learn a lot from it.

The Edge is a bigger plane for the 50cc category and I don't think 18-20lbs is excessive. Many commented on how well it flew even after finding out that it was that weight. I really do need to fly it all the time, there is no gliding around at idle. That being said, the low speed performance is excellent and I can do full circuits at walking pace with little effort.

Mine lands hot if I don't make a concerted effort to bring it in nose high and a little power to bleed off the speed and maintain altitude. I guess that is a combination of the weight and flying method.

I haven't tried the fuel line trick, sounds good. Thanks.

Hopefully will get a couple of trim flights in tonight and continue working towards getting back to where I was before the unfortunate demise of #1.

Cheers

Goose

daveopam

My Feedback: (9)

Sounds like a plan. We have a club member that just finished his 30CC AW Edge. I am excited to see it fly. he has OS 33 for power, but has not even ran the engine yet. I know it's not going to be the plane the 50CC is. Still I think it will be a good flyer.

Since I am out of the stone age and got my 1st smart phone last month. I'll try and get some video of the Extra in action. Taking the video and posting it are two different challenges. I guess I can post it too You Tube and then link it to RCU. I can program a Futaba 10C in my sleep, but have trouble with the Apple 4S.

Later, David