In response to your question about the SEA GULL 540 EDGE. I recently attended the Toledo Ohio Weak Signals Air Show, and spoke directly to a customer Rep. from Horizon concerning the Edge 540. As I also have one that is ready to fly but yet unflown,and the precautions and build tips that I incorporated to reduce the dreaded wing shed syndrome. First I twisted both wings from the center to simulate "washout",while I found no noticable flex in the left wing section, the right gave a little so I cut open the bottom of the wing to inspect the integrity of the structure, and I found a cracked rib which I repaired. Also I added a little extra epoxy to the area between the dihedral brace box, and the internal spar on the right side of the wing. I fiberglassed the wing joint top and bottom. I installed flying wires on the tail section both above and below the horizontal stabs. and applied thin and medium CA to all Fuselage joints that could be accessed.
Now the info. I was told that "YES" they are aware that there where some issues with some early releases of this model, that after all the testing and evaluation of this model was done, the manufacturer did build some (HOW Many) he did not say, with a defective/light grade of Balsa that caused the tail sections to fail. Also, by doing after crash analysis, they determined that some builders where cutting the covering off the tail section with a little heavy knife pressure.This caused the tail section to stress and shed which caused the resulting waste of a good plane . Fortunatly, they also said that they would handle these planes on a plane by plane basis as they would not cover pilot error, but would be open to assist in actual defective issues. So if you are planning on doing this plane, go for it as they should be out of the system by now, as I have not seen a recent thread concerning this issue now for some time, and they are still selling this plane. If anyone has any recent info regarding this plane and a similar failiure issue, please respond to this thread. It wouldn't hurt to say a small prayer before take off though as I do this with most new planes and while flying. Later Capt. Kirk