Flight Report #2:

Date: 1/16/05

I talked my mom into watching my three girls while my two sons and I loaded the car. My boys were still a little grumpy as we headed out to the field. We didn't get home from the Monster Jam show in the Superdome until after midnight. Man was that a blast.

We arrived at the field at about 9:10 am. It was an awesome day for flying down here. The temp was in the low 60's with a nice 7-10 mph head wind straight down the runway. This time I had plenty of time to prep the plane.

After I got her together, I carried her to the flight line and fueld her up. There were already three other members up in the air, so I decided to wait. Once it was clear, I gave my buddy the camera to get a few shots of the Edge in the air.

I attached the glow starter and a couple of seconds of the starter and big Saito jumped to life. A quick range check and I was ready. Another buddy of mine had just taken off with his 63" span Aeroworks Edge 540, so I was eager to get mine up to complare the two.

I taxied out and did one last control check. I eased into the throttle and once again, she leaped into the air at just passed 1/3 throttle. I added throttle and maintained a nice climb out to about 100 ft., followed by an easy banking turn to the left. After I leveled the wings, I noticed that now she needed up trim. I made a couple of changes from the last flight. If you guys remember, I needed quite a bit of down trim. Well I adjusted the elevator clevises after that first flight and now I need uptrim to get her to fly level.

Aileron trim was almost dead on with only one click of right trim. Once she was trimmed, I proceeded to fly a few circuits to ensure the motor was running well. I brought her around on the downwind leg and tested the roll rate (I kept everything on high rates during both flights). The rolls, although very axial, were not quite up to my liking. While the roll rate would be fine for most people, I like my planes to roll just a bit faster. She was rolling about 3/4 roll/sec. I had set my aileron throws at 7/8" up and 5/8" down. I will be upping these a bit more.

I made another nice turn and wanted to check out how she handled a loop. Still at about 100 ft. high, I pulled back and made a nice loop. The elevator response was immediate. Although I have 40% expo on the elevators, she was still very predictable and responsive without being twitchy/senstive. I did notice however, that on full hard back on the elevator she had a tendency to snap to the right. I can attribute this to my elevator halves not being perfectly aligned. I noticed this once I landed and checked them out, that the right elevator half was a tiny, tiny bit higher than the left (less than 1/16" .

Now it was time to see how she could handle a snap roll. I pulled her around and did a right/up snap roll. She excuted the maneuver with ease and stopped rotating as soon as the sticks were returned to nuetral. I then did two in a row followed by three in a roll. She handled these high stress manuevers with ease. These planes are definitely well constructed and can take a lot of stress.

Since I forgot to activate my timer, I felt it was time to bring her in. I made a couple of low and slow passes to get a feel for her slow speed handling. Once satisfied, I assumed the pattern. I lowered the throttle to about half on the downwind leg. As I made the final turn to line up, I lowered the throttle to 1/4. I lined her up on final and eased her down. Just befoer touching down, I chopped the throttle from high idle to idle and she just floated in for a perfect, no bounce landing. I taxied in and parked her. It was time to catch my breath before the next flight.

After about 30 minutes of socializing with the club members, I thought it was time to take her up again. My buddy with the Aeroworks Edge had the same idea. It was ironic how we both flew at the same time and were the only two planes in the air during both flights. I can honestly see no performance difference between the two Edge's. I feel that both planes are very capable of just about every aerobatic manuever thrown at them, except the wild 3-d stuff.

I fueled her up and once again she cranked right up. This time it was time to see how she handled inverted and knife edge. I taxied out and eased into the throttle and she was up again in no time. I brought her to about 50-75 ft. I went through the normal stuff first: rolls, loops, and snaps. Now it was time to see how much down elevator it would take to hold inverted flight. I lined her up and rolled her inverted. To my surprise, it took hardly any down elevator to hold it. Two click of down elevator and she would fly inverted with hands off. Impressive.

After I made a couple of circuits inverted, it was time for knife edge. I rolled upright and got a little altitude. I leveled off at about 100-150 ft. I lined her up and rolled right 90 degrees. I started adding left rudder. I noticed next to no pitch coupling, but some slight roll coupling. Nothing major. It was very easy to fly the manuever through. After the first one, I brought her down some and performed another knife edge the length of the field. I really enjoy the nuetral characteristics this plane exhibits.

I also tested the vertical performance. This engine will pull it out of sight at a little more than half throttle.

The timer indicated that the fun was over and it was time to land. I made the same approach as earlier. Everything was fine until on final. The winds had picked up slightly and she did not want to come down. She floated on by on two passes. Finally on the third pass, I chopped the throttle a little earlier and put in just enough down elevator to bring her down. She touched down right in front of me and came to a stop in about 30 ft.

I must say that this Edge far surpasses my expectations. After reading all the great things about VF and their planes, I was expecting quite a bit from this plane. She lived up to those expectations and then some. She performed all the basice manuevers with ease and kept asking for more. I was a little worried that I would have too much motor, but this combination proved to be perfect. With the proper throttle management, this plane can easily handle this big motor.

There is something that I noticed. The Aeroworks Edge sat a couple of inches higher than the VF Edge. It is like this because their main landing gear is straight and has a steeper angle. While taxing my Edge, I had only about 1-1.5" of ground clearance for the prop. After I got back home, I unbolted the mains and put them in the vice. I then bent them in and also straighted both legs quite a bit. The results of this was an increase in ground clearance from 1.5" to 4". There is still over 14" between wheels, so stability will not be an issue. I will post pics of this tomorrow.