Got a slight break in the pounding Spring wind here (Okla) yesterday. "Billy The Stick" and I met at the local field for duel maiden flights. He has an Ultimate Bipe with a YS-63 w/super charger he wanted to checkout. He also does many first flights for a few select friends. He is very steady and thorough so I trust him with a new plane. I often have him or my old instructor do a maiden for me when it's a plane type that I've never flown. All others I test fly myself.
To keep this short,,,, the takeoff was uneventful. Had a 10mph cross wind from the East. Turned into the wind and the VF Edge took off without effort. Three clicks of left aileron trim and she flew straight as an arrow. I have triple rates on my Futaba and Billy asked for high rates during the flight. I had set the rates to the manuals instructions. He just kept commenting on how docile it flew.
I think we both were expecting at least a touchy elevator from what I've read here from others. But in fact it needed more elev than I had dialed in for normal rates. The axial rolls were slow until we used high rates all the way around. Then the plane started feeling like a true sports plane.
Landing was as expected from my reading this post. Doesn't want to come down and settle like some sports planes. My Extra300s must all be landed fairly fast but this was differant. The plane keeps all it's weight in the fuse section while the foam core wings stay light and lifting. It didn't have the tip-stall tendencies like many sports planes. It just floats straight and steady till the air mass is less than the wing lift and she falls like a jet from the sky. Billy got her down with no problems and we moved on to his project.
Later , about an hour before dusk the wind died down even more and the sun came through the clouds. It was my turn to fly the Edge. Takeoff was easy and flight was steady and solid on high rates. The plane goes were you point it but without the twitchy over controlled feel of some planes. Axial rolls looked great even at half throttle. This Edge does the best loop I've seen in a long time.
Vertical manuvers felt tight and controlled. And rudder response was perfect and didn't throw the plane off the lateral lines at all.
The plane feels heavy and light all at the same time to me. It's hard to explain. But you know you got 8 lbs of plane up there,,,,, it just doesn't feel like it at certain times during the flight. Other times the weight is felt or sensed very easily. The wings are the secret if you ask me.

DEADSTICK !! The Saito-100 decided to quit after about five minutes of flying. Half throttle too. Might have been the larger prop I chose for the flight. The idle trimming was done on a smaller pitched prop. This changes the RPM and my idle might have been affected by this as well. Anyway,,, I dropped the nose and flew downwind to get a better one shot try at the grass along side of the runway. As I was turning final she simply ran out of lift . Instead of tip stalling or diving in nose first. The plane just stayed level and fell . I still had a forward momentum going ,,, but I had absolutely no control at this point. She hit on the landing gear after dropping from 12 to 13 inches high. The damage was astounding to the gear area of the plane. If I would have heeded the word about the nylon bolts I wouldn't be telling this tale of woe right now. It pulled the gear completely out blind nuts and all. In fact the blind nuts were ripped right out of the block leaving three gapping holes and a crack about halfway to the firewall.
The gear was bent in a twisted fashion with the new fiberglass wheel pants destroyed. One cracked hole in the belly pan. A couple of small dents in the wing bottom from the wheel pants. Any other non-solid wing would have been in a million pieces. I love the looks of wheel pants. In fact I think planes look naked without them. But the fact remains that they are shaped to destroy if you ever bend a gear back on landing. Maybe the light plastic design VF has isn't a bad idea after all. The fiberglass ones I had are shot now. And I'm thankful for the foam core wings.

VECTORFLIGHT:
I emailed John at VF before posting here last night. As always,,, they are very helpful and really seem to care about each one of their customers. He reminded me of the nylon bolt change and gave me the option to order a new fuse or do a repair. Since there was no damage to the rest of the plane at all. (WELL,,,,MAYBE THE BELLY PAN.) "If your reading this John,,, could you send me a new belly pan ?" I decided to repair. John sent me all the specs with step by step instructions on how to fix the block. Also a few tips on some changes that might help landings and other deadsticks in the future. I had CG'd mine at the 4-3/8s" as instructed by the manual. John suggests an even 4" . He also is sending me a new landing gear . I only pay the shipping charges. Thank you VF !!

Question,,, are you guys just running two holes in the LG with the nylon bolts ? Or three ? And are you using metal blind nuts or nylon holding nuts ?

PICS BELOW OF MY EDGE...[&o][&o][&o][&o]