Ez,

I have the same Funtana 90 and that is a good setup. I even went so far as to put spring loaded cotter pins on the dowel rods on mine to give it more security should a wing bolt snap and I never thought of using the bolts for the Edge.

If you have not already, you may want to pass your bolt fix along to them. Chuck is the person I have been dealing with and he has been excellent even when I screwed up and glued the center joiner in upside down. Easy fix though. Just cut the exposed end off and redrill the holes

I agree about Vector being a well kept secret. I have nothing but prasie for them and we all know about the product quality.

Gary, yeah thats where the tailwheel popped off, easy fix. I will fix covering soon as well. Thank goodness for a local sign shop. That's his logo on the vertical stab.

Sturtz,

For the tailwheel I am using a Sullivan setup for 60 size planes and for the tailfeather bracing I am using the same H9 carbon fiber rods that go on the Funtana90. Heck I use them on all my planes. Not as cheap as the hollow aerodynamic aluminum rods but stronger.

Tail wheel part number: SUL861 (about $8.50)

CF rod Part number: HAN2684 ($11.00 for 2 12 inch rods)

Both can be had off of hangar 9 web site or the tailwheel will most likely be at your LHS. My LHS started carrying the CF rods at my request and they cannot keep them in stock as everyone seems to want to use them for tailfeather support.

Just line them up the way you want, drill a hole to fit the rod at an angle on both of the vertical and horizontal stabs for the top and the stab and fuselage for the bottom and cut to fit leaving about 1/2 extra on both ends, roughen the ends of the rod, insert the CA/epoxy into the holes and insert the rods into the holes. Works like a charm and is light

Just finished my edge's first 100 hour tune-up. I have hundreds of flights on this plane. Flew it last night and wow it really handled nice. On landing I got alittle low and the first fence post took off the gear and the second got in front of the outboard 6" of the right wing. Nylon bolts saved the landing gear mount and boy are those wings tough. Alittle heat gun work and you can hardly tell the wing was damaged. Three new nylon bolts, 20 minutes and it is (almost) good as new.

Don

Bill, another one of the reasons I made this mod was on the advice of Chuck. He and I exchanged several e-mails about the wing-fuselage gap. After I did the mod, I e-mailed Chuck with the method I used and some pics. VF is considering adding a similar mod to their planes in the future. The new fuselage design with the recess for the wing was also discussed in our e-mails. You really have to respect a company that actually listens to suggestions from their customers and actually tries to incorporate them too. Not that I suggested the fuselage recess for the wings, Chuck asked my opinion on it and I advised him that it, along with the nylon bolts, would definitely help eliminate any gap that my form.

Luke, since you are flying your local sign shop's logo, shouldn't you be getting your covering for free or at a discounted price? I could sure use some extra red covering...[sm=spinnyeyes.gif]

Don D, grats on your flight. Sorry to hear about the rough landing. I think we all have them once in a while. Don't you just hate it when things jump out at your plane when you're trying to land? I have had that many times. In fact, the ground rose 50 ft. and grabbed my trainer last year. Still trying to figure that one out. [sm=bananahead.gif].

I have to agree with you on the toughness of these planes. I was astonished that the only thing that got damaged when the wind blew my plane off my stand when I was at the field was the rudder coming off the hinges. Then the plane bounced up and landed on it's gear. These planes are amazing.

Ez,

You gotta love Vector. They do listen well. He also asked my opinion about the recess and personally I like the idea. I'll go beat on Chuck for not letting me in on the nylon bolt thingy. Nah, I'll be nice.


Don,

These wings are tough. I actually stepped on my right wing right on the LE while trying to manuerver around my shop and all I saw was my footprint from my dirty shoes. A little Windex and it looked like new again. Try that with a wing from H9 or some others and see what happens

Recieved my edge on Tuesday.

VectorFlight e-mailed me the link to this thread
Thanks for posting the building tips.

Welcome Brad. [8D] Be sure to jump in and let us know what you think of the build and flight performance.

Just finished the wing bolt mod and I have to say WOW! It made a huge difference in the strength and stability of the wing. Zero gap. And the whole thing only took about an hour and most of that was waiting for glue to dry. Thanks again to Gary for the awesome idea.

Bubbagates,

What diameter are the CF rods that you use?
The Hanger 9 pt.# doesn't give a description of the rod diameter.
They carry .125 .110 .098 .08 .07 .06 .05 .04 and .03. These rods are all in 24" lengths.
It looks as if it is about half the price to order the rod instead of the tail kit for the Funtana.

Greg

Greg,

I am at work right now but I'll measure them when I get home and let you know.

bubbagates, great idea about the CF rods for the tailfeathers. I have the FuntanaS 40 and I like how the CF rods worked out on that. I am going to use CF rods as well. I will be looking for the info. on the size of the rods. Thanks. My edge should arrive any day now. Man, I wish the mail person would hurry up. My Saito 100 is getting lonely. [8D]

wah-hoo!!!! my saito starts. runs pretty good for only 2 16oz tanks. Im getting a hell of lot of vibration but, that is probally due to the very rich mixture. Also im breaking it in with 30% heli mix from wildcat. I timed my run time with my radio and got about 7 and 1/2 minutes at a rich setting.
Well 2 of my tail brace screws vibrated loose since i forgot to use loctite on them. Also one of the bolts on the engine mount pretty much vibrated out. Think i need to loctite those in too.. Im hopefully gonna get a little more run time on the motor this weekend. Dont know what work wants me to do. I would say next week or week after next I can get to maiden the bird. I want to run at least a gallon through the motor before i bring the plane up.

Rcfury, just a suggestion,you may want to check the prop for balance. The vibration can damage the airframe quickly

Awesome Brad! Be sure to keep us up to date during your assembly. I always enjoy reading other peoples opinions, and gathering all the tips and suggestions I can regarding Planes that I also own! Hope you find that the wait was worth it!

I know that alot of Flyers will disagree with me, but this is the very reason I like to break-in my Engines mounted on the Plane. Gives me a chance to see how the engine acts on the Plane, and to check to see what is going to shake loose. I own a couple engine test stands, but seldom use them. I just make sure to mount my Plane up high off the ground in my Airplane Stand that I have to keep from working up dust and stuff. I also take alot of safety precautions in case a firewall would decide to give under stress, and I also strap my Plane in the workstand, and secure it down. If I am going to waste 1 1/2 gallons of nitro on a break-in, I just figure that this is a good time to kill two birds with one stone and see how the engine is going to effect the Airplane while mounted. This saves me alot of fuel later, because I don't think it is a good idea to go right from the test stand and right to the airplane, and then right to the air. Something is bound to shake loose! I would prefer to catch these potential problems before I put the airplane in the air.

Brad-A,

I guess that's Canadian - Brad ey? <g>

I'm jealous you got your VF Edge. I expect mine soon. Weatherman says bad weather for flying here this w/e. It would sure be nice for my plane to come tomorrow (Friday) so I could get a good start on the assembly over the w/e.

Fellas here have sure posted a lot of good tips.

Don d, those nylon landing gear bolts must have saved the plane! I tried 6-32 bolts initially but they seemed a little too weak, so I gave it up. Are you using bigger screws or the same?

I used some glass cloth and epoxy to reinforce the landing gear plate. Used 1/4-20 nylon bolts with nutplates. Gear handles all but the roughest landings. Shears the bolts on the crashes!!!

Don

You make it sound like you have done that a few times Don. LOL

Thanks for the specs on those parts. Those cf rods sound perfect.
Got an email back from VF today. They told me I'd be looking at somewhere around the middle of Feb for my Edge.
Was simply perfect here today. 60s,,, wind 5mph and under. I really enjoyed myself after work. Sat begins the cold again.

(Off topic just a little. Maybe not.)
Speaking of cold,,,,I've always kept my planes out in the shop. This winter got too cold to work out there with just a small heater.
I know I screwed one plane up by epoxying the tail section, waiting for it to kick and turning off the heater and going in for the night. The cold contracted it off by 1/8" or better. Anyway,,,, I've brought a few electric ARFs in recently to go over them.
One is a nice little Wattage Bipe with a PJS1000 brushless. Flew great a few weeks ago. Yesterday I flew it after keeping it in the house over the cold spell and it pulled so hard to the left only full right trim "aileron" were needed just to get it down in one piece.
Can this wing warpage be fixed with my heat gun? Or is there another trick one of you might share with me ?

Thanks for the info guys. Counting the weeks till my VF 540 arrives.[&:]

Everyone,

The H9 CF rods for the Funtnan90 are 18 inches long and are .098 in diameter and are solid rods not hollow. They weigh 1.5oz at the 18 inches for both

Thats one of the reasons why i like to break my engine on the plane. granted it does a little more effort to bring the stuff out. It also gives me an idea on the best way to start it etc. I now know that i gotta loctite those screws and bolts.. I may take the prop off and check the balance again but, i dont think thats it. I spent an hour on that god for saking prop to balance out. Ill wait and see what happends when i further run the motor.
I kinda like the carbon fiber rod idea. May have to try that out some time. Telling ya trying to solder the joints for the flying wires was a bear. But looks very nice.

Wow,

My first time with a chance to check the thread and almost 20 new posts. I am glad that a few more have joined us. Hopefully they can use dome of this extremely helpful info that's being posted.

Bill, can you take a couple of pics of the tail braces made with carbon rods? I would really like to see how it is done.

Later...

I got a chance to get a couple of sorties in before dark yesterday afternoon. Still using the 15x8MAS on my Saito 120, but I changed over to Dubro 3" rubber wheels. My landings were still a bit hot for my taste, but at least with the rubber wheels, the bounce and balloon was nullified. In flight, I am having a problem holding a steady knife edge. She tends to tuck unnder and drop when I lay her on a straight 90 degrees over. This happens in either direction. Some of it may be me, I will have to more testing to make sure I am not a factor in this issue. Low inverted passes were amazing easy. Inverted altitude control is a breeze given the elevator is very sensitive. Expo at 40% really helps smooth it out. Rolls are very axial and stop instantly in any attitude desired with the aileron high rates now set to 1" up and 3/4" down. I noticed that inlanding, I was flairing the plane much too soon, causing it to baloon and land a bit hard. Now I wait until I am in the last foot of air before starting a more gentle flair . The ground effect then takes over and pulls it on down. The more I fly this bird, the more fun it gets.[8D]