Guys,

More flight report and pics.

Nice flying day at our field and I flew the VF Edge 3 times. Enjoying it very much. One mishap, over ran the end of the runway on the first flight - landed hot - left thumb froze up and Edge went into the high grass. Seemed innocent enough, but I was surprised to find that all four nylon 1/4 x 20 bolts securing the landing gear had sheared off. I didn't have blind nuts on the inside so it took a lot to get the gear back on. Fortunately a club member with skinnier fingers and more patience than I helped me out.

I'm finally getting the idle of the Saito down where it ought to be and actually came in too slow on the final landing of the day and she just dropped the last foot, hitting kinda hard. Had to bend the gear back out.

Hey, ez2bgman....whatever happened to the custom belly pans?

Jon:
Looking at your belly pan.. Im kinda digging your mod. I can see how you mounted the rear half, what did you do to the front? Did you just epoxy some wooden dowels on the belly pan and put them through the holes in the front former? Can you post a pic of the bottom of your belly pan please so i can get exactly what you did.. I kinda think i may resort to your way of mounting the belly pan. Kinda ingenious idea.
For what you said i decided to order those wheel pants, and see if i can get those to work out. First i kinda need to fly my plane first. Nothing is working out. A big war between work and weather, and the latter is winning.

Grats on more successful flights, Jon. Your belly pan looks great. Is that the factory pan or did you make your own?

Grelker, sorry for the delay, but I haven't had the spare time. My department switched me to weekends for the time being. And it seems that I always have things to do when I am off during the week. I will try to get something together soon and let you know.

Once my new cowl comes in, my Edge will be ready to burn up the sky again. I am hoping for a smoother flying plane with the O.S. 91FX since I should be losing some of the weight that I added.

Later guys.

ez2bgman
The 91FX will fly the plane just fine IMHO Mine weighs 8 pounds 4oz RTF less fuel. With my Magnum 91XLS the plane will go up out of sight at full throttle. I had a 15x5 Zinger on it and overheating was a problem switched to an APC 14x6 and no more overheating but it is still chilly here so i opened up the cowl a little on the bottom and made the front air hole a little bigger also for summer.

I have found that i like the elevator set to high rate all the time and use 25% expo. I have the rudder set to full deflection with 30% expo and the ailerons are set to high rate always with 15% expo. Im sure these settings will change as i get more accustomed to this plane.
At the moment though snap rolls are almost to fast to even see[8D].
When i pull vertical the plane will start leaning left and will continue to head left unless i feed in rudder to stop it. I don't think it's me but it could be. I have only been flying 3 1/2 years and just started this aerobatic stuff last august with a funtana 40 so its still all pretty new to me. Stall turns are real easy with this plane though. I can get one good loop but three loops in a row is still impossible for me. I find this plane tracks straight down the runway like its on rails. I can fly it anywhere i want it to go but doing it smoothly takes work. A few things i like about the funtana better is this. When you cut the throttle the plane slows down fast. With the edge when i cut throttle it does not slow down very well. It seems like the funtana will float around better then the edge. I think these two differences are because of the wing design.
Sorry for rambling but it's late and im bored.

Pat

Nathan,

>>Looking at your belly pan.. Im kinda digging your mod. I can see how you mounted the rear half, what did you do to the front? Did you just epoxy some wooden dowels on the belly pan and put them through the holes in the front former?<<

This is Gary's basic design and it came out ok for my first effort at scratch building anything, I'd like to try it again and see if I can get it to fit a little better - but it keeps goop out of radio compartment just fine.

Attached are pics showing the dowels and the crappy covering job I did. Note that the dowels are tapered to make insertion easier. If you make one, note that that the center former of belly pan has to clear the factory former that spans the opening when attaching the pan. Next time I'd put the belly pan former an inch or so in front of the factory former. Notches were cut in the factory former for the spars.

Looks like a good job to me Jon. If it works then it's a good one.

Bankyank, you should be able to correct the left tendency by providing right thrust on the engine. It's caused by the torque generated by your engine. Since I haven't received my edge yet, I don't know how much right thrust is provided by the factory mount. Usually, 2 degrees is fairly standard, but you may need more. A small washer placed under the engine mount on the left mounting bolts may do the trick. For reference, in a 7" length, 2 degrees is a 1/4" offset.

As near as I could determine, the firewall was installed square with the fuse on my VF Edge 540. I put washers under one side of the mount to give it a bit of right thrust.

Very early in this thread, someone posted pics of their plane with polished landing gear. I polished mine today and it's impressive. I wet sanded grits 200 through 600 and then used MAAS polishing creme for a mirror finish. Took a couple of hours but well worth it. Now I'm working on my Tru Turn Spinner. It takes more sanding to get those concentric marks out and you have to be careful not to bend the spinner.

Nathan. I started work on the GP wheel pants today, and the aforementioned part # is the one you want.

jon

Hey guys,

Not to jump off the VF Edge subject, but I just wanted to show a couple of pics of my latest plane. It's a completely scratch built SPAD (Simple Plastic Airplane Design) that I kinda modeled after my VF Edge 540. I plan on using this plane when the conditions aren't ideal for flying my VF. I had a blast making this plane.

Jon, that belly pan looks great. For the center former, I removed it entirely and glued in a piece of 1/2" balsa square in it's place for structural rigidity. The main reason the former sticks out is to help shape the factory belly pan when it is mounted.

I would definitely add at least one washer on both bolts between the left side of the engine mount and the firewall. There is no right or down thrust built into the fuse at all. I also added one washer under the top right to give it a bit of down thrust to help combat the ballooning effect on landing.

I should have my new cowl very soon.

I will stay in touch and post some new pics of the plane with the O.S. 91FX mounted.

Later.

Jon: the polished landing gear is what you saw earlier was from me. Just something you may want to do is put a little car wax on it, so i wont oxidize so easily. After a month of doing it my LG became real cloudy. Aluminum oxidizes really easily. I just re- wetsanded the LG with 1000 grit sandpaper and put a thin coat of car wax to keep it from oxidizing so soon.
Let me know how the wheel pants go. I just ordered the same pants you showed me. Should get them in this wednesday. Gotta love working at a hobbyshop.
Speaking of.... Dont know if everyone cares but, i was promoted from assit manager to the full manager at Hobby Town. YEAAAAAAAH

Another way to add some right thrust is to program a mix in your Tx. In some ways this is better. It is what many of the TOC pilots do. Put 1% right into the engine mount with a washer and the rest using a throttle to rudder mix if you have a computer radio (2% right at full throttle and 1% left at idle). If you are interested in more details on how to do this just let me know. I use this mix on my VF Edge 540 and the up lines are dead straight and you do not get the reverse yaw when you slow down quickly either. I like my VF Edge, just took some getting used to. Watch that tip-stall on landings. Keep the speed up a bit.

Still would like to get one of those belly pans.

Cheers. Ron[8D]

Hmm I do have 2 degrees rught thrust in the engine with washers behind the mount and measured with a incedance meter and the fin is straight. I'll be flying again in a day or two and will figure it out then. I do like the idea of using the radio to dial it in better though.

Rbgunner:
I understand what your saying Could you explane it more though so i can be sure i understand it fully?

Ron, Im also interested in the throttle and rudder mixxing. Actually thinking of it, i think it may work pretty good.

Just wanted to let everyone know that VectorFlight Planes are back on Sale! $149.99 for the VectorFlight Egde and Extra 300. Awesome prices!

I am thinking of getting one. How about a crash kit version of these. Like a helicopter thing where you order a kit of what usualy only get's hurt for replacement. In this case a regular ARF less a few items like, fuel tank, landing gear, wheels, axels, maybe some hardware or something along theses lines any way. Could lower the price a fair amount and help keep the customers coming back. And a guy wouldn't feel so bad about planting one. What ya think??????

Thanks ck! Just ordered two spare ones, Edge and Extra as backups just in case!! couldnt help it at those amazing prices. Its a total steal! Yooohooo!!! Now where to stash em!!

Eagle: Well as it may sound like a good idea for a crash kit. I dont think it may work our all that well. If you think of it. Almost 80% of the time the plane could be a total loss or fixable with major work. Helicopters are usually made of a carbon fiber or plastic or both but, planes being light is made from balsa. Balsa and crashes dont mix very well. Hardware like axles and stuff could have a better chance to survive but, are replaceable at the LHS.

If I had a local hobby shop that might work. The closest one worth visiting for me is 100 miles away. 200 round trip. It's easier and A LOT cheaper to pay for shipping. So why not have it set up to make the job easier and less expensive at the same time????????? Less than $20 shipping for the plane. Government use to figure travel expenses at $.40 a mile back when gas was less than half what it is now. That makes it some where in the area of a $100 for me to run to the LHS. Doesn't add up.
Gas
tires
insurance
repairs
maintence
depreciation
and the one thing I don't have, TIME

yeah if a LHS isn't local than that could be a little problem then. I see why you ask for one. I bet tower gets some good business with you.

You don't want to know!
I went and ordered 2 Edge 540's, 66". $149 + shipping each. Good price for a quality unit. But I am all out of engines. Might have to wait till I plant one. But I do have a 4* 60 with a TT 90 FS in it that is about due to be retired. It has had a long hard life, but still going. Maybe an excuse for a new engine.

Guess what guys ??
Yup,,, (Edge540) arrived today.

Eagle: 2 VF edges, I sence some love there... One for back up i take it? Anyway the price is great. I would get the extra but, my GF cant justify another plane in my hanger. "isn't one enough?"

Sturtz: Congrats, i bet you felt excited when you saw that big brown box next to your door! You would enjoy building it.

Fury, it's time to upgrade from GF Version 2.0 to version 2.5. The "Isn't _________ enough" programming has been removed. Insert what you want in the blank........such as, "one airplane", "one time per night", "one girlfriend", "one motorcycle", etc.

I think I would dump the GF and get another plane. Lifes too short to have a GF that can't find a way to justify another plane!LOL My wife says we need to build another room to store my planes.

Bob