Well with my experience a forward CG will require you to come in at a faster speed to keep from stalling. With the CG now at 4" it will probally make the landings a little easier, since you didn't have to bring the plane as fast. To rear of a CG could cause the plane to pourpose (sp) a little upon landing. Then again you should check that out at a few mistakes high.
I like to try to fly my planes at perfect cg my checking out the flight while inverted, or at a 45 deg bank. I keep on changing the CG a little each time so it requires little or no up elevator to keep it flying straight.

I finished up with the break in portion of the Magnum 91 FSR engine on the stand today. At least I hope it is. Ran close to 3 hours with varied throttle settings. Not much WOT though. Didn't want to annoy the neighbors too much. Used 1/2 gallon plus of fuel. Transition isn't as nice as I would like to see it yet. But that will get better. With 5% nitro and 20% oil it ran 9200 peaked. With 15% nitro and 18% oil it was 9500 peaked. Had hoped for more of a rpm increase than that. Using a MA 14x6 prop. This is my first experience on a four stroke with the recirculating waste oil back thru the engine. Any thing different about them or little quirks as compared to a Saito maybe?
Now I am waiting for the planes to show up. Haven't asked lately what their schedule is.
Can any one tell me how much lateral balace weight it took with a 91 fs mounted horizontally? Thanks

It shouldn't run a lot of rpms yet . Especially while break in under extra rich conditions. You are running it on the rich side aren't you ?

Blurbling rich to start with. First couple minutes needed a glow driver. This engine tunes quite differently than my Saitos it seems. The low side needle isn't as sensitive. The high side one will go from peaked to easily heard rpm drop with only a couple clicks. Much more sensitive. I peaked it only a few times shortly for courosity. Rpm hasn't changed since the first time I did it.
Still needs more time to reach a point that it will easily tune. A little more time on the stand with the 15% nitro now to do that.
If it comes around like all my Saitos have it will be a good one.
For what it's worth I opened up the engine to inspect the internals before starting it. Found nothing that shouldn't be there!! Valves were set good from the factory. After about 2 hours run time though they were getting loose. Not unusual though. I reset them. Which brings up the only things I found that I would like to see changed. These engines don't come with a feeler gage or tappet wrenches. Saito has spoiled me there. And their tappets use a flat blade instead of a hex wrench. And they don't come with a glow plug. I used what I think was an older factory supplied Saito plug. They weren't the best back then. So maybe an OS F or Fox Miracle will help it out some.

Wish I could report more on the flight qualities of this Edge. But it seems the Saito-100 I got such a good deal on isn't such a good deal after all. Major valve trouble .

Kurt,

That's too bad about your Saito. I had trouble with a sticky valve when mine was fairly new. I had run several tanks through it before it suddendly quit starting. One of the engine wizards at the field tore into it and found a bur on the inside of one of the sleeves that the push rod slides in. He scrounged around and found a drill bit that fit exactly and used the bit to debur the sleeve. Worked like a charm.

Have no idea if you have a similar problem, just wanted to share that experience.

jon

Thanks for the info Jon. Plus that is a good one to put into the (WHAT COULD BE WRONG HERE.) Book.
But my problem is simply a worn out Saito I'm afraid. For instance one of the valve adjusters is torqued down to it's max. Meaning,,,,,it's been adjusted about all it can be after it started to wear out. On the other hand,,,,the engine has plenty of compression. So maybe my repair costs will be low. A buddy suggested sending it to Horizon Hobby's certified Saito Repair Center.
Guess I'll send my .72 and get it looked at as well before the season really gets going.
In the meanwhile,,,, I could steal my .91FX from my Spit and get some time on this VF Edge.

My Saito 100 is my first 4 stroke so im still getting used to it. I ran in the motor on the plane, well about 50 minutes or so and between weather and time i still havn't tuned the motor in. Had a severe vibration problems which some of it was the prop, rest of it dont know yet, Had my fuel tank sprung a leak (actually exploded), and had a pretty harsh hanger crash. With my luck im affraid of bringing the plane up.

So guess im in the same boat as you sturtz...

Guys,

Here's more pictures on a landing gear rip-out repair. I sent damge pics to John at VF and he recommended replacing the portion of 1/4" ply that was damaged and overlaying it with another piece of 1/4" ply.

Rep00.jpg is after crash damage.

Rep01.jpg is after cutting out a section of 1/4" ply along with new piece of 1/4" ply ready to be installed. Note that the original "wings" of the balsa sheeting were removed.

Rep02.jpg shows the new piece of 1/4" ply plate epoxied in place.

Rep03.jpg shows the new overlay piece of 1/4" ply in place with the 1/4x20 tap. Being a belt and suspenders kind of guy, I added five 1/2" #2 screws. Epoxy was also liberally applied inside the fuse. Note that the plywood pieces were cut and sanded to roughly match the fuselage contour in place of the balsa sheeting "wings".

All that remains is puttying up some gaps on the edges and fuelproofing.

Great job Jon !! I think you and I should be able to survive a few hard landings now . Our LG platforms have both been improved in everyway now. And yes,,, I think mine is strong enough to hold up while the four nylon screws will sheer off.
Plus if you really want to soften the landings try the big fat wheels that John from(VF) suggested to me.

If those 1/4" plates rip out now it will be time to break out the Glad bag. I hope that I've added enough weight so that I don't have to add lead like I had up there before.

Trust me on this ......... the nylon landing gear by Du-Bro will give you all the nose weight you need.
Plus if you go with the 4"inches even on CG as John from VF has suggested you'll probably be right on the money.
Mine balanced perfectly.
SAITO-100

[quote]ORIGINAL: Sturtz

I leave you guys alone for a few days and you are maiden flying Planes, Upsetting Planes, Waiting on Planes, and repairing Planes! LOL You guys have been busy!

On the subject of the wheel pants. Ive been using thick Plastic Sig Pants on mine. They are alot heavier thn alot of other Pants, but they are super stout, and nothing short of a whooping pancake landing should take them out. I am even using oversized Pants on mine. They are 1/4 scale pants to hide my larger Dubro Wheels.

I hope everyone is enjoying thier VF Edge as much as I am enjoying mine.

Well I think im the only one who hasn't maidened my plane. This is getting sorry. I have no field to fly at since ours is closed for repairs. The only thing i can tell you the motor is running NICE!! It pulled my makeshift stake out of the groudn to hold the plane in. Freakin' stump puller...

Someone please post the location of a field close to RCFury so he can maiden his new plane ?

Stump Puller ? LOL !!! She's gonna pull right off the runway too . Mine jumps into the air. Not bad for an eight pound plane.
Still waiting for my engines to get back from Horizon's Saito repair. In the meanwhile I found the time to build my third UCanDo.46. This time I built-up the tail section, gear and engine block. Hopefully this one won't explode in mid-air.

Fury,,, if your ever out this way,,, our field is located at a Lake/Recreation park. You could camp,,, fly all day. Fish in the lake . Play a round of 18 hole golf. Then launch your float plane from the shallows across from the flying field.
The invite is open to all.
YEs,,, the photo is touched up a bit. I had this World Models J3 Cub .25-.32 I built last summer and had no buddies there to photograph it for me. So I went out to the field and took the shot from the pits and PhotoShop'd the Cubby in.
But I thought it was a nice shot of the field and lake.

Sturtz, Thanks for the invitation, your field looks awsome. Hate to get cought up in the drink (aka lake).. Yeah im hurting for a field.... I did locate another flying club but, its quite a drive for me. Its located on a private airstrip in some guys backyard. Yeah the guy is making BANK!!!! I think i rather dodge full scale aircraft then trying to sink below a power line on final. (ill have to post a CURRENT picture of the field right now..)
...Ok the saito isn't quite the stump puller but, gosh when i was tuning the motor up i had the tail held down with some rope which was then tied to a stake in the ground. Full throttle the tail rises up, and you could see the rope straining from the power.. Luckly i was near the plane when the stake started slowly rising from the ground..

Mine shipped on Wednesday! Mine Shipped!! and as I live just this side of Windsor, I should have it early next week!!


Weeeeee....


Carry on.........



Keep up the great work!

You are going to be in pure bliss when that big brown box arrives at the door. This plane was a blast to build with minor problems. If i had a problem VF emailed me with an answer within a couple of hours.
what motor are you planning to be tucked under the cowl?

Saito 100 for me....
and digital servos all around...just tried Digitals and I am hooked....
and a 6v Rx pack

yes, the digitals really DO make a difference.....


on a side note, When I recieved the Saito...I did the silly thing...and showed my wife (ooops!) I showed her the nice white box with the embossed letters...and her first comment (without even seeing the motor yet!) was....Hmmmm...That looks expensive![:@]


Do you think she is on to me yet??

you done it now... The first rule of RC is not show anything to your sinificant other. Im surprised she's not saying anything about the digitals. Well the digitals i had were more than my motor well after 4 of them.
If you have any problems with the plane post it here and we probally allready modified it or made it work. But of course VF will also have an answer with a relitive quickness..

The weather here since yesterday has been PERFECT ! (5 to 8 mph S-SE) I got several flights in on the VF Edge yesterday at my local field and enjoyed it so much I'm taking the day off and heading to Norman Okla and flying as a guest at another club.
The Saito-100 was repaired wonderfully and it will pull the Edge vertical with no problem. I really don't care about hovering this type of plane,, but it's good to know I could.
What can I say about how this plane flys ? I have 20+ flyable planes in my hanger. This is the best flying one in the bunch.
I've never had a plane that tracks this straight and feels this smooth. I rolled inverted yesterday with my thumb on the elevator waiting to add down pitch. No down elev needed. She flys just as straight inverted. I was impressed !
The landings were completely differant than before. After doing the modification to the gear block and adding the Dubro nylon gear and large low-bounce tires. (More importantly changing the CG to 4".) She lands like a trainer. In fact I bounced her once during a landing . Just a little bounce. But it shows that the plane wants to settle now. And the nylon gear really soaks up the impact.

The CG adjustment did two other things as well. One,, it seemed to make the controls more responsive. After my first flight I had to go back in and reset all my rates. The added end-point adj I had made to gain more up elev was no longer needed.
Secondly,,, the plane tracks much better now. Adds a new meaning to "ON A RAIL". I can't wait to get out and fly it again today.
I have two other brand new planes ready to maiden. And I won't be getting to them today because I enjoyed my Edge so much yesterday. The other ones can wait.

Well,,, gotta go. Daylights burning.

Sturtz: Thats great to hear that the plane handles that much better at 4" from leading edge. I was going to finally maiden my bird this sunday but, that went to junk now. Someone at work quit and i need to take up the slack.

I do have a question for anyone here. Why i just noticed it now which is sorry anyway... On my right aileron I think when i hinged it for the um-teenth billion time it seems to sit a tad higher then the leading edge of the wing. The whole aileron is straight but the top edge of the aileron just sits ubove the LE a little. Will this affect the flight much or should i leave it alone? I dont have a picture right now since im at work. I could probally hinge it again but dont know if i any TE left of the wing. once i get home ill take a picture of the wing to make this a little clearer. Hinging is one of my WORST enemies, I got spoiled building arfs that were allready pre-slotted for CA hinges.

OK like i promised... Here is some pictures of the wing, as you can see the aileron is sitting a little bit ubove the TE of the wing. Flyable or it would require a good amount of aileron trim to fix.

You know what you gotta do Fury. You just wanted someone to back you up on this right ?
It's gotta be straight and true to obtain pure flight. Otherwise you'll always know in the back of your mind that it's off.
It may fly with trim. But I know you want it right. Use a new blade on your hobby knife bro. Remove the entire aileron and carefully slice around the CA'd hinge. Cut some new ca hinges about 2 1/2 inches long and 1 inch wide. This way your using new slots along with the old. The trailing edge only has 1/2 of wood anyway. Running hinges any deeper is not only useless,,, but your then getting CA into the foam wing. CA + Foam = Bad .
I flew mine all day today. Went and visted another club's field. Many of the guys came over and asked what I was flying and commented on how good it looked in a knife-edge and how it seemed to track so well. The lettering on the bottom wing halves are readable at far distances too. This surprised me. I thought I'd have a tough time telling top from bottom. But I haven't been unsure once yet. The "LOS EDGE" really sticks out. And the landings just keep making me look better everytime.

I'll post a pic of the long yet shallow hinges that in my opinion work best on our 540s. Thier stronger by far doing them this way.
These pics were taken only minutes after I attached the ailerons. The glue residue you see in the pics went away after a few hours.
I used quite a bit and I guess it discolored the area until it cured and dried completely.

Yeah you know you are correct in all terms... I wanted to get this bird up in the air, so i was like i can get it maidened and then see if I could work the kinks out of it. Guess Ill be doing that this weekend since i got work instead. One of the quirks of working at a hobby shop...