Guess I'll have to get out the camera for this one. The muffler is stock and since I didn't go absolutely inverted it aims straight out the bottom of the cowl. I haven't trimmed the cowl for it yet but should get that done after dinner.

You can also see my wing fix in the pics.

God bless,

-BunnMan

The funny thing was, when i was doing some research on here i saw your posts on the cline reg. Actually the thing im worried about it since im using the Saito Flex pipe (with pressure tap) that it wont be enough to pressure the regulator enough to make it work.
Bunman: I was thinking of position the motor that way but, the way i was thinking it would have hacked the cowl too much than before. Im also amazed on how much the redesigned fuse has changed.

To much hackin' for ya? [:-]

After fitting the cowl over a totally inverted mototr and then this way, this allowed me the least hacking. Even more important to me was the exhaust angle. Hoping to keep the oil off the plane. This TT seems awfully large for a .91 and it is certainly WAY heavy at a little over 26oz. I think I'm going to get serious about a Saito 125. Gotta get that new cowl ordered...hopefully it aint too late!

God bless,

-BunnMan

I've used an Iron Bay regulator on my inverted Saito... works great... it doesn't need much back pressure... it allows the pressure to build up in the tank and just takes what it needs....

It was worth every penny.....


bunn... just my .02, but I don't recommend using a plastic spinner on a 4 stroke engine... it WILL break.... seen it happen many times (2 of them were mine)
I use Tru-Turn aluminum...

Just my humble opinion

i think itll work just fine rc,the tap is close enough to the top that i think itll be ok!!, if not im screwed too because im ordering the same pipe for my 100 to go on my ucd and if it dont work i can always tap my crankcase, you just have to use a "T" fitting and put the check valve just on the other side of the "T" (straight across) and then have a open line to the atmosphere on the bottom of the "T" out the bottom just like a normal vent!this will create enough pressure to operate the cline and still allow flow for the oil to get to the bottom end

Bunnman, i kinda like that mount, gives me something to think about
about how far off is the tank centerline from the from the spraybar?

gjeffers,

OK, you got me...you used terms I don't know yet . I'd love to answer your question but don't know what or where the spraybar is so if you could educate me a little? I've been out of the hobby for 12 years or better and don't recal that one. If you mean the tank centerline and carb/needle is fairly well dead on as best I can tell.


Hehehhe, ready to maiden this bird tomorrow! Got everything checked and double checked except for getting the engine running right. Ran out of daylight before I got done tweakin' it. Had to add 5/8oz. lead to the left wingtip to balance laterally and 2 7/8oz. to the tail to balance at 4" with a half tank of juice. I'd love to get a total weight but can't figure how to weigh it. Give y'all a report tomorrow night I hope.

God bless,

-BunnMan

'perciate the tip on the spinner exeter, picked up and installed a Tru-Turn today. Man was that alot of money for a spinner! I learned theat the Great Planes adapters work very well with the Tru Turn and are $10 less than Tru Turn's adapters. If only they would have had a 2 3/4" spinner in Great Planes I would have saved another ten bucks.

I just looked back and noticed my Edge got delivered on the 26th. That's just nine days ago and I had to work this past weekend. I can't believe that, I figured this thing would take much longer...maybe I better go tripple check everything...

God bless,

-BunnMan

yea Bunnman, spraybar is the middle of the carb where the needle is

goodluck on maiden!!

Bunnman,,,, you might want to try this before you fly today.
Put in a 1/4 tank of fuel , maybe a little more. Have a buddy hold the plane upright as you throttle up to full.
Dial the high speed needle in while the plane is pointed vertical. Shut down and fill the tank .
You may be a tad rich but it's better than a new engine deadstick. The reason for the partial tank fill is to emulate what the tank's back pressure will be doing when you get to that fuel level in flight. As your fuel goes down the air pressure increases in the tank leaning out your engine. Plus anytime you dial a motor in on the ground it will lean out when you fly. Lean engine = deadstick.
Especially on a new motor.
Don't forget to do a range check with and without the engine running. Keep some throttle on during final. If she comes in too fast everytime move the CG back a half inch and see if that helps. What ever you do ,,, resist the urge to float her in on landing. This Edge will slow down to a crawl so pretty but will fall straight out of the sky if you lose the wing lift. Never had a tip stall once so far.
But I have replaced the alum gear with the nylon DuBro because of the slow speed stall. Did not add weight to my wingtip for lateral balance. Still falls straight down if flown too slow without power.

Relax. Double check everything. Get the plane trimmed out and start thinking about your landing.
Good luck !!!!! And keep us posted.

Tell me about it (but it will be safer) I just bought a spinner for my gas powered yak.... $60 for a prop and $100 for a carbon spinner![:@]

well my edge shipped and should be here by wed, man this is gonna be a long half week!!

these guys at vector flight are a great bunch, i couldnt stand it anylonger and shot an e-mail to them sat night and John shot one back almost immediatly, wow!!

i guess im gonna have to put my 100 in her to fly untill i get my 125 im ordering and just use my second cowl for it.

here are some things that im putting in it:

jr pcm r770 reciever

2.75 tru turn

dubro pinned hinges

dubro tailwire kit

2 hi tech hs645's for rud and ele

hi tech hs85mg for throttle

this is gonna be great

oh hey, i have 1000 posts now[8D]

hey, you guys that have your planes, do they ship airmail?? i ask because John said that it would leave Detroit monday and be here by Wednesday, man that would have to be on a jet!!

VF ships by ground, I bet now they are trying to sell their stock off right now that shipping times have been much quicker. Start collecting building tools and equip and by the time the bird arrives you'll be ready to build.

thanks Nathan, i have all the thing i need to start and am ready, and hope their right about wednesday, but that seems too good to be true, even if i have to wait till thurs or friday i guess ill live, (i hope)

i have some pictures like your avitar

Nothing like a little epoxy can fix. haha. so what was the cause? dumb thumbs?

Wow,,, look at that desert landscape. I have always wondered if you guys from CA or AZ, etc have to use air filters on all your planes. (?) Does the sand and dry lake bed dust effect your carb/motor? I guess we have about as much dust laying around in the grass. You can sure see it blow out of the grass when you first start your engine in the pits. Then you don't see much the rest of the day cuz you've blown it all away from your fueling area. Just a little dead grass blowin. We use to be a dust bowl here long ago. The red clay on the top soil can be very harmful on a small engine.
(UCD.46) Don't feel bad !! I had to dig my Saito.72 out of the ground one time after coming out the wrong way in a low inverted loop.[X(] Also had the tail break off another one at half throttle. Landed a little hard was all. The UCD is unlike any other plane.
Really gives you a feeling of confidence. Unfortunatly that is what often turns them into broken sticks. And what you do with your DO,,,should usually not be tried with a regular ARF. "OUCH"!

Back to the VF Edge...... Bunnman ???? Maiden report ?
You should see mine guys. It is on the lab table stripped down to only the motor and tank. I have mentioned before my belief that the Edge has too much weight in the fuse for the light wings. The fact that my VF Edge540 weighs the same as my 120 sized 540-T should be proof enough for anyone. So,,,, I'm putting my VF on a diet. If it could be removed,,, I removed it. If it could be sanded I sanded it. If it could still be strong with added lightning holes I drilled lightning holes. Moved the HiTech Super Hi-torque rudder servo to the tail. Removed the pilot figure. Replaced the Futaba3004 throttle servo with a HS81 mini. Removed the wood battery and RX supports. Sanded several mm of nylon from the DuBro landing gear and repainted it with a light coat of Monokote brand paint.
Exchanged the heavy DuBro tires for some light weight foam wheels. Drilled lightning holes in the 3 ply of firewall wood I used to beef up the gear block and cowling. (Left the wood in the gear block but the underside of the cowl was too thick and heavy.)
Removed the checkerboard vinyl decals from the belly and any other heavy decals. Replaced the steel wing joiner bolt with an aircraft alum bolt.

TOTAL WEIGHT LOSS SO FAR: 1lb 3oz

Hang one of those new Saito 1.25s off the front and I bet this thing will be a totally differant plane.

I'll get some pics ASAP of my mods.

I never changed out the wheels, I kept the foam ones. It doesn't seem all that heavy to me until you get the wings on and ready to fly - then, you can really feel how heavy this airplane is.

Sorry I been so long on the maiden report...busy weekend.

Anyway, maiden went well enough I guess as its all back looking as beautiful as it did when I left with it. I do have some tuning to do though. I left it a little nose heavy and that showed on the first flight as I needed a lot up up trim. This plane is definately a high performance bird! Take not all you folks building right now...a little attention to detail on the building table will go a long way on the flight line with this baby. Seems that it will be a very crisp and precise plane once I get the kinks ironned out. First and worst problem was the airlerons. I am having some trouble getting my Tracker III computer radio set up right...more on that later. ROll rate was plenty fast even on low rates with total deflection (high rate) set to 3/4" up and 1/2" down with sealed hinge line. Elevator REAL responsive set to factory spec, never went to high rate. Rudder set to factory spec had very little authority in flight. Tinkered with it for over an hour in the pits...moved battery as far back as I could, tried to figure out aileron/flaperon coupling/differential/rate/reversing/...yadda...yadda...yadda, moved rudder clevis two holes in to the very inside hole on the horn. Second flight I attempted some manuevers. Rolls fairly axial (still some radio setup trouble here), went a little too far with the battery - seemed a bit tail heavy and would pitch up and climb when I cut the throttle on approaches. Rudder has plenty of authority, snaps and Lomchevaks (still need practice) a blast. Inverte with no down input at all and even seemd to climb a little here and there (like I said...a little tail heavy) . Knife edge sucked needing lots of aileron and elevator input. Landed fast to avoid any ill effect form the tail heavy condition, came in nice and soft.

She sure drew a lot of attention from onlookers and fellow pilots and the field. Most were very disapointed that the VF Edge won't be available for a while (hear that John?)

Got her home and moved the battery more towards the front again. Was thinking about the knife edge problem and decided to add in the extra right thrust that my cowling has been suggesting, now the spinner plate sits in perfect alignment with the cowl. I dunno if that affects knife edge but figured I'd best match up all the designed angles before making any more changes. Also could have been the added rudder throw causing a little snap/rollout effect. The elevator would do that when applied hard at high speed, will double check elevator halves with a straigh edge instead of just the naked eye this time.

Now to the aileron problem...I set up flaperons during the build to help with the landing problems some have mentioned. This requires one aile servo plugged into chan 1 and the other into chan 6. Supposedly the radio takes care of the rest. Seems the software in the radio automatically reverses one servo but my install doesn't need that so I reversed chan 6 in the menu to get the ailerons to move right. I had set up my up/down differential mechanically because that's the way we did it in the "old" days. After reading the radio manual I decided to set the servo arms square with the pushrods and try to set it all up in the radio. Problem there was that the servos weren't moving the same in both directions. Arms would move 3/8" (measured at outside hole) in one direction and 1/2" in the other. I had to set "sub trim" to the total opposite of default on both channels to get the arms to move the same in both directions. That got the ailerons moving the same up and down (compared to one another) but the differential didn't match my desired throws. So I tried to set "flap differential" but it applied differently to each side. Centerpoint wouldn't change but max up and down were different side to side. SO I cheated by going back to 50% differential (same up and down) and setting differential mechanically with arm position then having to adjust endpoint setting on chan 1 and now I have at desired throw within 1/16" of each other. This still isn't good enough to make me happy and I sure shouldn't have to go through all that nonsense to make this work. Gonna give Polk a call and find out what da heck.

God bless,

-BunnMan

Sturtz: Wow you really sure are modding the plane. Yes i can agree the VF edge is a little pig. I know after my little mod session that i gained a little weight. Really would like to see some pics of your finished result. Did you drill some lightening holes in the fuse area aft of the canopy. Im thinking that area has a lot of un-needed wood. As more myself im just going to fly the plane. So far i probally only flown this plane like 50 times and the rest of the time its been laying in pieces on my workbench (ping pong table).
I did see your thread on your 120 size edge, did you fly it yet? Im saving my coins right now, for either the BME edge II or the wildhare edge.

Good sitrep Bunn. That gold trim looks even better out in the open field. I use Futaba radios so I'm not much help on the programming problem. I have learned that you should balance this bird upright and inverted . Then choose the position that the plane falls off the balance point the slowest to do the final CG. Balance it with the tank empty!!

Yup,,, I've been going crazy here with the Dremel tool and the drill and saw. Finished the bottom of the cowl today. Removed over 5 oz of unwanted fat from that alone. Plane with Saito100 weighed in at 8LB 8oz. Plane with OS.91FX (which is heavier) weighs in at 7LBs even. With nothing but the engine, rudder servo in the tail, elev push rods, tail wheel and landing gear/wheels and pants left on this thing I could lift it by the landing gear and it would nose forward. After removing all that excess wood in front of the landing gear area it now falls back to the tail when picked up by the gear. That is a big differance when you can get results like that.
I just now picked the VF fuse up to make room for my 120 and freaked on how light it is now. After proper CG'ing and adding the Futaba 3010s on elevator and ailerons w/6.0volt battery I already know what this plane is gonna do. Slower approaches without that sudden fall from the heavier fuse weight. KE will be much cleaner with less coupling. Rudder inputs (yaw) will be twice as crisp with less mass to move side to side and with the servo closer to the surface. Loops will be smoother and less likely to snap . Vertical is gonna be a hoot after sheading all this fat. The only true weight in the wings is the joiner and the servos. Because they are not sheeted the foam retains it's lightness. And I truely believe that was the only fault in the whole plane's flight character. The wings love to fly. Get your CG too forward and try a fast landing to see what I mean. Better have plenty of space to settle down with.
Balanced perfectly and with less weight in the fuse and this thing should be the nimble power house it was mean't to be.

Nathan,, I have flown the 120 540T and can tell already that the thing will hover just a hair over 1/4 throttle. Yes,,, I over powered it with the Super Tigre G2300 and the 18x6 prop. On the maiden flight I found out why they say to have lower than low rates ready in case of an over responsive plane. Talk about PUCKER FACTOR +++ !! I managed to relax and do the trimming on the middle rates but flicked the switch to low quickly after. LOL... Gonna be a 3/D machine from hell. Hopefully I can handle it. Used 25% expo,, will raise that by another 10% next time out. I had to cut the maiden short because of the G2300 losing power. I ordered a Perry Carb and it came today. I'm hoping it will make the break-in period a little less nerve racking cuz I sure would hate running several gallons of high-$$ nitro through it while it sits in a tail stand. I wanna fly that fuel !!! Not watch it blow out the exhaust .

Nathan, yep, dumb thumbs on the 60 size alright, comming out of knife at about 30 ft off the deck and forgot i was on high rates and rolled out right too far and wound up inverted and freaked out till it hit the ground
the 46 was a catostrofic failure of the left main wing(notice its not in the picture)[X(]

sturtz, no problem with the air, we actually have really clean air as long as the winds stay below 20 mph so we are ok, thats one of the reasons i start it on my truck gate and not on the groundwhich is a little dusty sometimes but not real bad, see all the clean air in the pics

Sturtz...

This is the second or third time you have mentioned that the wings "Are Not Sheeted".

Could you please explain this....I mean the wings aren't just foam with UltraKote sealed over them.

What do you define as "Sheeted"

I.E. Balsa sheeted Foam Core...or something else entirely.

THanks

Larry

Got ya Larry,,,,, ok,,, They are vinyl covered foam wings. But very tough and much lighter than balsa sheeted foam or built up wood . (Spars, stringers, wingtips, ribs and roots.)

Kurt,

Balance with an empty tank??? I always figured it best to balnce with a little more than a half tank to simulate the average weight of fuel in a flight. That way you'd spend the front of the flight a tad on the nose and the rear of the flight a tad on the tail. I was aiming for the magic 4" with half a tank or so. The CG on this bird travels noticeably with a changing fuel load due to the long nose. Right now I am at about 4 1/4" with a bone dry tank.

I talked to Polk today and got more squared away about the flaperons. Their radio still doesn't work as well as they claim it to but he explained the function of some of the settings so that I could wrap my brain around them a little better and now the aileron throws are set identical. The up/down differential has to be set mechanically as their electronic handling of the issue is maybe a hare short of useless.

I learned why y'all have been putting graphics on the bottom while playing with high rates and snap rolls on the second flight this past Saturday. Fortunately I stayed two mistakes high and pulled her on around without incident...just a little vertigo and butterflies [:-]. I picked up some vinyl letters at a local kraft store so I could apply a little help to keep myself oriented, I think this oughtta do it...