Hey guys.... Im back!
Dont order the graphite gear. I made the mistake of doing it and regretted it. After about 5-6 flights I allready started getting seperating of fibers on the gear. Tried a little CA to hold it down and it started seperating at another location. Its lightweight but, its VERY brittle. If your not the greatest of landers i would reconsider. Plus the cost!!

Hiya Nathan !!! Good to see the old gang here.

You must have got a bad one . No problem with mine.
Will take a hard landing and spring right back.

If it ever does delaminate, use epoxy - not CA. That is what is recommended for repairs on CF gear.
I'll give it a try, $24.00 isn't that bad in my opinion.

I will still stand by the DuBro Nylon gear on the VF Edge if you ever even think you'll come in hard. I just can't believe how much that gear will take using four nylon 1/4" bolts. Check out that rough looking 3-pointer landing video back in this thread somewhere. I've flown the Edge on a few grass fields now too. Smooth as butta.
For those using the 91FX I found my perfect prop. 15x6APC.

If these don't work I'll switch over to those. After flying this plane I can see why people have used them to practice IMAC to some extent. It's a VERY precise airplane. The rolls stop exactly where you want them, etc. Breaks nice for spins too instead of just mushing over.

I wish they would come back so could know replacements were available but....[sm=crying.gif]

After re-shaping the gear after almost every landing, I switched to the Dubro nylon gear on my 66" VF Extra. Painted it white and it looks better than the original on this plane and it's indestructible!
Been using a Zinger 15-6 on my 91 fx. Works good for me.

Any body have a 66" VF Extra thet would like to sell?? NIB preferred

I always keep my eyes peeled to ebay or here in the RCU Marketplace for a NIB VF Edge to turn up, but no such luck as of yet! Lets just keep our fingers crossed that maybe they will return someday soon!

Glad to see you at the VF Edge 540 build thread again Nathan! Like old times around here lately! I just wished I had another NIB VF Edge sitting here that I could dig into putting together!

Six weeks ago there was a VF Edge on ebay NIB, no buyer. wanted $165.00. his ebay name was "theflycaster" you might e-mail him, see if he still has it.

Well to bad guys i had mine for sale a couple of times, now i have decided to build it. I dont care for the building instructions but quality is good. i think i messed up the alerion hinges

I was playing around with the engine mounting tonight...shimming for @ 2degree right and 1 degree down thrust....

I took a look and If I mount my YS as far rearwards as possible...the distance from the firewall to the back of the thrust plate on the engine shaft will be @ 5-1/2 Inches...

I hope that works out ok..because I can't think of any way to move it back anymore than that!

That extra 1/2 inch may play hell with ballance later....

But I don't think I have any other options....

Larry

Well....I'm getting further in to the build...and last night I started looking at the belly pan and the tail fairing...

I've seen some good pictures of someone starting a wood belly pan...but not of the completed item..or how it should be mounted...anyone have a few pics to share of a made bellypan??


I did find a nice picture of a tail fairing someone made from balsa..and that looks like an easy make item....


Thanks again
Larry

How about suggestions for another ARF similiar to this? I would like access to something should I loose mine. Preferably something with parts support. Thanks ..........

I have read some pretty good things about the Sky Shark edge that is close in size to the VF edge. The Sky Shark edge is around $100 more than what the VF Edges sold for though.
http://www.skysharkrc.com/edge540.htm

Got my graphtec CF gear installed tonight. Looks great! Thanks Sturtz!! It's actually shorter than the stock aluminum gear by about 1/4" but doesn't many any difference - plenty of prop clearance with a 14" prop.

How bout a photo there Shakes .

Please excuse the mess, I haven't cleaned up from my last project

Looks great!!!

Very nice Shakes !! How did you do the bolts ? That new gear should be one less worry when coming in on final now.



Why is it that even when your work area is clean and all squared away that the minute you start working on a project it always ends up a mess ? Everytime I start something on a clean work area I swear that I'm going to keep everything neat and orderly.
Yeah right ~~~~ LOL

The bolt pattern is the same, made a template and drilled out the CF gear - fit perfectly. I used bigger washers though so more pressure on a larger portion of the gear. My landings are usually pretty good so hopefully I won't rip the gear block out any time soon

I had my work areas cleaned up very nice about 2 weeks ago after I finished the big Yak but then ended up having to do some more work on it after the maiden. I now have crap strewn all over the place!! As soon as I finish up with the last bit of stuff I need to do with the Yak I'm starting on a profile Katana so I'm tempted to just say screw it and start on it without cleaning up

Also, as a side note if anyone else plans to do something like this....
This is my 2nd set of CF gear. The stuff is pretty nasty to work with. Wear a mask, wear rubber gloves and have a hand held vacuum turned on pointed at the area you are drilling. The dust is really bad even when drilling. If you don't wear gloves, you'll be itching for days and you'll get splinters that do not come out. CF splinters stay in the skin and your skin builds up around them unlike wood. Also, the dust won't come out of the lungs...think black lung (carbon...coal..you get the idea)

Well, I have a broken aileron hinge I noticed today. It's not one of the outside ones - nearest to the inside hinge. Any ideas on fixing this without cutting all of the hinges out?
I was thinking of just using a hobby knife and expanding the existing hinge slot and trying to squeeze one of the radio south CA hinges into there.

Easy fix Shakes...... just give me an email.

Sent you a PM Sturtz.

What?? You can't share with everyone?

Ok,, ok,,, it's simple. Just add a small CA hinge to the inboard aileron . I slotted one on the outboard and inboard side both.
WOT !!!!