Hi gang,

as described previously, I beefed up my tailplane with the use of 2 1ft tubes of 3/16 round aliminium stock. It's super light and easy to work in to appropriate angles etc. Just crimped the ends with pliers and drilled a hole for a short woodscrew and loctited them in there.

The tailplane has a leading edge of ply or some type of strong wood but the elevator section is all balsa/poplar or something else weak. I found if I squeezed mine with my fingers it left an indentation!

Hopefully this mod should give it the appropriate strength otherwise I'll be cutting out the horizontal member and rebuilding with stronger wood.

Before fitting the struts the horizontals were a bit wishy washy, now they are nice and tight.... should all help. And hopefully no more breakages from just moving around the house.

.....

Hope it's not too much drag... they are super lightweight though. Somewhere nere the vicinity of a couple of servo horns.

Thanks, I think I will strengthen up the wing. What bout' my other questions?
I visited Wellington a couple of years back. Beautiful place. How do you manage to fly in those winds. Must be exceptional pilots down there!!
Cheers

Yeah, I here you 'not again....'

sorry guys but it looks like this bird is destined for a repair once a week.

Today got some great flights in, this baby does some great moves. I had it vertical, inverted, hovering, knife edge, looping, bunting, blender etc. etc....

until......

The clevis on one of the elevator halves broke. While I was in the middle of an inverted loop (the low middle not the high middle).

Anyway, the plane went way out of control, I managed to flip it around but was in major trouble, landed up spearing the nose end in at about 45 degrees (ouch). One of those crashes where you see it hit and then you hear the crunch/bang a couple of seconds later.

Anwyay, they definately build them tough as you will see by the pics, no wing or fueslage damage. Did a great job of obliterating the firewall.. Luckilly no damage to the engine but at €25 per prop, it's bringing tears to my eyes thinking about the 16*7 that broke on it's 3rd flight and first day out....... (Who said drag racing was the most expensive hobby?)

Lesson learnt, throw away those crappy clevises that come with the kit. Well if you want to do anything more than stooge around the sky that is. I like to push my planes for performance so need to invest in a set of heavy duty ones. It probably doesn't help that I'd be over the designed wingloading and inflicting mega stress on the moveable components so I'm not complaining too much. In fact, the plane kit itself is quite cheap, the RX and motor not soo. Once I have all of the bugs sorted maybe it's time to just go and buy another one that I can build strong enough in the relevant areas/components and then it will look pristine for good....

Repair pics to follow, can't bring myself to look at it for a week or 2 so you'll have to wait....

caio..

El Gricey - plane basher extrodinaire (and ashamed of it)

next

cowl took a bit of a hammering.... the firewall worse though.

Luckilly the whole tail section is fine, not as much as a bit of grass on the tail wheel!

no damage to the wings also, looks like a rebuild job

hey gricer - too bad about the crash! I am still plugging away on my 120 size 540 and have already decided to use 4-40 clevis's and connectors rather than the nylon ones that come with the kit.
Looking over your pics, I'd say the model came out pretty well. From your description of what happened and how it "landed", I have had similar experiences that required several garbage bags to clear the area! Consider yourself lucky and another tribute to a well built model!
tfacr

second that!!!!! and soooo sorry. use great planes metal clevisis/4x40 rods and crash a little less.
we are busy building a seagull razzle will post some pics later.

I anxious to hear about that razzle. Im planning on getting either a ucan, flip, or a razzle myself, so the info would be awesome!

Regards,
Philip

COLOR'S ARE AWFUL but the build quality is awesome big plane for a fun fly, pics soon, best

Hi Adrian,

Start a new thread on the razzle and post a link on this thread.... I'm interested in a Hype 3D, saw one flying at the field today and it went really well.

Not to sure about the 2s though. Gee my Edge really sounded awesome with the big 4s. Would like to put a 4s in a hype too but after this experience I think I'll stick with the 'manufacturer designed' route.

I was thinking about rebuilding the front end of the Edge (not too big a job) then fitting a .60 2s and selling it as a cheap throw about. I'm not sure that running the 1.20 in now would not exploit any hairline cracks etc in the fues..... a .602s would be a lot easier on it.

Then I'll pick up a new Edge kit and engineer it properly for the 1.20....... and not bunt at 1 mistakes high...

Was also told to buy a lotto ticket given that I got the plane back in quite good nick.

Hello everyone,
I am thinking of putting an ASP .91 Four Stroke on mine. From the posts that I have read in this thread, it seems that the Saito 100 or the 91FX 2S are more suited for this. However, i am already flying with an ASP .91 FS in my cap 3D and get 9800 RPM out of my APC 14X6 with 5% nitro. That translates to approx 11lbs of static thrust. Assuming that the edge would weigh in at approx 7.6 Lbs with a 91 FS, it will give a power to weight ratio of about 1.5. That should be adequate for unlimited vertical and 3D. What do you guys feel?
Cheers

that's ok
it's the right motor for the edge
remember this plane is a sport plane not a 3dmodel

regards
Mirco

I am wondering what type of servos you guys use in the Edge 540.

Are Futaba s003 or s001 good enought. They have 3kg of torque?

I am going with five 3001's for the ailerons(2), elevator(2) and rudder(1) and one 3003 for the throttle. Any more torque than that on this sized model is an overkill....IMHO!!!

any one put a saito 100 inverted if so how well did it run also how much trouble would it be to put two hitec 526s min servos in the tale I have just started on my 540 looks good so far

Thanks Tim

hey rcpilot_971 - i only run a saito 120 inverted and i use a glow driver but that puppy idles at 1800 w/ glow power. Never quit on me - go inverted.
tfacr

I just got this plane and need help!
I joined the wing halves last night and installed the horz stab.

Can the elevator servos be installed in the cutouts provided and work correctly with only a Y harness?

I have a saito 150 needing a ride, but, seems most folks are satisfied with a 91fx and LHS has one in stock as well as a 108, what to do??

Im new to arfs, but, looks like this thing needs a good dose of epoxy around the firewall and landing gear area as well as most other joints ect.
Is it standard practice to need to reglue arfs??
Besides this, all else seems to be of better quality than Id ever expected, nice plane.

I enjoy building at least as much as flying, but, due to poor flying lately, Im left with many repairs and need to go fly which is why I decided to go with a couple of arfs.

I intend to install flying wires, but had hoped to keep mods down to a minimum in order to go have fun now.
Looks like the engine mount screws and blind nuts are going to have to go also, seem rather small to me?

Im no hotdog 3d pilot, just wanted a nice, fun to fly plane in a hurry. Any input I can get will be most appreciated to keep head and heartaches down.
Thanks a bunch!

flap - I have a 150 sized engine in my 120 sized Edge 540 - if you read ahead of all these posts, you'll get answers to most of your questions.
Suggest you stick to a 90 sized engine if thats what size arf you got. Another guy put a 120 in the 90 sized plane and was not too pleased, but like i said, read ahead!
Cheers
tfacr

Flap....you'll need to enlarge the cut outs a bit. Yes u can do it JUST with a Y harness. Just install it in a way that the servo wheel on the servo closer to the ele is towards the front and the servo wheel on the servo farther from the ele is towards the rear. That way, despite the offset servo cot outs, the push rod lengths would also be similar to each other.
Cheers

Has any one used a servo reverser with a Y so you could make both servo arms the same for the elevator instead of opposite each other

Here it is......almost ready - just the push rods need to be installed and the programing needs to be done. Test Flight is tomorrow and I am getting jitters. Please wish me luck guys....
Servos - 6 Futaba 3001's all around
Battery - Futaba 4.8v 1000Mah ( Enough )
Engine - Magnum 91 FS
Prop - 14X6
Spinner - Vortech Aluminum 2.5"
Hardware - Stock

Any last minute advise before I take her up???

Cheers

yes

go to your field, warm up the engine then full trottle and take off
have a long good fly

regards mirco