Burrito Bandito

Miloh,

The dash is my little touch. Nothing special. I made a template simply by holding a piece of balsa up to the original dash and cut and sanded to shape. I can give you the name of the company that made the guages when I get home. The paint is Rustoleum sandable primer. The Aresti and Nav map were copied from the net somewhere and cut and pasted into a word document and resized until I got what I wanted. The "screws" holding the Aresti and Nav map in were comandeered from my wife's pin cushion. I just nipped them to the propper length and pushed them into the Balsa.

Ahhhh.....weight on the Saito 120. If you go to the Saito site, their current 120 tips the scales at 820 grams with muffler. I think that translates to about 28.9 ounces. MY Saito is OLD. Probably 8 - 10 years old (I know, I know) and the Muffler is huge, so I am guessing it is in the neighborhood of 30 -32 ounces. I will try to have it weighed before I trade it away.

John

Burrito Bandito

David,

Just a quick note about the checkers on the tail. They are not stock either. The stock arrangement on the tail surfaces from VF are white stripes as seen on their site. I removed them from both the horizontal and vertical stabs. On the Vert stab I added the checkers you see. On the horizontal stab, I left it Red only after removing the white stripe.

John

Burrito Bandito

Mark,

Gonna go with the newer model O.S. 91 Surpass. It comes in at 23 ounces with muffler. That 9 ounce savings coupled with the elimination of the lead required to balance should net me a weight savings of 14 ounces. Almost 1 whole pound.

John

Markjsca1

Yeah i know it. Good engine. You getting it with the pump or without?

I like the check pattern on the bottom of the wings! Looks like it came direct from the factory like that.Did you completely recover it or did you stick it on over the existing cover?

Burrito Bandito

No pump.

The vinyl squares have adhesive on the back of them. Total thickness 2 or 3 mil I can't remember. No need to recover, just go over the covering that is there.

John

Markjsca1

What is it made out of....? Is it kinda like linonium? I'd like to do something similar to mine when i get it...It'll be a few weeks yet i'd imagine. With my other planes it is so easy to tell if they're flying inverted or not so i think it'd be useful if this one followed suit. It certainly makes it look good from underneath as well

Burrito Bandito

For lack of a better description, it is like the vinyl letters that you would see in a shop window, or on the side of a delivery van. Very thin and very light. I suspect that you can find a sign maker in your area and explain what you would like to do and they will fix you right up.

John

Miloh

Hay john:

About the servo leads, are the wings cut out for the servos at the factory?
and what about the servo wires, is the wing pre cut for them?

Miloh.

Burrito Bandito

Everything is cut for you. I just stuck it in and everything fit perfectly.

Miloh

test

Burrito Bandito

O.K.,

I just weighed the 120......37 ounces on the nose!!!

I just cannot imagine why it weighs so much. I guess it's due to the fact that it's so old. Anyway, I pick up the O.S. 91 Surpass at lunch tomorrow. If it comes close to the advertised weight of 23 ounces with muffler I will have my 14 ounces BEFORE the lead savings. Soooooo......1 pound of weight reduction is in the bag.

I will weigh the 91 and the lead tomorrow on the same scale for a true comparison.

John

Miloh

Will one pound of weight reduction do the trick? and what will that bring you au weight to?

Miloh.

David Cutler

Hi John,

One pound reduction will certainly make a noticeable difference!

Don't forget to tell us here the results. Should be interesting!

-David C.

Miloh

Ok guys:

Help me out here, I'm awaiting the 66 inch 300, I have a .91 2stroke it weighs in at a whopping 1pound 15ounces. VF says that this plane weighs in at an all up weight of 8.25 with a .75 motor but does not indicate if this is a 2 or 4 stroke or what brand.
My supertiger .75 is just 4 ounces lighter than my .91 tigershark.
Does anyone have a weight on this plane without a powerplant mounted?
Does anyone have an opinion on flaperons with this plane?
should I mount the fuel tank on the CG or in the front at the fire wall?
Is there room for a smoke system?
Is there any way reduce weight in the air frame?
What about moving the elev and rudder servos to the rear?
Is it set up for a single or split push rod for the elevator? or is the elevator one or two peice as it comes.
Is the tail wheel designed to mount in the rudder?

Miloh.

Burrito Bandito

Miloh,

One pound will certianly make a world of difference. Consider it this way:

Edge 540 w/ 740 square inches of wing area:

That's 740/144=5.138 sqft. of wing area. A plane that weighs 9.25 pounds is 148 ounces. 148/5.138=28.8 ounces per sqft. wing loading.

Reduce that by a pound to 8.25 or 132 ounces and you get 132/5.138=25.7 ounces per sqft. wing loading. A reduction in weight of 3.1 ounces per sqft. I imagine it will be signifigant in the efficiency of the wing since it is so thin in the first place. The reduction in loading and increased efficiency should translate into smoother transition into turns and climbs. I am sure it will still get a little snappy if the sticks are thrown around, as even the larger scale Edge will do this.

The weights given above are not what I am dealing with for sure. I will have accurate measurements for you tomorrow night.

Regards,
John

Miloh

Thanks John you have been very heplful.

Miloh.

Burrito Bandito

Miloh,

By the way, Pushrod is split on the Edge with collars holding them together. If the Extra is this way, I would suggest that you take them out, line the threads up where the clevis screws in and tighten the collars. Then in the area between both collars, wrap some very thin guage wire arount the rods and solder. Cheap insurance as far as I am concerned.

I set mine up for flaperons, but have not tried them yet. I seem to have made it slow down enough to rip out the gear....duho....so, when I do try them, it will be at altitude to test the effects. I have the ability to mix in a landing configuration into my radio with flaperons and the appropriate amount of elevator, so I do want to try it sometime.

I think that covers everything. You will love this plane if it's anything at all like the Edge.

John

David_Moen

I have flaperons set up, with about 15 degrees of deflection on the ailerons. I have only tried them at higher altitudes thus far, as I have not been confident in my engine. Deplyong the flaperons did not cause a big change in pitch and at the speed I was flying at the time, caused the airplane to climb significantly, so it should make the plane slow down more for landings. On my Ultra Sport 40+, I found that the flaperons would slow the plane down, but the airplane became harder to control at such low speeds. I found I was better off learning how to land it properly rather than trying to land it like a trainer!

Burrito Bandito

David,

Could you refresh my memory? When you did your LG plate over, did you use blind nuts or did you thread the plate? I have some nylon wing bolts from a 4 star 40 that I was thinking about using. I was planning on just threading the landing gear mount.

Thanks,
John

Burrito Bandito

O.K. Here is the information on weight I said I would get:

Total airplane including all radio gear and tank less engine: 98.99 ounces (call it 99 ounces)

Old Engine w/ Muffler: 37 ounces
Lead to balance: 6 ounces
Plane: 99 ounces
Total: 142 ounces = 8.875 Pounds

New Engine w/Muffler 21 ounces
Plane: 99 ounces
Total: 120 ounces = 7.5 Pounds

Total Savings: 1.375 pounds or 22 ounces

With wing area of 740 square inches or 5.138 sqft. that's a reduction of 4.29 oz/sqft. from 27.64 to 23.35 oz/sqft. I am very happy with this new weight, and with the 91, the plane is much closer to the advertised weight. Even if we allow for a rediculous inaccuracy of a half pound on the scale.

I will re-maiden the "Weight Watchers" Edge this weekend and publish another flight report. Hey, maybe a trim scheme was just born!

Cheers,
John

David_Moen

Sorry for the tardy response, I just threaded the gear directly into the L/G plate after hardening the threads with CA. I used 3 standard wing bolts, cut down to about 1" long to fasten the gear.

Burrito Bandito

Thanks David! I was very happy with the weight reduction numbers I posted earlier. I ended up going with the Saito 91 as the O.S. is still two or three weeks out. I'm still gonna get it, but now may have to get the VF SUK or Extra to put it in. Saw a Hanger 9 big Sukhoi this weekend at the field. I think the VF would be a nice addition. Might even recover it.......erh...maybe not.

John

David_Moen

Considering that the Edge is a wee bit heftier than the Extra, and I am running a 91 2 stroke, I'm guessing that I should be in the 7.25 pound ball-park. Too bad the engine didn't run!

You will like the airplane ALOT better without the extra weight of the "big-block".

Miloh

David Moen If the edge is heftier than the Extra how are you going to get it in at 7.25 pounds as the Extra is supposed to be at 8.25 to 8.75 with a .75 on it?
Just wondered if I had incorrect information maybe.

Miloh.

David_Moen

Just using John's weight measurements...If he's coming out at 7.5 pounds with his Edge...