RE: Generic Ebay Edge 540 build.
 

I know it's been a couple of months since I posted in this thread, but I honestly got sidetracked with the holidays, and an unexpected Xmas present in the form of a U Can Do 60.

The Saito 100 I mentioned earlier, I made my buddy a respectable offer on it and purchased it from him. But now It's sitting in my UCD instead of ending up in this Edge.

I swapped the 61FX I had into my GP Shoestring, and took the Magnum 91 fourstroke to put in the Edge. The Mag91 is a little more compact than the Saito 100 was, so many of my motormount mods ended up being unnescessary.

My firewall had a ton of downthrust in it - I had to shim it almost 3/32 using washers to get it where I think it should be fine. There is sufficient right thrust built into the Firewall so I left that alone.

I ditched the whole incidence adjusters - I couldn't get them to line up properly, and seemed like too much hassle. I installed the plastic dowel into the aft anti-rotation pocket in the wing root, secured with a little epoxy. then I slid the wings into the fuse. Using a hole saw I cut out a couple of 1" 3/32 ply discs with a 1/4" center opening. I had to slightly dremel the center to let the them slip onto the dowels. I pulled out an indicence meter and set the wings in line with the indicence of the h-stab. I glued the wooden disc in with thick CA once I had the winghalf lined up, and then removed the wings.

I built myself a jig out of a ruler that allowed me to drill a 3/4 hole in the wing root in the identical spot on each half - I then used a dremel tool to auger out the foam about 1" into the wing. I cut 2 1" legnths of 3/4" dowel, then drilled out the center on a drill press with a 1/4" bit. I pressed a 8/32" blind nut into one end of each of the dowel pieces, and inserted a bolt through the 1/4" opening on the opposite end and threaded it into the blind. I then coated the inside of the hollowed portion of the wing with Gorilla glue, misted in some water, and inserted the dowel, blind nut first, into the wing half until flush at the root. I used masking tape to keep the glue from pushing the dowel out of the wing as it expanded and cured.

After the wings were done, I used the same jig to drill a 1/4" hole thorugh the fuse where the bolts will pass. A test fitting showed everything was indeed lined up, so I grabbed a couple of pieces of scrap lite ply, and 30min epoxied it into the fuse to act as a doubler where the bolt is going to go - I also liberally coated my discs where the aft antirotation pin sits. I fabbed up a receiver tray, and currently have a 1000mah 4.8V battery strapped to the throttle servo mount. All servos are Hitec 425 ballbearing standards. The included wheelpants are almost identical in size as the pants from a Great Planes U Can Do 46 - and you can buy those from Tower for around $14 a pair - the red they come painted in will allmost match the red on this plane anyway.

The plane is now ready to fly, with an all-up weight of 7.5 lbs. (minus wheelpants) If the 691sq. in. wing area spec in the manual is correct, then this plane has right at a 25oz/sq. Ft Wing loading that should put it in the same ballpark as the Skyshark and Seagull Edges. It's not a 3D plane, but should fly sport aerobatics quite well, which is what I wanted it for anyway.

I'll post on the flying characteristics when I get it in the air.