RE: Seagull Models Edge 540
 

WELLL... This was a very bad day for the Segull Edge!!
I have run this thing around the back yard for the past 3 days and have had no problems at all. I took her to the field today to see what she could do. I fueled her up and did a range check, Then started the engine. The engine purred like a kitten (saito) I pulled her out to the grass and check my surfaces one more time just to be sure they were going the right way. I reved the motor to gain speed and she did not want to lift.. She finnaly darted up and away we go. This thing was soo uncontrollable it was CRAZY. I could not fo anything with it. It was snapping and rolling and darting and all. I pulled her around to try to easy her to the earth and slammed her down. Broke the prop and bent the gear just a bit.. After a good checking into. I noticed the tail was now acting funny. It would jitter and jump. It was a bad y connector. I decided to do away with the Y and put another extension on and Mix the elevators togeather.( that took some figuring...)) Just scared a bit decided to move the CG to Factory Spec. and did that with the battery. I checked all again and went to the field. MAD now just decided that It was getting in the air one way or another. I reved the engine and took off. Better this time. I easy uped her and she started climbing good. Then went vertical really didn't want her vertical but she was there. So I gunned it. Climbed bout' 50 Ft and then DIED><>< I did a flip to the earth and started gaining wind speed and easily pulled her up. The plane landed in the rough but looked OK. Everyone there was like GREAT SAVE MAN!! walked over to the @#$@#$ and the plane was broken in HALF!!! right behind the wing. AND the firewall was broken off... After inspection looks like very little glue and I even dribbled some CA in her myself after reading several posts on weak glue skills from Seagull. The plane can be fixed but really should not have to be. I have landed my 4*60 much harder than that and pushed the landing gear back in place and flew again. I think I had my engine too lean. I have run the motor on my 4* and had no problems. I have also had this plane running for 3 days and ran 2 tankfuls each day. I have held the model upside down and vertical and all sorts of ways with the engine WOT. I guess when she got up she lost her breath.. ANYWAYS> I will repair and fly again SOON!! Seagull should give me a new FUSE!!@!!@#!@$

RE: Seagull Models Edge 540
 

I guess I may have been one of the lucky ones. I have had my edge for going on three years. I run Futaba rx and servos, with a 91fx. The only thing that I really changed was in the tail. I added flying wires. When I bought it I went over all the joints with CA, all of them, for me this is on one the first things I do with any AFR. I probably have over 200 flights on it. I have had numerous dead sticks. I had pan caked it into the ground on landings. Cart wheeled it on the runway. The list goes on and on.... Snaps, dives, rolls, 3d, etc... I have not had any problems with this bird, and would by a Seagull airplane again.

RE: Seagull Models Edge 540
 

Powerlines:

So, you're saying Seagull should give you a new fuse because you had a bad y connector and because your engine stopped cause it was too lean?
How do you figure?

I've had this plane myself. It's a handfull. Mine died during a flatspin. It just wouldn't come out. It was a great flatspin though :D

Lars

RE: Seagull Models Edge 540
 

JT...I want to come to you're field and watch you fly...sounds like you put the word EXCITEMENT in you're flying with the pancakes,cartwheels..ect.[sm=lol.gif]
I have the Seagull Edge too and it's a lot of fun,I have had good luck so far..knock on wood!:D

RE: Seagull Models Edge 540
 

I was cool with the first hard landing. The second. I just don't think it landed hard enought to break it in half. That is all I am saying. If you would have seen it you would be saying the same thing..!! :)

WELL!! I got 5 flights on her today. SEAGULL DOES NOT KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT A CG!! I have it @ 3.25 and when she was inverted I had to put DOWN elevater to make her level out.. That is a first to me.. All the posts I have read say it needs more tail weight if you have to put too much up ele!

Today was good. I took off @ 3/4 throttle. I eased her up and leveled out the got my trims set. I mad 2 laps and then came in for a landing hot just to make sure not to stall. I made a few adjustments on my radio and fueled up again then took off again. Flew around for 10 min and came in for a easy landing just a bit hot. There was not much action up to now. I fueled up again and let her rip.. I went up a bit high and did a snap and boy did she snap. FAST AND QUICK. I let off the stick and she was strait as an arrow. I did a stall turn and she was great. I leveled out and got more speed. I pulled vert. and she climed for days. I killed the gas and went inverted and did a nice flat spin got 3 turns out and pulled her back (didn't want to hold it too long). Then came in for a landing (still a bit hot). Fueled up again and let her roar. I went straight to vert. and held her. Went bout 150 and rolled and leveled out. I went inverted and then found out that I had to pull back on the stick for level flight ( need more nose weight). then decided to see what she would do slow. I could hardly make this thing tip stall. I slowed down to a crawl like 1/8 throttle. Then pulled back to Idle. She finally just genly lowered the wing and I went WOT and pulled out . I have a 14-6 prop on now and MAN THIS THING WILL FLY!! Need 16-4 or 15-4W. Flew a few more rounds and then decided to call the day.. GREAT!!

I am happy with her now. I need more nose weight and 30% fuel and a few 16-4 props.. I will be ready .I did notice the Aile. Needs more. I had to put on high rates just to make her roll at a good rate... If she flys any better than she did after I do some changes then this one will be well worth the $$.. I just wish I would have had the CG @ 3" I will move it back more to see what she does.

LATER

RE: Seagull Models Edge 540
 

I'm glad your enjoying the plane.
I was flying the dogsnot out of mine for about two weeks (never took it out of the truck!) then mother nature took a dump on us here in ohio.

I have had more fun with that plane lately than most of my more expensive ones. I punish that thing! you know, its a lomcevec and snap roll machine!! I do get alot of oohhs and aaahhhs when i do a low knife edge - the sunburst trim on the wings looks really cool like that..

i'm getting my 140 dollars worth, thats for sure.

ted

RE: Seagull Models Edge 540
 

P-40LUVR

I figure that it has served its purpose. So I have fun with it. If I auger it ,so be it. If you are not pushing yourself or the airplane then you are not learning anything. Live and learn.... I would rather crash this than some of my other airplanes.

RE: Seagull Models Edge 540
 

I got my 30% fuel today and now have the 16-4 prop on. It seems to bogg bown just a bit much I did try a 15-6 I think it ran nice. It is like night and day difference with the new fuel.. Much more power and will stand on edge with just over 1/2 throttle. It is much nicer to fly now.. 100% better!!!

LATER

RE: Seagull Models Edge 540
 

Hi Guys,
I've just bought one of these Seagull Edge 540's then discovered this thread and the problem with the wings breaking inflight. I took the covering off the center section of the wing and removed the sheeting to find the a nice wedge of timber glued between the dihedral brace box and the main spar, the wedge looks like it fills a gap of about 1/8 inch on the inboard end and about 1/2inch on the outboard end and about 7 inches long in each wing half. My question is to anyone who has had one of these models fail inflight, was this wedge present on your wing and not glued in properly or was it just left out all together? From what I have read, this area and join between the dihedral brace and main spar is where the problem seems to be.
The next question is, what is the issue with the tailplane, are the hinges tearing out or is the whole stab breaking infront of the hingline?
Thanks in advance,
Marshal

RE: Seagull Models Edge 540
 

Having flown smaller 40-60 powered low wingers, I decided it was time to try something slightly bigger - so I got the Seagull Edge 540. I was very impressed with the finish and genereal quality, bearing in mind how little it cost. I put an ASP 91 FS in it and took it out. My first impressions were that it was a very responsive aircraft, capable of far more stuff than I could do as an intermediate pilot. The ASP 91 FS was, in hind sight, not really powerful enough to fly it properly. However, I was really proud owning such a fantastic looking machine.

On the 3rd flight, my Edge 540 had elevator failure [:o] It just would not pull up. I did what I could to minimise the inevitable impact, useing throttle, ailerons & rudder to prevent it ploughing in to the gorund vertically . At the last possible moment, I cut the throttle to save the engine. Considering the lack of elevator, it came in at a fairly shallow angle, but obviously the plane broke.

The Damage wasn't too bad considering - broken wings, damaged fuse, damaged landing gear etc - I probably could have patched it up if I could have been bothered.

Looking at the tailplane, the cause of the elevator failure was quite apparent. The port-side elevator had pulled out of the tailplane - the 2 inner hinges had pulled out, complete with the pins, from the tailplane - NOT the elevator surface itself. The actual balsa strip had failed, rather than the hinge themselves.

As you can imagine, I was gutted. The balsa strip was simply too weak to cope with the sort of loads a large surface can put on it. The pins just split the wood.:( Flying wise, nothing I did was radical.

If I had word that changes had been made to where the hinges are located, I'd consider getting another one. Otherwsie, it's a bit of a lottery I'm afraid.

My next plane will be either a Funtana 90 or Showtime 4D - still can't make my mind up. Either way, I'll be buying a Moki 135.....[>:]

RE: Seagull Models Edge 540
 

I bought on of these a few weeks ago and was impressed with the quality initially. I soon noticed something odd, though. The wing and horizontal stab are set up with negative incidence. [:'(] Because of this it flies with a low tail. The model has several changes compared to the one I see in the pictures in this thread and on the box graphics. The most significant changes are the negative incidence of the wing and that the wing has been moved back a couple of inches in the new model. Both are obvious when I compare the old vs new pictures. There are other less significant changes like different servo mounts in the tail and the trailing edge of the wing on the new are in line with the trailing edge of the ailerons.

I contacted the shop where I bought it because it's not the same model that they showed on their website but they said it was my fault, that I had built it incorrectly. Ridiculous because the model is factory assembled and the wing seat and stab slot are factory cut.

I'm still flying it but I was really disappointed to find that Seagul had messed up the design so badly. It flies fine but the short tail make it a little unstable in yaw, and the tail is hanging low. The attached picture shows both the incidence issue and the rearward wing position of my model. It's powered by an AXI 4130/20 on 8S 4000 mAh PolyQuest batteries with an APC 17x10E prop. Weighs 3950 g.

RE: Seagull Models Edge 540
 

Flew mine again today. Here's a nice picture of it that my friend took. The holes in the bottom are for the hot air to exit.

RE: Seagull Models Edge 540
 

I maidened my edge last weekend, all went well. I am so far pretty impressed with this plane considering the cost. Another guy at the field has ordered one after seeing mine.

RE: Seagull Models Edge 540
 

What about OS 120 Four stroke?

RE: Seagull Models Edge 540
 

I maidened my Seagull Edge 540 yesterday and I'm quite happy with it. I'm only running a Tiger Shark 75 2stroke but it flies ok, later on I might upgrade the engine to a 91. The plane seems to fly with a tail down attitude almost in the same stance as when its sitting idle on the ground, probably to do with the wing incidence mentioned by Tahustvedt a few posts earlier.
The only modification I made was fiberglassing the center section of the wing. So far after 4 flights, no inflight failures.

RE: Seagull Models Edge 540
 

tahustvedt, How do you like your AXI set up? I just purchased an AXI 4130/16 and was thinking about putting it in this plane. Can you perform any 3D moves, i.e. hover,etc. Thanks,
Chris

RE: Seagull Models Edge 540
 

The AXI 4130/20 won't hover it with a 17x10 prop and 8S. I think an 18x8 prop will hover it at near full throttle. I only tried brief high altitude hovering after a climb as I'm a little scared of crossing high alpha and low altitude. :D The ailerons are too small for 3D flight I think. I'm not experienced with 3D at this size, I have only flown 3D with small foamies.

I broke my AXI a week ago. The stator came loose from the mount for some reason. I was flying with an 18x8 prop at 1211 W.


This week a I got a new plane that will replace the Edge in my hangar. The World Models Velox Rev II. It looks better and much lighter constructed for flying, but it's nowhere near as rugged as the Edge which is incredibly durable. The wing area is also slightly larger on the Velox, and there are no weird downward pointing incidences/lines. I think the Velox is a better 3D plane as the control surfaces are larger and it has a proper profile on the tail surfaces.

RE: Seagull Models Edge 540
 

Thanks. I appreciate the information on the AXI. I'm going to look into the Velox Rev II. Let me know how it works out for you.

RE: Seagull Models Edge 540
 

I origanaly had a thunder tigre .91 on my edge 540 but it blue up in the middle of my Imac sequance last year. I landed the plane safley. I then put a thunder tigre pro 120 on it. It was a little nose heavy but I flew it any way. on the 2nd flight the engine quite wile I was up side down about 25ft in the air. It would not pull out of the dive I had put it in to gain air speed. I think it was to nose heavy. I was wandering how ya'll were balincing them. nose heavy or tail heany.

RE: Seagull Models Edge 540
 

I running ASP.91 four stroke in my edge. can anybody tell me what size prop will give me a good hover.

RE: Seagull Models Edge 540
 

can someone tell what size/weight/type of servos I should get for my EDGE 540....
I m thinkin about an Airtronics radio....


THanks

SN:)

RE: Seagull Models Edge 540
 

Something with a 70 oz or more torque and preferably ball baring.
NEDYOB

RE: Seagull Models Edge 540
 

I read someone had standarad servo something like this 50OZ [link=http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/WTI0001P?&I=LX0929&P=V]SERVO[/link]

was wondering if that would work...

THanks for your reply!

RE: Seagull Models Edge 540
 

well my edge 540 60 size fly wiyh a 61 engine

RE: Seagull Models Edge 540
 

50 oz is too weak,need 70 oz or more STRYKERNUT,the 61 will fly it but you will be useing full power most of the timeMDALENCH. I had a OS 91 on mine and it flew great at 1/2 throttle.
Just my opinion guys.
NEDYOB