Maidened!

[dr_jones]

Finally completed my build last week:

Airfoilz Edge 540 (of course!)
Hacker A20-20L
APC 9 x 6E prop
Hitec HS-65HB servos
Phoenix 25 ESC
Hitec HFS-05MS Rx
Thunder Power 1320 li-po

http://www.ejones.dsl.pipex.com/images/edge/edge_1.jpg
http://www.ejones.dsl.pipex.com/images/edge/edge_2.jpg
http://www.ejones.dsl.pipex.com/images/edge/edge_4.jpg
http://www.ejones.dsl.pipex.com/images/edge/edge_5.jpg

And today the weather 'felt' calm enough to maiden - so I did...

What a CRAAAAAZY experience that was! Turned out I think I misjudged 2 things:

1) the wind was gusting tooooo strong not sure what mph it was but enought to hear and for the wife's hair to be blowin' around.

2) I think I may have misjudged somewhat on the 'low' rates I started with - bearing in mind I've not flown for 15 years and previous attempts all met with immediate disaster I think that after 27 hours sim time (afpd) my choice of 40% (ail) 50% (ele) and 40% (ail) might have been a little ambitious.

Sanding still in the middle of the field facing into the wind you could see the Edge was being blown around a little - anyhow I decided - gotta bite the bullet some time so I took off (crikey take about a short take off!!) and took to the skies - only to immediately get caught in a gust and get blown straight across the field. Immediately decided to get as much altitude as possible - only to encounter more gusting and buffetting. After acouple of rather too 'exciting' loops / rolls - Realised mistake (1) so decided to abort mission where I quickly dicovered mistake (2) and found that landing in high winds was gonna be twitchy & tricky! Anyway it all ended well with a somewhat untidy and rather quick touchdown (nearly hit myself in the process) - no damage - no injuries -successful maiden if you ask me!!

YAY!!!!!!

[Mikey]

Congrats on the maden you have more guts then me to maden a plane for the first time in wind like that. I am very glad all worked well once you get the plane dialed in you are going to love it. Once you have all the rates dialed into were you like it the wind will not be an issue for the plane.

[dr_jones]

Thanks man! though more stupid than brave I think!! (not to mention lucky!)

Anyhoo - wind dropped right down - so back out I went - changed to 40% (ail) 45% (ELE) 40% (RUD) and got on MUCH better though didn't feel like enough rudder TBH. Spent 2 batts on, immelmans, loops, rolls, inverted, KE, one blender (ish - though i went to full rates for this) and one attempted 2 mistaks high hover (though still a bit windy for me to hold it)....

AWESOME! What a great plane! Can't put into words how much fun it was - gutted my batts are flat (only have the 2 ATM) and it's now gone dark or I'd deffo be out ther still!!

[paulg]

that's why our slogan is "nothing flys like an Airfoilz" :) Good going!

[grampi]

I was wondering the same thing.....how much control surface throw to start out with. I'm about in the same boat as you. I haven't flown anything in 15 years. If you don't mind me asking, what radio are you using? I haven't even started assembling mine yet, I still need to make a trip to my local HS to pick up all the build goodies (all the stuff listed in the "required to build" list). I can't wait to get started on this thing!

[dr_jones]

I was wondering the same thing.....how much control surface throw to start out with. I'm about in the same boat as you. I haven't flown anything in 15 years. If you don't mind me asking, what radio are you using? I haven't even started assembling mine yet, I still need to make a trip to my local HS to pick up all the build goodies (all the stuff listed in the "required to build" list). I can't wait to get started on this thing!


In the end I settled as 40% (ail) 45% (ELE) 45% (RUD) and -25% Expo on all. This seemed to be a fair compromise and keeps my 'over controlling' to a minimum. I've also got my high rates set up and their at 100% with -40% expo on all - I've only really found I can handle these at great height as the plane is highly responsive even at my low rates!.

TX wise I'm using a Futaba T7CP - this seemed a good choice balancing value for money, quality and features - It's got more features and probably channels than I'll ever need and so far I've been really happy with it.

[grampi]

I have the Spektrum DX6. Those sound like good starting points for me as well. First, I gotta get the plane built.

[bills]

Good going dr jones.
I think any landing that you don't have to make repairs was a good one.
The first flight of my 540 (in calm air) was at first terrifying and then very quickly became the most fun I had ever had flying.
The rest of my little fleet gathers more dust than they used to.

[xtraflyr]

Got my maiden done about a week ago. I have three sets of rates on my JR 9303.The 3D rates are as high as they go then I cut the others in half of that.. Seems pretty good there... I have the expo for the 3D rates about +50% then the others are about +30% and +20%. JR uses positive numbers for more expo. It flys really nice just needs some tweeking.
Can't wait for this stupid wind and snow to finally go away from us Jersey folks...

Cya,
Frank

[3D MOFO!!!!!!!!!!]

Hey guys just curious to know about the apc 9x6e with the a20-20l is the power better then with the apc 10x4.7sf? Does the smaller prop help it 3d better?

EFREE

[xtraflyr]

Hey guys just curious to know about the apc 9x6e with the a20-20l is the power better then with the apc 10x4.7sf? Does the smaller prop help it 3d better?

EFREE

Itll give you more thrust,but wont spin up as quick. Im kinda new to electrics myself. You might be overloading the motor and putting out of it's intended wattage for maximum performance. The best thing to do is to try it and see if you like it..

[Raptor-018]

It seems I have alot to say about this awesome Edge! I maiden'd 2 weeks ago and lost count of how many flights I have on it since I fly on my lunch break at work. I use 80% expo with no dual rate but, I have it set up for the occasional lets-see-how-she-does maneuvers. I let a coworker with very limited glider experience fly it the other day, and a testament to this plane is how easy it flies - dual rate, of course.

This is my favorite plane - ever...I feel a little naked not having one on standby, just in case.