Edge

My Mini Edge combo was delivered on 4/10/07 and was well packaged with the kit box and motor all packed neatly into a larger box to protect it during shipping. Opening the kit box showed all the parts were wrapped in plastic and neatly snuggled together. (Once out of the box it will never go back in though).

Additional items needed: 4 micro servo's, 2 six inch servo extensions (aileron), 1 twelve inch servo extension (elevator), 1 servo "Y" harness (ailerons), speed control, lipo battery and radio. And another 12" extension for the rudder if you decide to use the alternate location.

The quality of the kit is very good and builds fairly quickly. I spent a few hours on it the 1st evening and by the time I stopped had ailerons attached to the wings, the wings attached to the fuselage and the stabilizer fitted to the fuselage even if not glued into place. See more photos in the "Projects" folder at my yahoo group. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/manatee_rc

I did read the construction manual and followed it pretty closely other than skipping to other steps if I ran into something where lack of a part stopped me. By the end of the second evenings work I had what looks like a completed plane although there was still no radio gear installed in it.

NOTE: The included gearbox is designed for an in-runner type of motor. The combo supplies an outrunner 480 and if you glue in the motor mount stick according to instructions you will have done it wrong! I attached the outrunner motor to the included mount and attached that to the stick and slid the assembly through the mounting holes in the firewall. Do not glue in place at this time. Slide the cowling into place over the assembly, add the prop adapter, prop, spinner back and secure the nut. (You will have to ream both the prop and spinner to fit the larger diameter prop shaft of the 480 motor). Once this is done you can slide the stick to adjust for proper length and mark it on the back end where it protrudes into the fuselage.

Remove the prop, spinner and cowling. Slide the motor mount stick back out and cut it off about 3/8" to 1/2" behind the mark so it won't get in your way later when installing the radio battery, etc. Now you can slide it back into position and epoxy it in place.

I used Futaba S3114 micro servos instead of the recommended JR's since I happened to have a few of them laying around and they were the right size. For speed control, I elected to use the E-Flite 40 amp V2. For transmitter and receiver, my Spektrum DX-6.

I started adding radio gear to the Edge before my order with the speed control, Lipo battery and servo extensions arrived. Basically used an old brushed motor speed control on a ni-cad pack and pulled the receiver out of my Sportster to set up the rudder servo. I followed the basic instructions and mounted the servo in the center of the fuselage with the pull, pull configuration to the rudder itself.

When my parts order arrived, I set out to finish the installation and made a discovery that sort of hurt my feelings. The recommended 2100ma battery was too long to slide into the battery compartment from the top of the fuselage former, and too tall to slide in from behind it due to the rudder servo being in the way.

The instructions do offer an optional rudder servo mounting position at the rear of the fuselage and the cut out for it is already there once you remove the covering from that area. Luckily for me I had ordered a couple of extra servo extensions so relocated the rudder servo to the rear. Other than the two little exit holes for the control wires in the covering and the pull pull control horn still being mounted in the rudder it was easy enough to switch. Really wish I'd used the optional location to begin with though.

Since the rudder servo and control wires were no longer in the way, I decided to make a small lite ply shelf just behind and below the original rudder servo mount and relocated the receiver to that spot to get it away from the battery and speed controller. This configuration actually worked out very well. Once all gear was installed and with the battery in place, the balance point comes out right on the recommended forward most (nose heavy) location.

Sunday, April 22nd was the Mini-Edge's maiden flight and conditions were a bit less than ideal. At least the 10+ (gusting 15 to 20) mph wind was coming straight down the runway though.
Since it's impossible for me to shoot video and fly at the same time I had another accomplished pilot do the test flight since I figuured he would put on a better show than I could anyways. (Truthful translation: I wanted video of it before I had a chance to break it.) It's really a good thing I had John take the sticks for the trim flight.
He did a quick pre-flight inspection and announced that it was going to pull a little to the left at take off, and was quite correct. Guess my building skills (or eyeballs) have deteriorated a bit over the years. I hadn't even noticed that the left wing had a touch of wash out and the right wing, a bit of wash in. Something I'll correct with a little heat gun and twist before it's next outing (and my turn at it).
I think the only time full throttle was used was for take off, and it looked much like a pylon racer when it left the ground at a very high rate of speed. As for how it flew, one picture is supposed to be worth a thousand words so imagine you've already checked the video. The winds prevented him from trying any hovers (and me from even wanting to attempt flying it) but it does have a respectable roll rate and performance, even at half throttle where most of the flight was done.