Prop Edge 540 Mini

[Tony]

You guys wanted to see it, and here it is. The second plane that I just purchased. this will more than likely be the last plane that I put together. This one needs the most parts out of all of them. As you can see it's sitting on the table without landing gear. This is because the plane is built with replacement parts, and is not an actual ARF kit. Either way, it's going to be a great plane when it's done.

As you can see in the pic's, it's made out of all balsa and ply construction and covered in MonoKote. It has a very simple color scheme, and looks great.

The downside to this plane is that once it's built, the wings will not be removable. You have to epoxy them into place, and there is a VERY small carbon spar that will link them. This will be more of a pattern flier I think than a 3D flyer. Either way, I like it. It's the baby brother to my Edge 540T.

In the pics you can see the construction that goes into this plane. I still have to put the motor mount on it, but that will come later when I get everything else for it somehow. I have no clue where I can find landing gears for this thing lol. You will also notice that this one, you actually screw the canopy on. No magnets here to fail lol.

Other than that, there is not much more to tell on this one. It's very light, and should be fun to fly once I get it in the air. but, that will be a while.

 

[Jolly-Swagman]

Very nice Tony, also looking forward to seeing it in the Air,

 

[breeze400]

Nice looking plane. Your should be able to find landing gear anywhere. I've seen them all over the web sights when I was looking for wheels for my superstar. Plus I do nit think it would be too difficult to make the main gear. If the rudder goes all the way down to the bottom, you can buy a tail wheel that has a spar that goes into the bottom of the rudder then mounts in front of the rudder. The spar steers the plane on the ground no servo to hook up

 

[Tony]

Making the tail wheel is a cinch. Just bend a wire so that the wheel will be mounted directly to the rudder. Just have to watch those landings lol. And the gear for this plane may be a little hard to find. I want to find the ones that have the same mounting holes that the stock one had. So, I pretty much need the stock landing gears.

 

[RandyDSok]

Actually... the majority of the hardware that you mentioned was missed will probably be easy to obtain a suitable sustitute for.... Since Fliton has been out of business for a few years now, you won't probably find exact replacement hardware.

The biggest issue will be finding suitable landing gear... not so much the axles or wheels but the gear itself. I'd suggest that you consider just making some out of heavy gauge aluminum since that will be the cheapest and still hold up well... probably better than the Fliton fiberglass gear they normally came with even since they were prone to cracking on just a little heavy of a landing...

As for a possible 3rd party replacement gear... that may be a bit pricy but is made from CF ... see the following...

#235 Fliton Extra Main Gear - Graph Tech RC

And for a generic CF gear... see http://www.espritmodel.com/landing-gear-carbon-fiber.aspx

Randy

 

[Tony]

Why the hell didn't I think about making them out of aluminum? I have a bunch of .063 out in the shop that I could use. Should be really light as well. I guess this is a lesson to get out to the shop more often lol.

 

[RCD]

wow.... Randy really knows his stuff! lol

 

[RandyDSok]

wow.... Randy really knows his stuff! lol

Actually... just pretty good at researching... that and I've been researching this stuff for about a year and a half...

Randy

 

[Tony]

Along with the Bipe, I have epoxied the wings onto this plane. Yes, this plane has NON removable wings. It kinda sucks, but I think I can manage. There is a very small 2mm carbon wing spar that is the biggest pain on the whole thing. I used 5ml of epoxy to glue the wings on, so if they go anywhere, I hope to have it on video. Cause that will be one hell of a crash lmao.

I am very interested in seeing how this one flies. I want to compare this one to the Edge 540T. There is a 10" difference in the wings on the two, and I'm wondering if that will make that much difference. I guess only time will tell.

I do have to make some landing gears for this one unlike the Bipe where it has plastic gears included. I'm going to make these out of .063 aluminum, and I'm going to bend them in my shop. I just hope I can get the angles correct since I have nothing to compare my work to. I guess this will be a trial and error kind of deal.

Like the Bipe, I will need to get control rods, horns, screws, wheels, pants, and just about everything else to get this one in the air. Unfortunately, this will be the last one to fly. I really want to play with the Bipe (that sounds dirty lol). But, you never know, I may order two of everything when I build the Bipe and get them both in the air at the same time. That should be a great maiden day, or horrible depending on how they turn out lol.