stop. It was very neutral. The power was also reduced a bit to keep the speed down. With all looking good the next step was to


make an approach to see how best to land this type of plane. This too became self evident. As the throttle was pulled back and the speed de- cayed it just kept slowing down. With the model near the ground the throttle was closed all the way and up elevator was added until there was no more to be had. At full up ele- vator, at a flying weight of 83


⁄4 ounces, the


No real runway is needed here! A bit of throttle, a slight toss and the Edge is off into the wild blue.


will be turning on a 3-cell pack any little im- balance will show up. So with the airplane complete, what next?


If you have never flown one of this type of aircraft before how to do the first flight can be a bit daunting. I’d finished this particu- lar aircraft in mid-December and that means winter in Kansas. I personally had not done any flying of this type indoors and was a bit reluctant to try it out in a gym as my first move. My plan was to wait for a rea- sonably calm day and try it outside so I could climb to some reasonable altitude af- ter launch to be able to get some error room before trying anything funny. I had never tried the required launch technique with the E-flite Cap 232 because any mistake at low altitude would have serious consequences and so there was no experience with this procedure at all. The day finally came on a Saturday in Jan-


uary. It was 35 degrees outside and the snow was finally all gone (a measure of how des- perate I was). The wind was only about 7–10 mph from the south. So it was warming up. After hooking everything together (controls on full rate) and checking the equipment, it was out the back door to the east hay field. Once set in a good area with as few obstruc- tions as possible I simply faced the light breeze and, with the bottom of the aircraft facing away from me and the nose pointed up at about an angle of 80 degrees or so, brought up the throttle until the aircraft began to pull a little bit (about 1


⁄2 –2 ⁄3 position). I’d practiced how much throttle was re-


quired in the house without letting go, and was obviously wanting to go and then sim- ply let go. It turned out that I need not have worried about this part of the procedure though as it flew up and away as if it were on autopilot. The trims essentially needed no work as it


rose and pulled away much like a Starduster X or some other competition freeflight mod- el on launch. In fact I soon discovered that this seemed to be a mode in which the mod- el is actually quite stable. The model was al- lowed to climb to about 60 feet and then the investigation began to find out what the con- trol characteristics were going to be. Roll was quick as were the other two axes. But when the stick was released it would all


FLYING MODELS


model came in like a freeflight model under full DT. It just settled into the hay! This was very different and yet oddly familiar. The rest of the flying session was spent in- creasing the flight envelope of the model and finding out where my limits were. After us- ing up two batteries on this first outing my fingers finally were too cold and stiff to con- tinue. One of the things that was most prac- ticed was the launch and landing techniques until completely comfortable with them. Then inside to wait for better weather. The future plan would be to eventually


bring down the size of the “box” in which all flying was done until it matched the size of the local gym. This meant waiting for warmer weather and hoping for a clam mornings or late evenings. But with the as- surance that response to such conditions would be quick and easy with this new plane all anxiety was now gone. With the extra altitude it is also easier


and safer to experiment with “hovering” this type of model plane. It will require that you bring in some right aileron and some very judicious use of the throttle. I usually enter the hover from a level flight by pulling the nose up and then adding power as necessary until a hover or very slow climb is achieved and then work at trying to maintain the hov- er by bringing back the throttle and working the elevator, rudder and ailerons as neces- sary until the hover is stabilized. Unfortunately this will not last long on


your first attempts and it will be necessary to bail out of the situation. One of the quick- est and safest ways to do this is to pull full up elevator and blast the throttle to full. Then the model will pull over into a half loop and you can stop it at the bottom by releas- ing back pressure on the elevator or if you are in a gym at low altitude you can chop the throttle and let the model pancake in while continuing to hold full up elevator. The mod- el will flop onto the floor and the EPP foam of the lower fuselage will protect the vital equipment and the prop saver will do the rest if the prop has not stopped turning by the time it hits. Being able to bail out of the “hover” if


things start to go badly is a skill you will need to acquire quickly, but the forgiving nature of the EPP foam is also a big help here until you have “got it right”. The out- side high altitude approach also helps in saving wear and tear on the plane, but you have to wait for a very calm day. Rare here in Kansas, but not unheard of. It usually happens during a work day when it does. Life is never simple. One other note on flying outdoors in the


wind. Start with only calm days until you have the launch technique down pat. Then try some launches on days with ever in- creasing wind conditions. Just like a normal airplane you will launch with the nose of the


plane into the wind. With more and more wind you will want to lower the nose a bit more to prevent the surprise of the sudden nose over (down) that a nose high launch at- titude under these windy conditions will precipitate. The model flies in a very stable manner in


a nose high attitude with nose into the wind. It will just hang there. But a full nose high hover in these conditions will just result in the model quickly drifting down wind and a bail out followed by a drive back up wind to try again. I’ve actually become quite adept at slow flying in windy weather and this model makes it very easy. In the final analysis, this model would


make a very good practice model for this type of flying and the kit built very easy and true using the techniques described here and on the internet. The only question is what will you do with all the time usually spent fixing models after the flying session. The model hasn’t been crashed hard yet and if the batteries are charged after the flying session, there is no reason so far not to fly again. An interesting proposition....


Component Weights


Component Rudder


Elevator Unit Horizontal Stabilizer


Weight 4 grams 5 grams 2 grams


Horizontal Nose Component 4 grams Aft Horizontal Fuselage Left Aileron Unit Right Aileron Unit Main Wing Unit Lower Fuselage Upper Fuselage 9mm x 1


5 grams 6 grams 6 grams 17 grams 10 grams 7 grams


⁄2 mm graphite strap 4 mm graphite tube


3 grams (each)


7 grams


Graphite & wire pushrod matl. 2 grams Kit Total


Brushless Park 300 motor GWS EP-0843 PROP 10 amp ESC Hitec HS 55


82 grams 23 grams 4 grams 10 grams 9 grams


(each, 4 used)


Spektrum AR6200 receiver 10 grams Plywood motor mount assembly 4 grams Du-Bro “Blade” horns


1 gram Misc hardware


(each, 4 used) 2 grams


Raw material measurements


24×36 sheet 1.3 EPP Foam 92 grams (9mm thickness)


24×36 sheet 1.9 EPP Foam 153 grams (9mm thickness)


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