Edge 540
Green “Frog” tape, similar to 3M’s blue painter’s tape, was used (above left) on the aileron leading edges, top and bottom, to set the boundaries for the 45° bevel. Some of the FMlibrary books served as great weight clamps while glue
dried (above right). Some 3M painters tape served as clamps to hold the center core panels together (below left) while the 15-minute epoxy cured. Here (below right) the foam in the center section for the carbon fiber spar is cut away.
ed to fit the servos used, in my case the Hitec HS-65s. They were just a bit oversized for the cutouts in the wing and fuselage. One small but convenient task was to sand a lit- tle trough in the foam under the plastic ser- vo mount plates for the servo cables. Plastic plate doublers serve as the screw plate since the foam can’t hold the servos. Or, some sil- icone sealant, or good double sided tape can also be used.
Last item on the assembly agenda is the placement of the battery and the ESC. Servo position is already determined by the cutouts, but the placement of the battery will primarily affect the c.g. The ESC is also a factor but not nearly as much as the bat-
tery. Before committing to the final position of the hook and loop fasteners for the battery and the ESC I taped them in place to see where they came close to the suggested bal- ance point.
When that was determined the hook and loop fastener was glued in place. Yeah, glued in place on the foam. Too often I’ve had this type of fastener pull off foam sur- faces of all kinds. In a full body ship that may not be as critical but on a profile it would be disastrous, so I glue the strips to the fuselage with some 5-minute epoxy. One of the pictures will show where the battery, ESC, and receiver ended up on the fuselage. Some minimal graphics are supplied with
the Edge and the other three planes in the series so I used them since they are pretty neat, but to give my wearly old eyes some ex- tra help I used some MonoKote trim sheets that have been lying around the workshop for quite a while. Felt it was necessary for these aging eyes.
So it was time to fly. Balance was checked and the suggested 3–3¹⁄₂-inch c.g. range ulti- mately proved right on. To achieve it, though, the 1300 mAh Li-Po had to be placed up front almost right behind the mo- tor. But it proved the right place to be. I checked the bind between the Hitec Min- ima 6L receiver and the Hitec Aurora 9 transmitter. The procedure is slightly differ-
The manual calls for “Z” bends on either end of the pushrods, Du-Bro E-Z connectors were substituted (above) on the servo arms to afford easy adjustments for the linkage. The 5-minute epoxy cures (at right) on the elevator carbon fiber tie, clamped with tape to the elevator halves.
34 AUGUST 2013
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