Psyborgs Edge 540 build log

[PsyBorg]

The corn pic is the back yard area where I have been filming most of my quad videos.

The school just rotated crops this year as that area has been nice soft alfalfa for 3 years.

The park is about half the size of that open area out back.

There is a middle school that has plenty of room but I aint makin that walk again. Tried it twice last year with quads.

Its probably about 2 miles which is doable except the last quarter mile where the hill to get there rises easily 150-200 feet at over 20 degree slope. Does not make for a fun walk with back issues.

EDIT evidently my plank skills suck bad enough to make people unsub my super awesome yt page... 3 plank vids 5 mad people... such a sad state of affairs.

 

[ElectriSean]

EDIT evidently my plank skills suck bad enough to make people unsub my super awesome yt page... 3 plank vids 5 mad people... such a sad state of affairs.

LOL I'd be in the negatives at that point

 

[DamoRC]

EDIT evidently my plank skills suck bad enough to make people unsub my super awesome yt page... 3 plank vids 5 mad people... such a sad state of affairs.

I just subbed (don't know why I wasn't before). Don't worry - we'll keep you afloat in subs until you get the hang of it.

All - if you have ever given @PsyBorg a hard time because of his plank "skills" you owe him a youtube sub.

DamoRC

 

[PsyBorg]

Haha Thanx Damo.

It really dont matter. Not like anything important is there.

Sooo did the teardown for the rdge this morning and just completed the rebuilding parts minus the cowl.

Here is the hidden damage...

 

[basslord1124]

Any airtime is better than none. It gives you a sense of hope. Sometimes I often think how unfair it is, that Flitetest puts out a new model and maiden, and has an awesome first flight. Of course that's what we see...maybe that maiden took a few versions of the model and a few different video takes to get it right. Maybe that's the case or maybe they are much better pilots than you and I...we may never know. I think it's good to have and show the mishaps though...let you know what to expect from a certain model and how no one's perfect.

I've got a maiden I'm about to do, fully painted and everything. And Psyborg, with your experience, you reminded me that I should do my maidens without the color and decoration until I get the kinks worked out. Enjoyed your progress so far and looking forward to more.

 

[PsyBorg]

And here are the repairs and added structural support. Hopefully this does not add too much nose weight as there is not much room to move the battery aft to keep cg.

I cut the torn up cross plate out replaced and doubled that. Doubled up the backing plate. Made a new motor mount and doubled the with a U channel inside to help prevent crushing on nose dives. Finally I put a support under the shelf to stop flex on crashes.

I am not sure if any of this will help or just add weight but we shall soon see once I cut and form a new cowl.

Oh.. prolly should show the fuse split. I reglued the joints on the outer skin as well as the two places on the inside support I could get to.

Then I added two plates across the inside plate and the bottom of the outter skin. I will add plates to the side if it seems weak on the new taxi tests if I have to add weight aft to compensate for the weight added up front.

 

[Michael9865]

Looks like you have a good plan of attack and getting it all fixed up.

 

[FoamyDM]

Well...about that whole altitude thing....

That park is VERY small. The fit the soccer pitch between the two ball fields that are so close together that the center fielder sets up om second base of the opposite field on the rare ocassions they get used.

Google Bellamy Park NY. To see how small it is. I keep getting @gglefkt every time I try to do something on this phone thru google. They want every possible freakin spy feature turned on before they will even load a dam map.

I love how you write out what I think when just trying to
What about flying in the space behind Letchworth country store on 408 there. wide open and lovely (address of the farm looks to be (3229 Mt Morris Geneseo Rd, Mt Morris, New York)

 

[PsyBorg]

There are a few good spots I would be flying. The Geneseo Airport being one of them.

Unfortunately as I said before I am limited to walking distance. Having no vehicle nor local friends interested in rc anything makes it hard to get to them.

I will look up that addy and and see if its flyable. I have walked out to several places that looked good for flying only to find it being a swamp, or a cornfield that was cut down at the time google maps took the satelite photo. Found one VERY private property defended by dogs and rock salt.

Its even hard finding areas to fly quads as all the wooded areas up here tend to have 3 to 8 feet of scrub brush under the canopies.

Anyway the planes back to pretty. I even managed a bettr job on the cowl. Adding that extra vertical support pusged the motor forward one foam width making the prop be out front in a better looking place.

 

[PsyBorg]

Im thinking of trying to fly again tomorrow.

Winds in the morning are 7- 10 mph and 5 - 8 in the after noon.

Is that to brisk for a noob like myself? I did a lot of sim practice before under windy conditions but that's still a perfect world to fly in.

 

[SlingShot]

Im thinking of trying to fly again tomorrow.

Winds in the morning are 7- 10 mph and 5 - 8 in the after noon.

Is that to brisk for a noob like myself? I did a lot of sim practice before under windy conditions but that's still a perfect world to fly in.

It looks fine. Make 2 circuits and land.

 

[PsyBorg]

Put it up again today.

We have FLIGHT! I actually landed intentionally!!!

Not my goal of a full pack yet but I had controlled flight for the most part. I did manage a hard nose over breaking my last prop.

The test for the nose upgrades has proven strong and effective as the nose over pulled the screws thru my cheap balsa motor mount. No other damage then bent landing gear.

 

[DamoRC]

Put it up again today.

We have FLIGHT! I actually landed intentionally!!!

Not my goal of a full pack yet but I had controlled flight for the most part. I did manage a hard nose over breaking my last prop.

The test for the nose upgrades has proven strong and effective as the nose over pulled the screws thru my cheap balsa motor mount. No other damage then bent landing gear.

Progress! Excellent. I hope you learn to love this one as I do. I have a couple of favs among the FT list of planes but this one is #1.

DamoRC

 

[rockyboy]

Awesome!!

Sounds like a great "pre-determined" failure point in the balsa firewall too - strong enough for normal flight, but gives way absorbing energy and protecting other more expensive or more difficult to repair parts.

Nicely done!

 

[PsyBorg]

WEEEE!!!!!!

I flew today. I actually experienced controlled (meaning not reactive and not perfectly under control) flight.

Managed to get thru a whole pack albeit not in on flight. Was a tad more windy the it looked as into the wind the plane would fly high alpha (nicely too). I impressed my self by not panicing thinking I stalled.

With the wind it was flying nice n level n straight. I had a very small area to work with so for my skills I think i did ok.

Its fine other then some mud scrapes on the belly and a dirty prop so its ready to go for another round.

I did notice the lack of power on stock c pack but that could also be only 25c rated pack pushin a 10x5 not standard 10x4.5 as i could not find any in stock at multiple places.

Hoping I can get this up to the school for more room soon.

 

[Grifflyer]

Congrats!!

 

[rockyboy]

Awesome!!!

 

[PsyBorg]

Today did not go as well as yesterday...

Did a few laps around that field and on the last lap was getting to where I would have trees between me and the plane so I did the bank n yank begining of a turn to make it face me to come bsck around in front if me.

I learned two things. One aileron rates for my mid rates is a tad too high and elevator is wayyyy to low.

I rolled it over and started pulling up elevator but it was not turning as fast as I needed it to. So I goosed full tbrottle to get more airfow all that did was roll it more and pretty much tip stall it.

I leveled the ailerons as it was nearing inverted at this point pulled full elevator hoping to finish off is a poorly executed split s so I would either pancake and land flat with little speed or get lucky and pullit out level to gain air speed and recover.

No dice. I guess there was enough cross wind and lack of speed as it faced straight down into the perfect lawn dart landing.

Needless to say I will be building another nose to try again.

I think i need to look into upgrading to 4s like others as the lack of power needed to do aggressive maneuvers is going to continue to be an issue.

I am sure if it had more power that would have completed the split s easily in the space it had to fly in even with the lower rates on the elevator.

 

[Bricks]

Flying an underpowered plane is never any fun at least to me. I only want lazy type flying by my choice by less throttle versus just plain under powered especially 3D it just does not work. To newbies I really stress build as light as you can.

 

[rockyboy]

Sounds like you had control for a good long while, and were able to recognize what control surfaces were and weren't moving enough for you - that's a pretty good success! On the figure 9 maneuver, I've done that a couple times myself. It's hard to remember that rolling out of inverted flight when at lower altitudes usually requires fewer repairs