PAU 36% Edge 540 Build

[Scotte 540]

The point I'm trying to make, is there has been many issues with the wings of this airplane, not just mine, obviously not yours but at least four other people, that I know about-------A little more than coincidence if you ask me and with someone blaming them self for something that may or may not been their fault, I just thought it was time to at least get what has happened to some of these wings out in the open.............I like some of PAU's aircraft, kina doubt if I would ever buy another one,,,,,people should make their own decisions based on all the information that can be read, talked about and seen.............If you own a PAU 36% Edge 540, take a real good look into the frame work of your wings,,,,,,pay close attention to the second/third rib in and see if you can see any damage, near the leading edge,,,,,,,look for signs of glue or lack of, on all visible connections.........again I addressed all this and it still blew off, so when I cut into the wings for the rebuild I will show you what I will be doing, so this won't happen to me again..........

[wylieruneyjr]

I just want to say that I know there were no defects in my wings. They failed because I pushed them beyond design limits. I will not allow anyone to say there is a problem with the design on this plane. Of the few failures one guy admitted he was doing parachutes at throttle and bragging about how he could see the wings flexing. I wonder how many times he did this before the wing finally failed. This guy should grow-up and admit that he killed his plane , not cry baby about it. MAN -UP people. Out of 1000+ planes out there only 4 wing failures. And I,d bet all but two were pilot error. Two may have been caused by wing tubes being too short. Maybe, I,d bet it was repeat stresses caused by pilot error. PAU HAS THE BEST SERVICE PERIOD> AND WOULD NOT HESITATE TO RECALL WINGS IF THERE WERE REAL PROBLEMS. It only Takes one cry baby to bad mouth a company, and cause problems. I say MAN - UP. IF your wing failed it was most likely your own fault. Tell the truth. Or aleast quit slandering a great product. PS. If you are flying at an event and suffer wing failure, there should not be any safety issues, unless you are over flying people. And we all know not to do that. If you are good and still have control attempt a hemple landing. If you aren,t that good or don,t have control dump it. No safety issue unless you are doing something you shouldn,t be doing. NOT A SAFETY ISSUE OR DESIGN FLAW.

[Scotte 540]

	Quote: Originally Posted by wylieruneyjr
	I just want to say that I know there were no defects in my wings. They failed because I pushed them beyond design limits. I will not allow anyone to say there is a problem with the design on this plane. Of the few failures one guy admitted he was doing parachutes at throttle and bragging about how he could see the wings flexing. I wonder how many times he did this before the wing finally failed. This guy should grow-up and admit that he killed his plane , not cry baby about it. MAN -UP people. Out of 1000+ planes out there only 4 wing failures. And I,d bet all but two were pilot error. Two may have been caused by wing tubes being too short. Maybe, I,d bet it was repeat stresses caused by pilot error. PAU HAS THE BEST SERVICE PERIOD> AND WOULD NOT HESITATE TO RECALL WINGS IF THERE WERE REAL PROBLEMS. It only Takes one cry baby to bad mouth a company, and cause problems. I say MAN - UP. IF your wing failed it was most likely your own fault. Tell the truth. Or aleast quit slandering a great product.

Everyone is entitled to opinions....."Slandering" is a pretty tough word when you can't prove squat about the why's and how's and if you think I'm a cry baby you are totally wrong, I asked for and received my full purchase price back and would not have said another word if I didn't see the same thing happen again to someone else-------I don't care if you think this self induced in all cases, at least it the information is available, and people can make up their own minds on what to buy or how to fly this plane and when it happens again I can at least have the satisfaction of pointing out a potential problem before someone gets hurt, or your out a bunch of money for your gear,,,,,,,,,,,,,You know nothing about how I flew this plane or looked after it and if you or anyone else thinks I'm making a big deal out of this, too bad, I have never bad mouthed this company, but I'm sure as heck not afraid to say something about a product that may have a problem..............

[JohnVH]

Here is all the PAU planes that flew at Bellair this past week. Sorry, I like to take pics.



And my new baby, flew it 3 times sunday morning, love it! You can see Jeff's 36% in the air behind it

[sweetpea]

And I watched Ken fly his about 5 times if not more with the Shaky 85 in it. I'm just about to push the Buy it now button on the site........except the wife's B-day is tomorrow and I don't think she wants the Focke Wulf as her present.

[JohnVH]

speaking of, here is Ken doing his long tail drags, haha

[gdryer]

I have witnessed 3 wing failures for the PAU Edge and in all cases the planes (in my opinion) were not being flown unreasonably hard. In two out of the 3 cases the planes broke during the same IMAC snap manuever. In all cases the pattern of broken pieces looked very similar and it appeared that the glue joints failed.

I am not an expert but statistally these planes seem to have a high failure rate in the North West. I base this on the fact that I have not heard of any other in-flight wing failures at NW IMAC events this year.

[Major_Smackdown]

	Quote: Originally Posted by wylieruneyjr
	I will not allow anyone to say there is a problem with the design on this plane.

There is a problem with the design on this plane. (oops - I forgot you wouldn't allow that) Actually it's probably a quality control issue - It is, however, retarded to assume that because someone has a failure with an item that you have great success with that he is abusing or dis-respecting the item. So in turn - when you have a failure and other people aren't - then should it be assumed you're dis-respecting the product or abusing it ?

I saw Scott's wing come off, and it sure didn't seem like his snaps are any nastier than anyone elses... (I think mine are far more violent) I don't think that anyone will try to stop you from buying another airframe. PAU needs loyal customers to make up for folks like me who probably won't buy this particular model at least after seeing 2 failures myself in person.

The 'expert' witness does exist and he's a designer and kit producer of world renowned aircraft for many many years. His opinion is probably one worth nothing. His anonymity may not endure but it should be his decision whether or not to feed this frenzy.

Another point made by the 'mob' is totally moot and begs these questions:

Should safety only be of concern where there are crowds such as at contests ?
Is where a plane crashes as it fails predictable ?
Is the way in which it fails going to be exactly the same ?
And is the issue of safety different between the practice field and the contest field ? Of course it is - with a greater crowd of people and property and children running around - chances are far greater of an injury during the mishap.

I'm not really arguing with anyone here - just pointing out a few things that might have been overlooked. I don't own a PAU and have no stake in the company or any qualms with its stellar reputation. I was considering the purchase of this particular airframe but that has changed to not considering.

[Major_Smackdown]

Wayne, your avatar is spooky.

[Scotte 540]

I have had my say here (maybe too much) but we all get caught in the heat of the moment............I won't add anything more except I would like to say that Herve & Ken (PAU) are great people to deal with and have a good thing going with this business, their following and with any new prospective customers, that would buy any of their products, that I know they stand behind and are very proud of.........Nothing said should take away from this and I'm sure they will do what they feel is right and is in everyone's best interests and I sincerely hope this only helps, not hurts in any future with this or any other product line they sell..........Scott

[sweetpea]

I have not seen anyone loose a wing on this plane. I'm seriously looking at the 36% to replace my "not so true" 35% Edge I built years ago. I'm a few Franklin's short right now though.

While I see some people's concern.......at the same time I wonder how the plane(s) were flown prior to the failure in all the cases. A full throttle snap/wall/parachute etc puts tremendous stress on the plane that they are not designed for (or any plane on the market for that matter). These stresses could have caused failures well before the actual departure.

Its also a known fact that the wingtube issue was a cause and that was fixed promptly by the company. The 43% also had an issue that was fixed promptly by the company. I have no doubt Herve and Ken have wrung out the 36% planes and had wings inspected to be sure there is no structural issues.

As a side note.....there are far more instances of the H9 Su-26 and H9 260 coming apart and being reported online yet we see these in great amounts in IMAC........makes you wonder.

Heck I've seen more Daltons and Comp Arf's loose wings or delaminate than the PAU wings.


All this from a non sponsored IMAC/newbie to 3D pilot.

[Major_Smackdown]

	Quote: Originally Posted by sweetpea
	As a side note.....there are far more instances of the H9 Su-26 and H9 260 coming apart and being reported online yet we see these in great amounts in IMAC........makes you wonder...

Where are these "far more instances" you speak of ?

Makes you wonder what ?

If you buy the PAU edge, you'll just wish you had bought the H9 Extra 260.

[Major_Smackdown]

	Quote: Originally Posted by Scotte 540
	I have had my say here (maybe too much) ....

Don't feel bad Scott, you tried - you just had to find out the hard way that you know nothing, you abused your plane disrespected it and mistreated it, your wing didn't actually fail because Sweatpea didn't see it happen.... etc. etc.

[Cobra_03]

Wow! Marjor Smack Talker,

A little disgruntled are we? Geeze man.... I though this was a build thread for a PAU 36% Edge and not a bashing thread! I think your point has been made guy!

I have wanted this plane since it came out and have been following this thread since page one. Not once have I decided to shy away from the edge from what I have seen on this thread.
We had 5 PAU edge 540's at our field this weekend and after seeing them fly I'm sold. Despite all the PAU haters out there.

I'm waiting for my new DA100L then I'll be clicking the buy button on this airframe! Yeah Son!!

Major, this ones for you.....

YouTube - HANGER 9 35% EXTRA 260 AIRFRAME FAILURE

[sweetpea]

	Quote: Originally Posted by Major_Smackdown
	Where are these "far more instances" you speak of ? Makes you wonder what ? If you buy the PAU edge, you'll just wish you had bought the H9 Extra 260.

No I won't. I've watched the fuse of the H9 twist and fail on numerous planes in the SW. Also purple isn't my color. If I wanted another 260 I'd get the AW version. I've owned 2 and they were both rock solid. I am looking for something other than another 260 also H9 is overpriced IMHO.

Also I never said that anyones plane didn't fail because I didn't see it. By me not seeing it and the preceding flights I can only make assumptions for the reasons of the failure. IMHO I believe that most of the incidents are caused by overspeeding/stressing the airframe. It will be interesting to see if more planes of similar construction fail by the same pilots flying the same style.