87" Vertigo Edge 540

[sideshowbill13]

Ok so I picked up this Vertigo Edge 540 at airshowrc.com Its a local vendor and he was selling them for 189.00 dollars.

So far I'll sare what I have done.

The goods.

Inexpensive
Scale
Strong airframe
Well packaged
Comes with typical arf stuff
All laser cut parts fit perfrect

The Cons.

Had tons of wrinkles(but smooth out nice with heat iron)
Red Bull scheme not the same as the real one
paper hinges on elevator and rudder
Have to put washers on the landing gear but still have some wheel camber

I borrowed a few pics that I didn't have of it.

I startd by test fitting all pieces
Then I continued on cutting out the wing spar holes and elevators.
I made the checker board pattern on the rudder to resemble the real one a lil bit more then just the bull graphic.
I changed the rudder and elevator to robart style hinges. Used 6 for the rudder and 4 on each elevator half.
The aileron's came with robart style hinged. Already pre drilled.
Once everything lined up I glued in.

I plan on changing the hardware to Hanger 9 heavy duty.

Gonna run 2 elevator servos for each half.
A pull pull wire system for the rudder.
1 servo on each side of the aileron

I am going to use a 3250 watt Turnigy Electric motor with a 100 amp esc and 12c batteries 2 6 cell dont know what mah yet.

I am not sure on servos for it yet could use some help on deciding those.

Should be about 17lbs when finished

And now the pics

[sideshowbill13]

bump

[Disciple]

not bad for 189.00. lols now lets see the gal fly.

[sideshowbill13]

I should have it flying in a month or so. I need to afford all the electronics and its hard when your only collecting unemployment. Also this is my first big plane so for 189.00 I ain't loosing much if I find the ground in the wrong manner

[Paul5992]

I just ordered one of these. How is the quality? I already know the hardware is going in the trash.

[sideshowbill13]

The Cons.

Had tons of wrinkles(but smooth out nice with heat iron)
Red Bull scheme not the same as the real one
paper hinges on elevator and rudder
Have to put washers on the landing gear but still have some wheel camber
Wings need another bolt put in to help hold on plane

[Paul5992]

	Quote: Originally Posted by sideshowbill13
	The Cons. Had tons of wrinkles(but smooth out nice with heat iron) Red Bull scheme not the same as the real one paper hinges on elevator and rudder Have to put washers on the landing gear but still have some wheel camber Wings need another bolt put in to help hold on plane

The wrinkles are not a problem, if they come out. Even on a good arf you have to go over the covering with an iron. The color, I'm gonna change with a few strips of altrakote. It is close to the real one. The hinges are a $3.00 fix. I will replace the landing gear if necessary. And the wings are a Judgement call. Those are all very minor problems that can be fixed with a little effort and very little money. If you build many arfs you will begin to see that they all have little issues that need attention. What I was wondering was is the assembly quality any good. Are the glue joints tight? Does the airframe look strong and well thought out? Are the control surfaces double beveled? That kind of stuff. Here look at this plane. With a little covering you could very easily make it look the same except for the wing tips and the color black.

[sideshowbill13]

All true as I did those mods. You can see I put the checker pattern on the tail on mine if you look at my pics.

Construction is very strong. Everything is a very good tight fit.

All surfaces are double beveled and pre joined.

The Red Bull plane you pictred is a special edidition one he usually uses the Blue that comes on the vertigo edge. Ya the red tips kind of annoy me but It dont look bad thought about covering over them to the matching blue on top and silver on the bottom but I am passing.

I am very detailed orientated when I build and am trying to make something look like something else sometimes I'll just talk myself into it as being fine.

Kirby Chambliss is also my favorite aerobatic pilot so having a plane close to his makes me very happy.


I think I sent you a link to the build thread that I used on rcgroups too.

Enjoy and any tips you find and wanna share I am down lol. This is my first giant scale plane and I am very happy with it for the cost.

[sideshowbill13]

Here is a pic I took with mine.

[rmr24]

Paul5992: I am putting one of these together right now also, it will have a DA50 for power. This ARF is not as pre-assembled as most modern-day ARFs, mainly the canopy has to glued to hatch, the motor box has to be assembled and installed and none of the hinges are pre-glued. The included hardware is what you would expect on a 40-60 size glow plane, I replaced it all with 4-40/ball-link hardware that I had on-hand. As already noted the tail-feathers have CA hinges, not a good idea on a plane this size, I replaced with pin-hinges. Before installing the motor box, I had to fill in some of the framework with 1/8" ply to have a solid surface to mount switches. I have not gotten to it yet, but I may have to build a mount for the throttle servo. I think I will also have to build something to hold the fuel tank in place. When I was pulling one of elevator servo arms off to reposition it, the plywood mount popped completely off, so I would recommend checking every one of them and hitting them and everything else you can get to with CA (I think this is standard practice for most people). The way I see it, if it flys well and holds up, the extra work will be worth the $400-$500 saved over a brand-name, if it flys like a dog then I ain't out that much cash.

[sideshowbill13]

It looks like it flys real nice pattern wise!! A local guy has one and He doesn't do 3d so don't know how durable for that but as far as flying it looks beautiful in the sky...

[Paul5992]

	Quote: Originally Posted by rmr24
	Paul5992: I am putting one of these together right now also, it will have a DA50 for power. This ARF is not as pre-assembled as most modern-day ARFs, mainly the canopy has to glued to hatch, the motor box has to be assembled and installed and none of the hinges are pre-glued. The included hardware is what you would expect on a 40-60 size glow plane, I replaced it all with 4-40/ball-link hardware that I had on-hand. As already noted the tail-feathers have CA hinges, not a good idea on a plane this size, I replaced with pin-hinges. Before installing the motor box, I had to fill in some of the framework with 1/8" ply to have a solid surface to mount switches. I have not gotten to it yet, but I may have to build a mount for the throttle servo. I think I will also have to build something to hold the fuel tank in place. When I was pulling one of elevator servo arms off to reposition it, the plywood mount popped completely off, so I would recommend checking every one of them and hitting them and everything else you can get to with CA (I think this is standard practice for most people). The way I see it, if it flys well and holds up, the extra work will be worth the $400-$500 saved over a brand-name, if it flys like a dog then I ain't out that much cash.

Here we go. I thought this thread was dead. I always CA the servo bays when I CA harden the servo screw holes. I'm going to run a DL-50 for power. I've had lots of ARF's that everyone told me are great planes. But the hardware was as you described. So I almost always expect that to be junk. How about some more pictures guys. My plane should be here on Friday.

[Paul5992]

sideshowbill I changed your plane a little. This is kind of what I was thinking. for my plane. And the Red Bull stickers of course.

[flyinhi]

I did not see the engine box rails. Are there any in this plane? And if so... they do not extend back and around the wing tube. I had a 50cc like that....very cheap. Flew great but a real Porcelain Princess. Only got one flight on it. (My fault....dead RX bats) Check and you may want to double up around the engine/motor mount. Hit ALL joints with thin CA. Some of these ARF should be named ARG Almost Ready to Glue!

[Paul5992]

	Quote: Originally Posted by flyinhi
	I did not see the engine box rails. Are there any in this plane? And if so... they do not extend back and around the wing tube. I had a 50cc like that....very cheap. Flew great but a real Porcelain Princess. Only got one flight on it. (My fault....dead RX bats) Check and you may want to double up around the engine/motor mount. Hit ALL joints with thin CA. Some of these ARF should be named ARG Almost Ready to Glue!

So when you say it was a porcelain princess what do you mean? Did your RX batts go dead? Did you pile drive it? Please fill me in.