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Helpful Innovation from Skywing - On my Edge 540 91"


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Having had much fun and use from the 74" electric version of my Skywing Edge 540, I decided to buy its bigger brother at 91" if only from the visibility point of view. I do like the large scale aircraft although I do have some in the squadron at 60 odd inches. The kit quality is every bit up there with Extreme Flight, albeit a reasonable amount cheaper. From a weight point of view EF has the edge, but there's not much in it. Furthermore, as SW changes its colour schemes at the end of the season there are some bargains to be had on the Probuild website. That's when I make the decision on what to do during poor weather days in the winter. I do like some of the innovations that SW comes up with to make life easier and allow as little workshop time and get out flying if that's your thing. It is mine.

I was tempted by this video although I am going the electric route.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=P-cfzH3aRTo

 

The image that gives an idea of size came from Probuild. That fella is not me by the way!

 

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Anyway onto what I like with the design.

 

 

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The manual is generic and such as it is, is rather sparse although the most important bits are there. I like the drawing that can be downloaded that gives the measurements of the important parts. 

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Helpfully it mentions that the CoG is midpoint between the exhaust and manifold set up. In this case 449mm from the. motor mount.

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That appears to be over the main wing tube.

And when I opened my eyes it is marked internally too!

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Looking at the internal fuselage layout all the servo extension leads are pre-threaded down the fuselage which is a boon.

 

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I notice all the hinges are pre-glued and I gave them a good tug to make sure.

The rudder is fitted by threading a rod along the hinges and secured with a collet. I am not sure about that idea even after filing a flat on the rod.

 

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The fitting of the horns is a simple affair and it is recommended that the bolt coupler are fitted while the glue dries the allow for correct positioning. The slots did need a bit of enlarging though. 

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The U/C collars fit perfectly and some rubber sleeving is included to be thin cyanod on to the collar. the collar is secured using black silicone sealant.

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Back to the front of the fuselage. There is a curved shaped tunnel fitted to push the airflow out of the bottom of the fuz.

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The vent is huge and it well up to the job.

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After cutting the covering  it is straightforward to fit the vent which is laminated with carbon fibre.

 

There is also a much larger vent that can be fitted further back to allow heat from the I/C pipe to dissipate. All the accessories to accommodate an I/C version are included.

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On to the motor mount.

There are a number of scribing points on the mount face to accommodate a variety of I/C options. None for electric but I expected that to be the case. Side thrust is built in.

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I had to do a bit of simple geometry to ascertain the position of my electric motor.

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The motor was added using standoffs supplied with the motor, adding 15mm of spacers to each stand off. The cowl was test fitted which was correct. Phew!

 

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When the cowl is screwed in that will pull it slightly to the right to give a more accurate alignment. All cowl screws and claw nuts pre-fitted. 

That's it for the moment, but there is more to come.

 

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A quick look at the main wing fixings which I quite like.

Each wing has two permanent screws in which fit into two brackets on the fuselage side

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The thing I like is that although you can just push the clip down to engage the screw, the top of the clip can't be forgotten before flying because the canopy can't be fitted unless the clip is engaged. Also the clip doesn't come undone during flight because the canopy is sitting on it. Very helpful for forgetful people like me. (Don't ask)

 

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There is nothing particular to report about fitting the aileron servos which will be driven from separate channels.

The elevator servo fitting was its usual pain in the backside as they are concealed in the tailplanes. The one positive is that there is a slot in the rib that allows the servo wire to be fed under the servo and round to the wing root. All in all each elevator took in excess of 10 minutes including putting in the screws.

 

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Glad that part is over. I will be using separate channels for each elevator too. As mentioned the extension leads are already fed into the at fuz source so that is one less awkward job.

 

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Thanks, Peter. I have left out the basic stuff of the assembly as I have covered that a few times before. I just felt it was interesting to show how easy it can get in a labour saving effort by some clever designers. There are a few more things I will post in the near future. I think I am going to spend a bit more time on it judging by how much the rain is lashing on the window at the moment! 😠

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Good pics, thanks Adrian.

 

Their 73" Laser 260 came my way today and I have to say those wing/ele retainers are excellent and I really like the magnetic bolts too. Simple, functional design. Haven't flown one of theirs yet but I have it on good authority that I won't be disappointed.

 

8 hours ago, Adrian Smith 1 said:

each elevator took in excess of 10 minutes

 

 ...yeah but think how much time you'll save not having to undo the linkages every time you take them off!

 

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You won't, Duncan. I have the SW 74" version of the Edge 540 with a Dualsky Racing motor in it and I have had endless fun and continue to do so.  I have togo this route because while I have served my apprenticeship on building from scratch many years ago, I have bad reactions to glues like cyano and epoxy resin. Do post some pictures of your Laser at some point. 

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IMG_2011.thumb.JPG.46ad8fe5a5ecb773df19d39152aeaa49.JPG

 

Here you go Adrian - it looks like this at the moment. I've got a GA3000.7 waiting to go into it, running 8S 4000 batts. It's the V2 so doesn't have the removable elevator the V3 has. Mark, who I bought it from, has crafted a set of tabs for them so they screw in and are thus removable, though I tend to leave them attached up to 74" size. He's bought the V3 and I was happy to scoop this one up from him (we've done this dance many times before!)

 

Also picked up a Skywing 60" NG that's awaiting fitting out, but it's the same high construction standards even on their little stuff - including the funky wing mechanism. Got that one off Clive (and we've done the dance so many times now that I'm considering setting up a Direct Debit)

 

From what I've seen so far I'd say Skywing are better than Pilot and almost up there with Extreme Flight which, to be fair, is accurately reflected in their price points. Talking of EF, they're getting with the program on fasteners themselves: here's a nice touch on their 60" Gamebird, about halfway down the side of the canopy, a carbon tab in the fuselage that mates with a slot on the canopy frame, one on each side

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It's in addition to the usual canopy latch on top. It's definitely not coming off in flight. Or, if it does, it can be considered an achievement! Because I don't know how to create the forces that would make them come undone.

 

Also, on their 85" Gamebird, everything is fastened with sprung catches like this

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...in fact the only things that bolt on are the SFGs.

 

<< Excuse the thread drift to EF but it was still about innovative fasteners! >>

 

 

 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Back in the game again today after being laid low with some nasty cold bug. Thanks for the photos DD. I am all for making life easier. Another thing I like is that there is wooden template to enable prop driver bolt holes to be drilled into spinner back plate.

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It fits nicely into the backplate groves with the spinner plate arriving undrilled. Fortunately the holes match the bolt holes on the GA8000 motor.

 

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How easy can that be? Like it.

The spinner comes with prop slots pre-cut and easily accommodate my 26x10 and 27x10 props.

 

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The U/C wheels look particularly robust which need to be given the size/weight of the plane. The The wheel hub appears to be made with alloy metal while the foam wheel is of the very hard variety.

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These are usually a weak point on less than perfect landing so I will see how good there are.

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I invested in some new, longer servo arms to make the aileron geometry easier to set up correctly.

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Same goes for the elevators and rudder. A worthwhile investment I think.

That's workshop detail over for today and I am hopeful of getting out to FLY on Friday!

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That's looking lovely Adrian! The spinner template is a stroke of genius.

 

A couple of pics of a baby Skywing NG that still has these nice features:

 

It's the stuff that costs 2p that makes a difference - these servo cable plugs that stop the cable end disappearing into the wing every time it's removed

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The diddy version of the wing retainer

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...it's the same "can't put on the canopy with the wings unlocked" system

 

The pre-installed tail end cable runs make the Rx install nice 'n' tidy

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Binding at about 1am this morning so I could get the servo arms on (but fell asleep instead)

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Servo arms have just been installed this frosty morning, so I'm off to fly it

 

 

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Slight hiccup with the tail wing. On the port side the 2 screws on the inside surface don't quite engage with the internal clip. Such are the fine margins in tolerance that have to be fulfilled.

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It's not clear from the photo but the clip is only at 25% of travel before engaging. Both clips are the same.

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Best solution was to turn the screw outward by half a turn and refit. Once that was established I put a drop of thin cyano on the screws' base to secure them.

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All good now. All the other clip mechanisms seemed to be working fine first time on the starboard tailplane and the two main wings. 

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As with some of the smaller SW kits there is a useful grommet set into F1 to feed the servo wire through on the main wings which lines it up nicely with the slot on the side of the fuselage.

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Neat. Saves any chafing risk.

She is beginning to come together now, but still plenty to do. The picture just about give scale to her size. More soon, but there seems a good chance of flying at the end of the week 🤞

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  • 2 weeks later...

A bit of workshop time today, therefore I looked and the main wheel assembly.

The axles are really top quality which they have to be for a plane of this size.

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The thing I like is the cylindrical buffer incorporated on the spindles that exactly measure where the wheel should sit. No messing about with collets which I guarantee will loosen over time.

A dab a blue thread lock is required on each thread as there is no plastic locknut sleeve to hold it in place.

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A nice tidy job.

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the nut that secures the wheel is also blue thread locked.

 

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The spats come ready drilled and claw nuts fitted in what is a tidy job. 

 

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Next on go the wheels.

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Then the spats. Which align perfectly with the wheels.

 

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The whole set up looks to be in perfect alignment. 

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That's all I had time for. Next up will be the fine tuning of the working surfaces and another look at the prop spinner that is provided.

 

 

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