Tony
Staff member
As you guys have read, I had a little mishap with my 50" Edge 540T Early Saturday morning. For those that have not read the other thread, I will recap.
I woke up at about 0500 Saturday morning because I wanted to head to the flying field before I headed over to the local airport for a Festival they had going on. So, I got up, made my coffee, drank it, and headed out the door. All my stuff was packed the day before, but that is another story that I won't get into lol. I get to the field and it's a picture perfect morning. The sun was still below the horizon, and the wind was non existent. So, I pull the Edge out of the car, and put the wings on. Look at the horizon, the sun is still not up, and the wind is still dead. Excellent!!!!
I fired up the radio and plugged in the battery. Checked all of my control surfaces... Everything is working great! Put the plane on the ground and taxi out to the runway. I aim my plane facing north, give it throttle, and its up. The flight was great for the first two minutes, then the trouble started. After I played for a couple minutes, the wind started to pick up, and at a pretty good pace. But the wind was not the issue, it was the direction. Our field is setup for winds out of the north, south, northwest or southeast. This morning, the wind came out of the east. when I cranked up, I was like "Oh crap!". There is just no where to land with wind like that. And still being new to this plane, I still bring it in with a little heat on it.
So, I finish out my flight and the whole time I had been looking for a place to land. I decided the north side of the field is where it could land best. So, I try it. First two times I had to pull out and try again cause of the plane bouncing around. The third one I had no choice but to land it. So I cut the throttle down a lot, the plane came down and made a beautiful landing. I'm sure you are asking "if it was a good landing, what do you have to fix?". Well, I'm not done. Right after it landed, it decided to cross the runway. I was ready for it to catch air again, but I was not ready for what happened next.
After that great landing, it was slowing down, then the wheels caught the edge of the runway. This cause them to fold back against their will lol. As you know, the Edge 540's do not have retracts, but the runway thought it would look better with them lmao. As you also know, the wheel pants are in a teardrop style. This is like a spike, and when they folded back, they went right through both wings. UGH.
I went over and picked up the plane and carried it to the pit table. I grabbed a hold of the canopy and lifted. Well, with the cold weather, and forgetting that I taped the canopy on, I crushed the canopy lol. Huge hole, and broke some wood. Ugh, I seriously thought about not going to the festival since I couldn't show my favorite plane, but I still had the Extra 260 mini in the car, so I decided to head over there after getting some chairs.
If you read through all of that, then I'm surprised lol. It's pretty boring, and all happened in about a blink of an eye. But takes forever to explain. Well today (Sunday) I decided to find all of the wood, grab the 15 minute epoxy, and have a hayday. And I did. I do apologize, but I do not have any pics of the crash, or any of the damage. I just didn't grab the camera, afterall I was pretty mad that I did that lmao. I realized after it happened where I should have landed, but it was too late.
So after putting on about 2 fl/oz of epoxy on the landing gear braces alone, it's drying. Should be stronger than it was, but I was not able to get the wood completely level. One landing gear will have to have a shim put in it to make the gears point forward at the same angle. Not a huge deal, just irritating lol. The plane is sitting on the floor right now on some paper towels just incase in drips (yes, I put that much epoxy on it lol). The canopy has been CA'd back together, and for the wings, I'm just going to put packing tape over the holes.
I didn't expect to have something like this happen so soon to this plane. Afterall, it's only the 5th flight on this plane. I figure that each flight is worth $5, I have $170 in the fuse, So if I can get 34 flights out of this plane, then it was worth it. After that, I can plow this thing into the ground and I will just pick up the pieces, remove the electronics, and order a new one. But this time, I have to fix it. It was minor damage, and I doubt anyone will even notice the damage when I'm done. I'm sure it will fly great once I'm done since I'm not doing anything to the flying surfaces. The holes will be exactly the same as they were with the tape over them.
This plane will be in the air again, I just don't know when. The weather sucks for at least the next week, so I will probably fly early in the morning when it's cold as a witches... Nevermind lol.
I woke up at about 0500 Saturday morning because I wanted to head to the flying field before I headed over to the local airport for a Festival they had going on. So, I got up, made my coffee, drank it, and headed out the door. All my stuff was packed the day before, but that is another story that I won't get into lol. I get to the field and it's a picture perfect morning. The sun was still below the horizon, and the wind was non existent. So, I pull the Edge out of the car, and put the wings on. Look at the horizon, the sun is still not up, and the wind is still dead. Excellent!!!!
I fired up the radio and plugged in the battery. Checked all of my control surfaces... Everything is working great! Put the plane on the ground and taxi out to the runway. I aim my plane facing north, give it throttle, and its up. The flight was great for the first two minutes, then the trouble started. After I played for a couple minutes, the wind started to pick up, and at a pretty good pace. But the wind was not the issue, it was the direction. Our field is setup for winds out of the north, south, northwest or southeast. This morning, the wind came out of the east. when I cranked up, I was like "Oh crap!". There is just no where to land with wind like that. And still being new to this plane, I still bring it in with a little heat on it.
So, I finish out my flight and the whole time I had been looking for a place to land. I decided the north side of the field is where it could land best. So, I try it. First two times I had to pull out and try again cause of the plane bouncing around. The third one I had no choice but to land it. So I cut the throttle down a lot, the plane came down and made a beautiful landing. I'm sure you are asking "if it was a good landing, what do you have to fix?". Well, I'm not done. Right after it landed, it decided to cross the runway. I was ready for it to catch air again, but I was not ready for what happened next.
After that great landing, it was slowing down, then the wheels caught the edge of the runway. This cause them to fold back against their will lol. As you know, the Edge 540's do not have retracts, but the runway thought it would look better with them lmao. As you also know, the wheel pants are in a teardrop style. This is like a spike, and when they folded back, they went right through both wings. UGH.
I went over and picked up the plane and carried it to the pit table. I grabbed a hold of the canopy and lifted. Well, with the cold weather, and forgetting that I taped the canopy on, I crushed the canopy lol. Huge hole, and broke some wood. Ugh, I seriously thought about not going to the festival since I couldn't show my favorite plane, but I still had the Extra 260 mini in the car, so I decided to head over there after getting some chairs.
If you read through all of that, then I'm surprised lol. It's pretty boring, and all happened in about a blink of an eye. But takes forever to explain. Well today (Sunday) I decided to find all of the wood, grab the 15 minute epoxy, and have a hayday. And I did. I do apologize, but I do not have any pics of the crash, or any of the damage. I just didn't grab the camera, afterall I was pretty mad that I did that lmao. I realized after it happened where I should have landed, but it was too late.
So after putting on about 2 fl/oz of epoxy on the landing gear braces alone, it's drying. Should be stronger than it was, but I was not able to get the wood completely level. One landing gear will have to have a shim put in it to make the gears point forward at the same angle. Not a huge deal, just irritating lol. The plane is sitting on the floor right now on some paper towels just incase in drips (yes, I put that much epoxy on it lol). The canopy has been CA'd back together, and for the wings, I'm just going to put packing tape over the holes.
I didn't expect to have something like this happen so soon to this plane. Afterall, it's only the 5th flight on this plane. I figure that each flight is worth $5, I have $170 in the fuse, So if I can get 34 flights out of this plane, then it was worth it. After that, I can plow this thing into the ground and I will just pick up the pieces, remove the electronics, and order a new one. But this time, I have to fix it. It was minor damage, and I doubt anyone will even notice the damage when I'm done. I'm sure it will fly great once I'm done since I'm not doing anything to the flying surfaces. The holes will be exactly the same as they were with the tape over them.
This plane will be in the air again, I just don't know when. The weather sucks for at least the next week, so I will probably fly early in the morning when it's cold as a witches... Nevermind lol.
