ARTF Blues

This little tale starts back in September '04 when I required a replacement for my "redthing" which I had lost when attempting consecutive rolls at low altitude! I rather fancied the Vmar Edge and I decided to fit an Irvine 60. Off to Fred's in Bristol where I placed the order for the said kit and reserved the engine. The delivery was given as mid October. (No worries, as I was away on holiday for some of the time). Repeated calls to the shop during the latter weeks of October until McGregor finally admitted that it would be at least January before they would be able to deliver.

Another visit to Fred's was made to look at alternatives. The Seagull Edge took my fancy and on asking Ian if he thought the Irvine 60 would be powerful enough he said that he seen it fly very well with an OS70 FS. Brain clicked into gear and as I had an OS70 at home doing nowt I cancelled the Irvine and took the kit.

The build was very straight forward and as the control surfaces were all prehinged and pinned there was very little to do other than fitting the tail feathers, joining the wings, fitting the gear and fitting the engine. The only hold up was obtaining a silencer elbow with a little less angle than the standard. Control movements were set to the lower values suggested for initial test flying and training. Because most of the flying would be done off grass I decided to fit larger wheels and dispense with the wheel pants. The engine was fired up at home to set the cut off switch correctly.

Off to the LHMFC flying field. After a range check the model was taken off. Really sensitive on the controls which lead to a hair-raising flight so a landing was made quickly! The control movements were halved (these Computer Trannies are good for this) and the Edge launched into its second flight only for one of the wheels to fall off on take off! This second flight was much better and the handling was great, the only thing in ones mind was the landing with a wheel missing! The flight was extended to the max as it could well be its last if I could not land OK on the remaining wheel. Should not have worried though as the landing went well. Repairs were made and a third flight made only for the silencer to fall off causing the engine to stop. A safe landing was made and after an inspection I found I had been ham fisted in the assembly of the silencer and had managed to strip the threads! Flying abandoned for the day.

A replacement silencer was obtained from Just Engines but I made the mistake for going for a third party version which seemed to put the decibels up considerably! Luckily, I have a friend with a lathe who kindly machined the original silencer back to the good threads. A couple more flying sessions followed but it was becoming more apparent that off of damp longish grass the OS70 was struggling to get the Edge off the ground so the decision was made to increase engine size. John (Miller) leant me his OS120 FS and Laser100 FS to see if they could be fitted. The answer was no - it appears that many ARTFs are designed with 2 strokes in mind and it is difficult to fit a 4 stroke engine at the top end of the specification. An Irvine 70 was purchased and duly fitted.

Subsequent flights went well and I was really enjoying flying the Edge. That was until the fourth flight of the session when just as I was about to beat up the strip both horizontal stabilisers flew off resulting in an unplanned arrival. The damage was severe especially to the airframe. The engine, apart from the shattered silencer and spray bar, looked OK. A close examination of the failed parts was made particularly with respect to the area where the cut is made to remove the covering prior to fitting to the fuz. No cut in the wood could be discerned, but it was noted that the main wood used for the tail plane did seem a bit on the soft side of desirable. A letter was fired off along with samples of the failed parts to J Perkins. Follow ups made by a couple of emails. After 6 weeks there was still no response (No surprise there then!!) so another (perhaps stronger) email was sent which was answered almost immediately. There response was that I should have taken it straight back to the place of purchase and taken it up with the vendor. This has now been done and as luck would have it the Perkins rep was due in on the afternoon after I had taken it in.

The answer came back positive and I was told to go back to Fred's and select a replacement model. I chose the Seagull Super Stearman ( A mistake if ever there was one!!)

Rod Watts