E-FLITE EDGE 540 Electric Park Flier
Review by: Mark Fuess

Having seen one of these little beauties flying at the airfield one day, I decided I needed one to knock around and see what Park Fliers are all about. The E-Flite Edge 540 is an exact copy of the popular Hanger 9 33% GAS model, complete with full-symmetrical wing, pull-pull rudder, and over-sized control surfaces.
 
I highly recommend that you build this airplane by the book at first. It's very agile and fast for its size. The factory CG is perfect and you need to stay within the recommended range. The control surfaces are sensitive and I would suggest you use exponential if you can. I have 40% dialed in and it's easy to fly.

Ultimately I ended up getting rid of the landing gear all together, and unstalled a nylon skid. This was really by my choice. I found the Edge to be faster, lighter, and much more agile. And this is way I like my airplanes...

While flying my Edge 540 the other day, I managed to "extract" the landing gear from the fuselage while landing. Not being discouraged by this, I merely hand-launched the Edge on the next flight. I was pleasantly surprized at how much better it flies WITHOUT the gear! It's faster, and considerably more agile. For a landing, I simply slipped on to the grass for a perfect slide every time. It flew a bit tail-heavy having the gear gone, but I was so pleased with the way it flies I filled in the landing gear cut-out with balsa and covered it, then added a tapered nylon skid.  The skid brought the Edge back into balance (after I removed the tailwheel and the 1/4 oz. lead tail weight). I also added little sandpaper grippers to each side of the fuse so I don't have to squeeze too hard on it. It launches so ridiculously easy it's scarry. All I do is hold it up nose-high and let go.

This is the second generation skid I made. The first one works GREAT, but I wanted one a little longer, taller and lighter. Mission accompolished! The shid is removable so I can put mt landing gear on when needed.

 
I ended up removing my tailwheel but left the wire for  a rear skid.

The little EDGE 540 flies great!  It'll do any aerobatic you tell it to do with extreme authority. The Outrunner 480 has no shortage of power. . There is a down-side though... the 480 pulls a steady 250 watts at full throttle, and well over 1000 watts on a burst. My last flight of the day was at full throttle to see how long it would fly. About 9 minutes and she was ready to land. This little airplane will surprize most pilots, it isn't for the faint-of-heart at full throttle! It's fast and very agile The roll-rate is about 3 to 5 revolutions per second and it'll wall-climb instantly. I use 45% exponential to keep it under cobtrol and Stan has his set at 80%. Park Flyers have come a long way. The airplanes are lighter than ever, and the electronics are incredable. Yes, the motors and batteries are $$... but that'll change in time. The nice thing about electrics is it can fly anywhere!  I found a place close to the house that is perfect for electrics... parking lot take-off & landing and grass field to fly over. I flew several times there today... and had a great time.

I had found the orignal motor mount was a little weak for nose-overs in tall grass. I broke the mount several times. I decided it was time to fabricate something a lot stronger Using some plywood I made a firewall bracket and used aluminum stand-offs. This permently fixed it..

The neat thing about my setup is you can set the right-thrust to any angle you like.

ELECTRIC VS. GLOW POWER

I converted an OS .12CZ R/C car engine to airplane use the other day, by milling the head, replacing the carb, installing a new piston & sleeve, and installing an airplane muffler on it. I wanted to compare it to the Outrunner 480 for overall performance. I was a bit surprized by the results.  
 
The 480 has a lot more torque than the .12CZ. Almost double! However the .12CZ runs consistant all the way to the last drop of fuel, whereas the 480 slows down as the battery discharges.
 
The overall thrust of the .12CZ is substancially higher than the 480 because of the broad RPM range, it's nearly 30% greater, having a static thrust of 2.48 pounds at a top speed of 66.29 MPH. There's not too much difference in speed though, with the 480 clocking at 61.12 MPH.
 
The flying time with the .12CZ is about 18 minutes with a single fillup (3 oz. fuel tank), the 480 is about 8 minutes on a full charge. (Both at full throttle)
 
The overall weight of the airplane is about 5 oz. more with all the support gear needed for the .12CZ, bringing it up to 30 oz. ready to fly.  

There was a MINI ULTRA STICK at the field powered with an OS .15 glow engine. That thing is blazing fast!!