Justin has very kindly written an article for this section on his Seagull Edge 540.
The Seagull Edge 540 is a mid-wing sports aerobatic plane advertised as 46 size but more on that later.
This was my first all-out sports model and was purchased as my fourth plane but would make an ideal choice as a third plane after the traditional high & low wing trainers have been mastered.
The ARTF build was straightforward with no real issues.
The fittings supplied were of a good standard and the only mods I made were to fit a larger Du Bro fuel tank, fit rubber wheels, add a support to the rudder push rod to prevent blow back during knife edge flight and to fabricate a piano wire undercarriage.
Build of the fuselage and wings is the normal seagull good quality being a bit more robust than some manufacturers but therefore slightly heavier, ideal for the club flyer.
In the air on low rates it handles nicely, it will stall if pushed but general low speed handling is nice and predictable. On high rates it’s great and will do the majority of pattern aerobatic manoeuvres and holds its own with more expensive airframes.
Newsletter scribe Geoff Scott had one of these (as my third model – ed.) before me and had originally fitted a 46 two stroke as per the manufacturers recommendations, this turned out to be very underpowered and the engine was swapped for the same Irvine 53 two stroke motor that I have in mine. It fly’s well on the 53 but we are both of the opinion that a 60 size two stroke would be the perfect choice.
I’ve had this model for a few years now and still fly it regularly, it still seems to be available in some of the online shops and at a tad over £100 it’s a really good buy and comes highly recommended.
