Extreme Flight 60" Laser Build Thread

[Ohio AV8TOR]

Well my 60" Laser showed up today and to my bad luck I had to work till 9 tonight so nothing more than un-packing it and admiring it. Per the request from Gary and several other that enjoyed by build thread on my 60"Extreme Flight Edge 540 I agreed to do another build for the Laser. I will be away for the holiday weekend so not much is going to get completed till next week but allow me to share some tonight.

First off flight 166 was the last on my Edge 540. I was doing low rollers about 6' and not sure if it was dumb thumbs or something I later found but it started rolling fast and I could not stop nor catch up to stop it going down and bam it went in hard and to my surprise absolutely splinted the front end to small pieces. When stripping the gear out I did notice that one of my 3" aileron extensions had the signal pin pushed in a little more than 1/8" so I really don't know if that is why I could not stop the roll but I look at it as an opportunity to get the Laser which has always caught my eye.

I had to go red because of the may years of following Leo Loudenslager I saw this as an opportunity to do this as a stand off scale project. I plane on getting some custom Bud Light graphics as well.

I know there are many building or getting ready to start building so I hope this can be as helpful as many said my Edge build was.

 

[Ohio AV8TOR]

Well the packaging. What can you say Extreme Flight does it better than any I have build. Double boxed and really nice custom fit places for everything. The finish is well protected by tissue paper wrapped under the plastic bagging.

 

[Ohio AV8TOR]

For those interested in the size, yes this "is" an EXP and below I have shown some comparison to the size of my 60" Edge 540.

The rudder is taller and slightly wider.

The elevator and stab is slightly bigger all around - the Laser is on the bottom with the Edge elevator on top. It is about 3/8" wider on the control surface and also about 3/8" longer on the sides. I can't wait to glue the elevator to the stab to show you but the gap bevel is done fantastic. Looks like no problem to get 90º

 

[Ohio AV8TOR]

A lot of the work is done for you and done very well regarding the pre-trimming of control horns, servo openings, the fuselage bottom cooling exit and the wing recess. I had a problem with the exit cooling cut out on my Edge because a wood cross member was not low enough. This is absolutely perfect and the cool part is that the back slanted wall deflecting the air is also covered in white for that extra clean look. A nice touch indeed.

 

[hone]

Looks great! Are the stars already on the airframe in covering?

 

[Ohio AV8TOR]

The fuselage is slightly taller and wider than my Edge, it should be easy to work inside for sure. The motor box is real long and at the moment has me concerned for the short wires that came on my ZTW ESC. The cowl has huge air inlets which should be wonderful for those that have hot running motors and ESC's. Should not be a problem cooling things down with this one.

 

[Ohio AV8TOR]

Looks great! Are the stars already on the airframe in covering?

No they are a decal sheet

 

[Ohio AV8TOR]

The turtle deck has the typical foam lamination on the inside giving it a lot of strength. You can see in the picture that tapered wall for the cooling exit finished in white. Canopy latch has very smooth operation. Don't forget that is a location to wick in some CA to be sure that latch is really secure and be careful to not go overboard that some gets in the mechanism.

 

[wedoitall]

that cowl is bad arse!!!! Anytime I plan on getting CA or epoxy around the canopy latch, ill dab some vasoline in the mechanism. it does a pretty good job of keeping the sticky stuff out of it.

I don't think I can wait on your build threat tho im pretty excited to start building.


oops it late and I didn't mean to jack your build thread, sorry.

 

[Ohio AV8TOR]

Still not back home yet to get started on my Laser but I have been talking with Eric at B&E and I sent him some art work that he matched nicely. I really want this to look like Leo's Laser so I am replacing the Extreme Flight decals which by the way are matched nicely to Leo's Bud Light sponsor's decals. Extreme flight does not supply the extra blue matching side decals but I will have them along with Leo's tail number N-10LL. Just what I was looking for. I also have a friend cutting me Leo Loudenslager for the name on the canopy.