Hey Folks,
I'm new here and can't help with the exhaust issues, but I have read the thread in its entirety and have enjoyed the wealth of information located therein. I bought mine in January from a club member. It had about five flights on it with a Saito 150 and three bladed prop. After arrival in my shop, I completely tore it down to inspect and determine airworthy status. The first thing I did was to replace the Futaba S3003 servos with the much more robust HiTec HS5485HB's. Next, I redid the fuel system, and cleaned the tank as the Saito hadn't been started for a couple of years. The previous owner had run the throttle with a cable from the servo area above the wing, and constructed another servo mount for the rudder behind the factory servo mount and cutouts, shortening and re-soldering the rudder pushrod. I didn't like this arrangement, so I mounted a servo in the motor box in front of the firewall with a direct link to the throttle arm. She came equipped with a very nice Dubro vibration dampening engine mount, and as I was re-torquing all engine and mounting bolts, I was pleased to find them all still plenty tight.
On re-assembly, the Saito started easily and ran well in the shop. I was a little concerned about the 3 bladed prop, however as I was only able to attain around 7800 RPM. Plus, it didn't really look all that scale anyway, and I mean I bought it to fly, as well as look at.
So, for my big maiden, I was by myself at our field which is a seldom used full scale airport with a huge shale strip located in a flat area which affords a good runway regardless of wind direction. After a thorough range check and fueling, the Saito started easily. My biplane experience comes from several hours at the sticks of a Hangar 9 Camel with an Enya 120 four stroke for power. The camel, can be cantankerous on landing, and groundhandling, so I was really enjoying the ground handling of the tailwheel equipped Hawk. The wind was variable at maybe 5 knots with occasional gusts to 10 or so.
I pointed her into the current wind and rolled in full power. The tail came up immediately and a touch of right rudder was necessary to maintain heading. After a good roll, a touch of up elevator broke the wheels and a moderate climb was established. With control throws set per the manual at low rates, I was please to see she wasn't real twitchy and responded well to elevator. I banked left and noticed, like the Camel, authoritative rudder is required to make a nice coordinated turn. with only a little right aileron trim, and one "click" of up elevator trim she was flying hands off. I found her to be a slightly waspy in the roll axis, so I think I may take a little throw out, and maybe add just a touch more expo. I made several laps, a loop, and a roll. Which were uneventful and pretty scale like, though that would be hard to judge since I have never seen a full scale P6E in flight and chances are pretty good that is not going to happen. When I took her up to about 3 mistake altitude for slow flight tests, I noticed that if you weren't quick with the rudder she wanted to break either way at the deep stall, though the stall was predictable and required maintaining a high AoA to initiate at slow speeds. I must say I was not overwhelmed by an excess of power. She seemed to lose steam pretty quickly in the climb, and I she was plenty ready to fall over at the top of the loop. I am going to attribute this to the three blade prop, as I'm thinking the big Saito should do better with a two blade...we'll see.
So I set her up for a few low, slow landing approaches and fly bys in preparation to land. On the third pass I committed to the landing using about 1/3 throttle. The wind was a little gusty yet, so a little rudder dance was necessary. I was planning on a wheel landing with power to prevent a nose-over on landing, as this is the only way to land the camel without putting her face in the dirt. I was a little nervous, though not really shaking and was very fixated on the approach and maintaining airspeed so as not to induce a pre-stall roll as I had observed at altitude. Someone had placed a piece of conduit in the flying area with orange tape affixed to it to act as a wind sock. Yes, in my fixation on the approach I hit the conduit (the only vertical object for miles around) with the both right wings. The conduit bent and gave way, as the top wing barely got it, but it spun the plane hard right and dug the left lower wing tip in hard on impact. Somehow, it maintained some semblance of direction, rolled out on her wheels, and came to a stop in about 10 feet, engine idling sweetly as though nothing happened. Something did happen though, both leading edges on the right side were hammered just outside of the interplane struts, the cabanes were knocked loose and one mount was broken at the fuselage intersection. The lower wing alignment piece was broken off where it plugs into the saddle, one nylon wing mount bolt sheared, the left lower wing tip broke off, the shop built rudder servo mount broke free, and the right horizontal stab cracked in a crummy factory glue joint.
All structural repairs have been completed and awaiting recovering, and they weren't too difficult, but I have a good deal of experience with kit building. Needless to say I was pretty sick over the incident, but I am confident in my repairs and happy to say she will be back soon. Great Planes has a great design with this one. Too bad it is out of production.
I look forward to many more flights with many less "dumb thumb" incidents.