Finally was able to get in the first three flights today. What a nice flying plane!! This is one of the original 6 prototypes that I started this thread with and got called away before I could finish it. For those curious about available surface throws, mine has been dialed down from all that's available on every surface. It's possible to obtain 55-65 degrees of rudder, 60 degrees of elevator, and more than 45 degrees of aileron. You won't EVER need that amount on anything. You just won't.

My initial control set up with 20 degrees of low rate elevator both directions was a little twitchy, even with 35% expo. Now, I did not use any directions during the assembly so no flak here guys. Decreasing the low rate elevator to about 15 degrees and 40% expo brought the elevators into the way I like them. Not too much but enough to get out of the average jam and not be twitchy. It would be lousy for IMAC with that much deflection, though. About 12 degrees would be about right for the precision stuff.

C/G was in the back half of the wing tube, and for me that's still a little too forward. It shows as being nose heavy in a straight harrier with some wing rock evident. I did not lateral balance the plane, and truthfully I'd expect a little wing rock with a double taper wing and aft mounted control surfaces, so the C/G will move about another 1/4" aft and I'll check it out some more. You guys that have the mulit position tail tubes and love 3D have to be ecstatic about the versatility. The forward mounted empennage has to make 3d killer easy! As for harrier rolls, this plane is a beast!! Using high rate ailerons at 35 degrees, high rate elevator at 50 degrees, and low rate rudder at about 25 degrees, it rolls all day around the cowl. Probably the best planes in this size I 've seen do this maneuver. The neat thing is that you can slow the plane down to a forward crawl and maintain control authority on the flight surfaces in the harrier roll, and still maintain a good pitch attitude! I'm pretty certain that high rate ailerons could be cut down to 30 degrees and slow the roll down some, making for an even prettier roll rate. The forward C/G shows up again in a parachute maneuver, where the nose does not want to come up until after throttle is added. Moving the C/G aft will fix this right up, as well as improve the straight harrier.

Hovers are pretty easy, even being a little forward on the C/G. I had no problems at all holding it in a hover for as long as I wanted after getting the "feel" of the plane. That was on the second hover attempt with that slightly forward C/G. Nice! You'll want to kick in high rate ailerons to prevent torque rolling in a hover. Low rate is not quite a enough to stop the roll. To start a good torque roll just let it happen all by itself. She comes around nicely.

High rate rudder of 45 degrees is a little too much, IMO. You can do one wild snap using rudder only at 45 degrees and up with this plane. A very nice barrel roll/snap can be performed using only low rate rudder at 25 degrees and low rate elevator of 15 degrees. At high rates on each it's astounding. All my high rate expos are at 75%, low rate ailerons and rudder are at 35%, and low rate elevator was left at 40% because it felt so good.

Walls and waterfalls are easy with little tendency to roll off to one side when you come over the top. They should only get even better when I move the C/G a little. I held just a small amount of right rudder about half way through the rotation and she came over nice and straight.

Inverted spins are the tightest I've EVER seen! It literally pivots around the middle of the fuselage and rotates on down without pitching out to the side of the rotation. It literally comes straight down without moving outside of it's own wingspan. Wow! Upright spins can actually climb if you play the throttle and surfaces a little. It knife edge spins pretty nice, but do these high. They eat up altitude in a hurry!

In knife edge there is a small amount of pitch coupling using low rate rudder, and holding the altitude is a piece of cake. Using high rate rudder she'll do a very nice descending knife at idle power settings that's real easy to hold headings. I haven't done a mix yet to counter any coupling because I've not settled on the C/G location. High alpha knife edge is not up to my liking yet, but does show a lot of promise. That comes back to being a function of the C/G location again.

Ultra slow speed flight is rock solid, so landings are a breeze, and make me think it's right between the Edge and the Extra, but closer to the Edge, in landing speeds. Overall my impressions are that it's a very nice plane, will IMAC beautifully if you set the surface deflections up correctly and have a little more forward C/G than I'm using, and is very agreeable to 3D maneuvers without sacrificing stability in the process. The tail is extremely effective, as are the ailerons, so you don't need to use super high deflections to do anything that you want to. This is an easy plane to dial in because she tells you honestly and without a bite what works best for what. Oh, I almost forgot. The Hitec 5955's are working out nicely I have an 8611 on the rudder but only because I didn't have a fifth 5955.

It's not quite the overall 3D animal that the Edge is, although in some areas it's actually better. In precision performance I belive it to be better than the Extra. You'll have to try one to compare. I like this new Sukhoi quite a lot I think.

Pat