Get it in the air and then start making assesments. You seem to have many large planes, Cg issues being set perfect are for new flyers to giant scale. Unless your adding something totally different in weight to the plane the maiden should be a no brainer. I was able to add about 1 1/2 ounces to the tail for a perfectly neutral flying plane. This is with a 3pound BME on the nose.

I want to see some flyby shots of the plane and some ear to ear grins on your face after the maiden.

In any case....foot's been inserted, impossible to remove, enjoy the moment,...movin' on.

Manual Choke Linkage--3mm-53

Here's what I came up with for a manual choke using around the shop materials:

One servo arm, any type will do, even round. A couple of threaded rods, one small ball link to avoid binding, two flat washers, one brass servo eyelet to fit the center of the servo arm after opening up the hole for the servo screw a little, a couple of 4-40 clevises, a 4-40 screw, and a 4-40 nylock nut. All you're doing is making a bellcrank to change the direction of the linkage 90 degrees. Works great.

and then he said

So if you had used a choke servo, you'd have a backup kill device, the servo weight would have displaced the ballast so there is no weight penalty, and you would not ever need to get down on the ground to work the choke. I'd bet that everyone has an old servo laying around that's not any good for any other use, so the cost is zero as well.

I'm just doing this to tweak Pat a little, but for all you others a servo on the choke makes a lot of sense and is no harder to install than a manual linkage. This is why the TOC-53 comes with a nice arm on the choke.

TF

NOW THATS FUNNY! Good shot accross his fordeck!

Well all I maidened my SU-26 yoday and she flew sweet, my background in flying is ak models extra 330 brison 3.2, wh ultimate bme 50, ultra rc giles brison 2.4 and wh Su-26 with DA 50. While landing in slight to medium crosswind the plane touched down on slight right gear then down on left with nice roll out. in front of 10 of our club members one of which was going to buy one. after post flight of maiden I found rt. gear aluninum angle to be bent with corrisponding wood cracked. I guess I bought one built on either monday or friday. Nothing I can do but fix it and go on but it does make one a little frustrated when you spend money on this great hobby and this happens. Just a report. Hog

So if I had used a choke servo AND a spinner I would have needed tail weight[8D] Bending over to work on the plane once in awhile is good for you. Especially for us guys in our prime (Tom). Helps keep you limber

Very nice choke setup anyway, Really clean and positive. Will keep photo for future setups.

So you just screw the bellcrank straight into the firewall right ?

Alright gents - a CF wingtube question...

The wingtube on this Sukhoi is 37-1/2" (stock aluminum version). Where are you guys getting your CF tubes from? TBM stocks the same diameter but they are 36" which is a tad short. Anyone used these without issues or is there another source that is recommended?

Thanks-
Jason

tom sells cf tubes as well.

Almost all the after market tubes I get are a shade too long and need to be cut. The ones I get from Tom are usually just about right, sometimes needing a slight trim. Since Tom has them I always order them with the plane to svae a bunch in shipping costs.

As a side note, that's one of the great things about Wild Hare. You can pretty near one stop shop everything from the plane to the linkages, with servos, hardware, and carbon tubes in the middle, eliminating lots of delivery charges and auto expenses chasing the same stuff.

Thanks folks - may have to look at giving Tom a ring later in the week. That's the last item I'm looking at replacing and it's close to CG so not a big thing to do later.

Thanks for the tips all.
Jason

The tube itself has zero effect on the CG, just the final total weight.

That was my thoughts exactly - my intent was increasing the strength of the tube and decreasing overall weight. I'm generally pretty conscious of a little weight savings here and there anyways.

My build is nearing completion - hopefully the maiden will be in a week or so. Did run into a problem with one of the new Fromeco regs I picked up - but they (Fromeco) straightened that up quickly and replaced the mis-wired one. Interesting afternoon when you are adjusting the output voltage and POP - components on the reg go up in smoke. Luckily this was identified on the bench vs. in the airframe and the only components hooked up were the batt, switch and reg. Turned out they had the input leads solded up in reverse polarity. I had a replacement within a couple days - so another good customer support experience.

I've probably exceeded my limit of home bound UPS shipments this last month and any more will induce some revenge spending on wifey's part - looks like any new stuff will ship to work instead . CF wing tube will be on that list...

Jason

Yes, normally we sell the tubes but we have been out of stock for several weeks. I hope to have some more soon.

TF

I fully understand the revenge spending aspect of marriage. I really do Protect yourself because it can get ugly

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

In general, do you find these are smoother with the lower rate on rudder ? Mine are kinda wobbly and I think that may be the issue..too much rudder throw

Using the lower rate was very smooth. Essentially it looks like a barrel rolling around itself in a tub of water using the low rate rudder. Once you have your timing the nose doesn't move!! Like you, mine come out with more wobble using the higher rates. Perhaps a lot more expo would correct it? It was the same way with the Edge and the 35% Sukhoi. The only place I would use high rate rudder was in high alpha knife or some other hover, tumble, or spin maneuvers. A low rate rudder worked, and works, out a lot better for harrier roll stuff. Thre are some times where I'll use high rate rudder for basic steering in a harrier, but not many. Generally if you stay ahead of the plane you don't need the big rudder moves unless you want to make a big change.

Yea I think I will lower the rudder rate next time out...it makes sense that having too much rudder throw will make things more sensitive...

Joe,

Nice video, btw!

Thanks...now that I have an engine that doesn't sputter at 1/4 throttle it makes slow speed stuff easier...I could never get as low a idle on that other engine..[8D]

Video??

Joe did a short vid on the way an engine is supposed to run. I think he was showing off a little having finally gotten an engine that ran right but all mine already ran that way Mostly sound of various rpm ranges and transitions. Suffice that if you're engine burbals anywhere it's not running as good as it should.

http://rcuvideos.com/item/MMQ9C7LDPQ4TNV5K