Where do you guys have your Sukhoi balanced. I'm trying to get mine set up again and have it balanced at just about the middle of the wing tube. It flies with just a breath of down elevator inverted, however it seems pretty touchy on the elevator, I'm thinking of moving the cg forward a little.

Chuck,
I have mine about 12mm in front of centre of the wing tube and it flys great, these are all a bit touchy on the elevators, I have 12 degs of movement either way on mine and you have to watch the balloning on landing. Having said that they are a very good thing to fly, don't go to far forward as the ballooning will only get worse. Further back in this forum it was gone into quite well and i set mine up from that
Lee

I suggest that instead of changing the CG (which would be perfect for me) just add some expo and/or reduce the elevator throws. The objective is to get it to fly like you like it, if it's touchy on elevator use less elevator.

TF

I would post this in another area but i feel a bit of a brotherhood with this group. the WH SU-26 is my first giant gas plane and I love it. However yesterday I let it bite me. I usually start it on a ground based hold down which has been very solid and holds it at the tail. During this incident I "Changed horses mid stream" and started it on a folding table with pylons that block the LE of the wings close to the fuse. I used this table during engine testing and found it to work well until applying a lot of throttle, then the table would move a little. Yesterday I started it on the table at a high idle and the plane-table combination lurched forward just enough to inspire my brain to react in a reflexive response and get my right hand ring finger nearly cut off near the root bed. My chicken stick took the majority of the impact and shredded the prop. My finger tip is fractured,nail removed, tendons and nerves are intact and all has been stitched together, even the nail. Now I have little time to think about safety, time off work and how to prevent this kind of thing from happening to me or others again. So that's why I have posted this here. Please be careful with these big beautiful and powerful planes. Tom I'll order a hop up kit and a prop soon.

Obee.

Ouch sorry to hear that yeah instincts bite us in the butt and fingers sometimes I hope you are up flying again soon !

This incident reminds me of the importance of "procedure". This past summer I attended the EAA Airventure at Oshkosh, WI for a day and happened to stop in to an FAA seminar that was talking about how "broken procedures" could cause accidents. Of course they were talking about full scale aircraft, but they indicated that the most mundane thing (a crying infant, worried passenger, etc) could alter the way things that the pilot did "automatically" and cause bad things to happen. The same is true with our models and gets even more true with the larger ones. One of our members broke his procedure last month and forgot to put the bolts in which hold the right wing on (with sad results). I have repeatedly forgotten to plug one aileron in during assembly and talking with a friend, fortunately noticing it when cycling the control surfaces before startup and WATCHING to be certain everything was working correctly. The bottom line is that we each need to develop a procedure for assembly, startup, and flight that we religiously stick to, and if we do something that changes our normal procedure, extra caution is warranted. I hope your finger heals well and rapidly!

Ow.

[:@]The old, she'll be right mate Accidents don't happen they are caused? Thanks for the reminder Obee!!! and heal quickly
Lee

Oh and by the way DON"T POST PICTURES. LOL
Lee

Here are pics of the prop. I don't have access to the finger pic camera at the moment. I would have loved to have seen this prop blow up in slow motion.
Obee

Here are pics of the figer outside the local ER
Rated PG for PLANE GORE
Obee

A little CA and good as new get better soon !!!

Well, I hope for God's sake you will never even attempt to even turn the ignition on on the table ever again! I Have seen SOOOO much "lack of procedure" at my field, that it's a wonder/miracle that nobody has died there..... Not even kidding..... I most certainly have not been perfect either, as I tried to turn my 28% extra into a control line model a few months back. **** note to self: ALWAYS bring the throttle back down to idle after you open the choke..**** Amazingly, the wing held up to me grabbing the tip and making one revolution before swatting at my kill switch!
I am not the "safety monitor" or anything like that, or the "towne crier" at our field, I just see so many things that send shivers up my spine! And since I used to be cert'd as an EMT II out here, I'd probably be the guy that would "wrap'em up and transport" to the hospital. not my idea of a fun weekend flying!

I am certainly happy that all your digits are intact, and I am sure that a hard lesson was learned- The worst aint over until you get the feeling back in your fingertip, and stitches are kinda cool after a few days, but I bet the bone still throbs like a ****!

Thanks for posting this on here as for some people, "a picture is worth a thousand words".. and by the looks of the last pictures,.... ... .

Well, I think you probably invented a few more words too..[:@]

Well, looks like my "volley ball net" incident is now in second place. My buddy and I was discussing this issue today and wanted to know if there is a scratch built ground based plane holder for starting when you don't use the buddy system.

What we use at our field is a couple of 1 1/2 to 1 3/4 galvanized pipes put into the ground about 20 inches spaced about 30 inches apart(spacing to suit plane - so that plane can be placed between without the wheels touching the posts, then put 4 ft plastic pipes with foam padding on them inside (you could use metal pipes) - this results in the 2 pipes being approx 2 ft out of the ground. (you will want to size the pipes so that the inside pipes can be removed easily). Holes for the pipes in the ground were dug with a 3" post hole auger, piipes placed in ground (sticking up just above the ground), then back filled. Plane is placed between the pipes with the wings touching the posts. Starting can then be done in complete saftey. There is no way that the plane can go forward. This works up to 50% size. When you want to go to the runway, remove the posts and you can then move foreward under power.

The pipes in the ground are at ground level, so that we can mow over them with out the mower hitting.

We only use a bench for setup.

This works good if you fly from the same field.

Bruce

The same thing happened at our field a few weeks ago to an older gentleman. We ended up calling 911 to get an ambulance to respond. The guy ended up slicing his fingers, tendons and wrist, and almost bled to death. He certainly would have died if he had been alone, as he lost a lot of blood in only a few seconds. He too was very lucky he didn't lose his hand. He'll be OK, but won't have use of his hand for months and months.

After this incident, I won't fly alone anymore.

=R=

I never fly alone.

As Dirty Harry said, "A man's got to know his limitations."

TF

I know that this is not about building the WH sukhoi, but I suppose its about flying it, so I will ask people for their opinions, Iam at the moment setting up a new club flying field, will post pics soon, and since this recent talk of hurting ourselves has arisen, could I ask for opinions on the best set up for a safe pits. Planes of all sizes we hope will be flown here and accordingly people of all experience levels.
I would see that we would need 3 stations at which to start,setup and fly from. Should they be "safety benches", ground restraints, posts in the ground???????????!!!!!!!!!. Any suggestions would be greatly apprieciated.
Lee
Ps, may stop some not needed pain to.

What we have at our field for restraint anyway is 3/8 rebar looks like a goalpost with a stake on the bottom and you just push it in the ground they have foam padding on them to protect your plane . You set the horizontal sufaces in between then and do your thing will see if i can find a pic or 2

Lee the safety benches are great for the glow guys probably 9/10 glow guys love em. for the gas guys most prefer to start on the ground but the large benches for the giant scale planes are great for field repairs and tuning. Regardless of the size bench it should be anchored to the ground so it can't move forward or tip forward. Making the legs 8" longer and cementing in is best... and the won't walk away either.

You could always attach a large eye bolt to the front leg of the large safety stand and make up some straps to have on hand that you can use with one of those mountain climbing quick links so the straps xan be stored when not in use.

just some thoughts

Other than having someone else hold while you start and run, the pipes in the ground restraint system seems to me to work the best. Perhaps better because the pipes won't develop an itch, become distracted, or start coughing and release the plane into your lap. No folding parts to accidentally release at the wrong time and only releases when you get behind the plane to move either the tail, or better still, pull up the stake or pipe.

Still not a good ide to fly alone or test run an engine with nobody else around. There have been too many serious injuries when people have been alone and their survival was little more than pure luck. Ya'll be careful out there, and Obee, I hope it heals quickly with as little discomfort as possible.

We used ski poles shoved into the ground, and we put foam pool noodles on the poles to protect the leading edge of the wing. Works very well.

Hi Everyone,
Well I have fallen in love with the looks of this plane. I have always loved the Sukhoi, back from years ago when Byron had a fiberglass kit.
I was leaning towards the Hangar9 Carden Yak. But after seeing this in the magazine a few weeks ago....thats it done, game over.
I sent an email to Wild Hare asking if they had a Canadian distributor.
Tom answered with a name of a shop that just happens to be 15 MINUTES AWAY FROM ME [>:]
I stopped in there today for a quote. Very fair. With exchange and everything, it came out to be a few dollars less than if I ordered it myself. Using the shop, I eliminate the UPS brokerage fees because they do their own importing and brokerage. [8D]

Anyway, on to my question.
I noticed that the elevator servos are on the fuselage. I need to remove the Stabs to transport in my car. What would be the easiest way of attaching and removing the linkage to do this ?

Thanks

Thanks to all for the suggestions, have decided to go with a couple of safety benches and some stakes in the ground. We had some stakes in the ground with pool noodles on them and the bloody cockatoos chewed the whole lot of the noodles off and turned them in to very small bits all over the field, some of our native birds have very bad manners!!!!![>:] Iam going to try some old carpet instead. Point taken about not tuning/flying by yourself, in my case that just has to be the case if I want to fly most times, the warning has touched home though and Iam much more mindfull of the Dangers.
Cheers. Who is the next President?????????
Lee

Presuming you will use ball links at both ends of the linkage, the easiest way is to loosen and remove the phillips head screw and nut that secures the linkage at the elevator horns. That automatically separates the servos from the stabs and does not change anything with servo or linkage adjustments. The stabs themselves are retained with two machine screws under each stab.