Obee, good on ya mate! I'am impressed, a man much travelled.
Lee

Greetings, I got the 50 cc sukhoi from wild hare. I have a question for you all. I purchace the 3mm toc 53 combo kit with the sukhoi and i installed it with the canister. im using a zinger prop 22x8 registerin 7250 rpm. the thing is that on the air, when i try to do hover, it seems that it needs power. The plane stands on its own on full throttle. My question is should i try with a 24x8 pro, or maybe, like T.O.M said, add space between the prop and the cow, cause mine is really close to it. Can anyone help me out here?

Forgot to mention, i also have the hop-up kit installed.

Your propeller is the problem. I have not seen a Zinger yet that provided any kind of hovering performance on a big plane. NX, Menz, Xoar, Vess, Mejzlik, are all props you should consider. That Zinger won't do much for slow speed performance either.

Ditch the Zinger prop. Try a Xoar, Pau, Wildhare, Vess, any of those will be better. You might try going with a 23 inch also.

Try the TBM (Troy Built Models) 22x8. Mine wants to hover at less than half throttle. That's with a DL-50.

No offense, but I'm surprised anyone would run a zinger that big- a friend has one that he had ordered at his (our) LHS, and it looks like it would not hold together on one of these 50cc engines- I could only imagine there would be a great deal of flex in it, thereby reducing the efficiency. I would not stand within 30 feet of the plane with that prop on it! Try Toms 22A prop on it- or 23/8 bunny- you want a solid thick prop on these birds, the engine/airplane combo should have NO PROBLEM hovering, even with a red brick in it! SERIOUSLY!
Change the prop and it will be a completely different bird.

just a couple of pics from sunny California today...

ok, thanks you guys, Im gonna try the bunny 22X8 prop that i got with the plane. No offence taken, im fairly new into this big birds, and the more expert guys here told me to get the zinger prop.

I flew my Sukhoi today! After rebuilding my landing gear, and rechecking my C.G. and adding in some more expo, I finally got to really maiden this thing.... One word... WOW!!! She flew like a dream! Thanks to all of yall who help out by answering my questions... Here's a pic from the field today, it was taken with my Blackberry, please excuse the low quality.

Good to hear your back up. Even better that you had the kind of day you should have

Had a great day engine was kinda finicky but she flew but dead sticked on an upward manuver lucky I was way up LOL did not change any needle settings she had run fine but the cold weather made her lean I think I would run her up and she was run up and then bog down she was running fine last time I flew her Fresh Gas had just picked it up ????????????? Will have to richen it a bit as correct me if I am wrong she was running lean!!!!!

Hey, texaspyro, what was wrong with your gear, if I may ask? I had a little accident myself, last Saturday. It was windy, alright, but down the runway and I landed maybe a tad harder than normal. My soft foam wheels gave and must have locked inside the wheel pants resulting in bending the legs backwards a bit. After inspecting the damage I found the two alum L-brackets being bent and the plywood board they are attached to ripped out. So I am making new bracket, which will be stronger and better quality aluminum. I also will reinforce the plywood board with a piece of CF-board, which will be laminated over it. i should have pictures of that repair shorty. I think this is may be a weak spot that could need some improvement.

Cold air equals more oxygen molecules, more oxygen molecules requires more gas. Yup, probably lean!

I too had a pretty hard landing. It sounds like I had the exact same thing happen as you did. I cut the whole assembly out and rebuilt it and fiber glassed the entire assembly into place. After this weekend of flying it appears that it may have not been enough as my gear was a little wobbly when I was finished flying yesterday. Ill take it apart sometime this week and take a look at it...

I already ditched the cheap foam wheels with good quality Sullivan Skylite. Learned my lesson (again[]): Don't buy cheap

"Cheap foam wheels"? REPLACED them with sklites? I got the hardware kit from Wild Hare with the kit, and it came with the skylites- did you not but the upgraded hardware package?

Even on the other Wild Hare I bought, The wheels it came with were not sky lites, but dubro foam ones- even after about 75 or so flights, the barely showed wear. *note* I do fly off of asphalt, so they should have gone quick! bad wheels?

They hold up well on asphalt as well.

What you save in weight using super light tires you lose in frequent replacement cost and ground control. The part that takes the beating everytime you take off and land is not the place to skimp on strength or a couple ounces of weight.

Ok, so I took the plane apart and checked the repair I made on the gear. This may be a dumb question. What do yall use to bind/adhere fiberglass cloth strips to balsa? I used 30 min epoxy and that didnt seem to bond with the balsa. In the past Ive used that or thick C.A. I there a better solution?

Epoxy should work fine, however, some make the mistake of not getting the mesh fully saturated with the epoxy, or they put the epoxy on over old epoxy. If there is already epoxy on the wood, you should get it off before applying glass cloth. You can easly remove the epoxy by heating it with a heat gun. You will know when it is ready, as the epoxy will just crumble away with a stiff brush. Be careful to protect surrounding area's, as you can weaken other glue joints or damage covering. Once you have the epoxy off, scuff the wood up with some course sand paper and apply your epoxy and glass cloth. I don't know about others, but I like 30 minute to 1 hour epoxy for this. It gives me more work time and seams a little more fluid for soaking into the wood. Use a good epoxy, like Z-Poxy also. It doesn't pay to scrimp here. One last note, in my opinion it is bad practice to use finishing epoxy in structural locations. It sands great, but is harder and less forgiving of impact and vibration.

What also works great is to apply thin cloth over balsa and soak it with thin CA. After it has dried apply a coat of epoxy for strength. You can use 30min epoxy and thin it with your heat gun, once brushed on.

I've found that the "hobby grade" (read 5 min. , and 30 min.) epoxies do not work well due to the fact that they are too thick, and set up too fast to wet out completely.
What works great (for me) is polyester resin. (typically found in auto supply stores with the bondo, or home depot near the glues and paint brushes.)
You must pay close attention when mixing it, as it will not harden correctly if over/under mixed. once mixed correctly, it will give 15 minutes or so of "good" working time, and will be thin enough to wet out the glass completely. then it will take 24 hours to harden completely, leaving a rock hard strong lamination with little excess material.
I have also found that the 30 min epoxy sometimes stays slightly flexible, and with carbon, or glass, it completely defeats the purpose.

I have a question for TOM, can i install a smoke systems in my WH sukhoi, i have the 3mm toc 53 cc with hop up kit, and the canister. Can i make some smoke with that? if so where do i install the gas inyector? Thanks.

No problem adding a smoke system. All you need to do is move things around for the second tank and the pump. Depending on your throttle servo you might be able to belly a pair of 16 ounce tanks togeher in the tank area. If you're not running a pipe you might be able to do an over/under installation. Keep all the added stuff as close to the wing tube as you can to avoid a CG that changes as smoke burns off. Things can get ugly when that happens.

To make a smoke muffler all you need to do is add an inlet nipple to the muffler close to the exhaust port.

Hi TOM, thanks for so quick reply. i have the throttle servo up from, and im running a pipe. i have a 24oz tank up fron, and 16 oz tank just behind the wing tube. i installed the inlet nipple right where you said, close to the exhaust port. here is a pic of the installation, sorry for the quality but you can see the inlet nipple. Let me know if this is correct.
And again, thanks a lot for your help.

here is the pic