Sukhoi runs well, Stik not so much...

Winds were calm, gusts not so much. Took the 10cc planes out to fly.

The Stik wouldn't be the Stik if it didn't take 10 min to re-tune every time I bring her to the field. But today, she needed retuning not just on arrival, buf after the first couple of flights. I want to fly, not futz with the engine. She ran schizophrenically.  High needle is easy to set, low it a problem. If I get a smooth transition to FOT, she will either idle too fast, or stutter and quit. I tried moving end points, tweaking the low needle... nothing was sweet. This vid is from a relatively stable moment, but she would eventually stall in idle, or be unreliable in rapid movment to FOT. I gave up. I will need to take the engine apart and clean it, start over, clean if not replace the plug. I think she runs rich, and I cant fix that.

The Sukhoi's RCGF 10cc ran fine. I flew her with the 13x6 two blade and she was anemic. It was gusty, but still... really had to fight for control at times in the crosswind  she just didnt seem to have the needed thrust. The Stik, when her engine ran well, with her 13x8x3 did fine in the wind, buffeted but could fight through. I am going back to the 13x8x3 three blade prop on the Sukhoi.  Called it a day after a couple of hours. Didn't break anything, so a good day.

Chatted briefly with Clarence, a club member who likes to fly his electrics early in the morning, and who keeps the grasss cut. It was getting too windy for him, and he'd been there a while, so he left shortly after I arrived and I was there alone. I like flying alone.

Recovery of the Sukhoi Complete

The muffler came in from Valley View RC. Fired up the Sukhoi and... Nothing. It took about 20 min but I figured out the plug was bad, replaced it and she ran perfectly. I stopped by my local RC hobby shop, ABC Hobbies today and picked up a Master Airscrew Scimitar 13x6, and installed her. Tuned the engine and got over 10,000 rpm! I am not clear in the benefits of the Scinitae over MA regular shaped props, but they are a natural transition from curved APC Props and I have used them for a few years. I'll check out their website. Painting the tips and will install it tonight with a red spinner.

Installed! Looks small, have to remind myself its a screw...

Nice wide view of the left half if my workshop, cats included! Charging the packs on the Sukhoi and the Stik, planning to take them out tomorrow as I think the winds will allow.

Hacker MX2 Wing done...

The center box trued up and the wing went together nicely, easily in fact. The CA and kicker worked well. The graphite stingers that run across the top and bottom of the wing went in easily. I left it upside down on the table with weights to make sure the top stays flat. I won't get back to it for 3 days here,  and then I will install the servos.

I noticed that the Hacker MX2 is listed on Tower Hobbies as "Discontinued"... I must have gotten one of the last ones.

Sloppiest work ever

Did some of my sloppiest wood work ever putting the frame of the Hacker MX2 together this morning. I dry fit all the pieces together, making sure to know what had to go in when and how, and then proceeded to ignore all that and had to crack the frame back open to put in the landing gear hardpoint and the piece at the other end on the underside of the back. And then the whole thing is not true. This took less than an hour to screw up. Its fine, really, but seriously inelegantly done. Stopping because my head is clearly not in the game.

Its fine...

Just slightly not true...

Challenge Accepted

"Almost Unbreakable".

Chalenge accepted.

Tonorrow I start the build. I have deconstructed the ill fated Hobby King Sbach EPP, and wil use allmbut one failed servo and the elctronics on the Hacker MX2. She is a popular plane and quite a good flier! 

Return of the Sukhoi

The Sukhoi had a rough day, in part winds, in part poor pilotage. She landed unseen and hard, but belly down. Her landing gear were torn off, and they struck and dented the port horizontal stabilizer, and crushed parts of the underbelly framework. She's a good flier, and worth putting back together, and none of the damage was deadly. A few hours of work and she is back to near new.

I don't know how I did it, but as she disappeared over the ridge, I managed to get her wings level, nose at least level. The damage was surprisingly light.

The engine looks good. 

The muffler pipe broke off. The prop and cone are fine. I am thinking of returning to the two blade Master Airscrew Scimitar 14x8 as opposed to the triple blade 13x8 for no particular reason.

Internals look good up front.

Some frame buckling braced and fixed. In the foreground a cross member is missing, just aft of the battery pack. I put one in to stiffen the frame. 

Looking at the aft belly of the fuse, airframe on its port side. The frame here was broken up, cross frames gone and frames cracked. I would fix this thinking I could rejoin some of the longer stringers, but it looked like crap. Removed them and found the right wod to make it clean.

The port horizontal stab took a landing gear strut head on.

To repair this you have to cut out the busted section. I wasn't thinking about where the frame pieces were and lucked out, as there it is...

I CA in a couple of small pieces to support the cover balsa. One on top, one on the bottom.

You can see the two small supports, and a round dowl in the front. This will support balsa to make the leading edge, but itself will remain internal.

The repair patch in place and sanded smooth. I didn't curve the balsa, didn't feel like soaking it and working it. I just overbuilt it and sanded it down to shape. Works just fine.

You can see a small strip I added and sanded almost completely down to make the leading edge smooth and round.

I use a very lightweight silica spackle (plain ol' constuction spackle) to smooth it out.

Sand it smooth. Top.

Bottom of the repair. Same process as above.

Bottom finished with cote. I don't have any of the orange cote, so made the stab blak.

The top, nice and clean, perfect repair.

You can see the wobble in the aft belly, just before the vent at the most aft part of the fuse.  This was sloppy work, so I would remove it.

I found the right piece of wood for the underside port stringer, installed it (30 cm) and re-coted it. Looks marvelous and clean.

The new landing gear hardpoint installed. Made of 1/4 inch plywood. The back end has "teeth" embedded in the frame, the forward end is held in place with epoxy and those two screws. I thought I had pics of the hardpoint plate, but nope.  It is epoxied into place, with the teeth and the screws. This design "failed" appropriately in this crash, and works quite well.

And here she sits, waiting for the RCGF 10cc muffler from Valley View RC.

Once that is installed, I will fire her up and check the servos and electronics. She is a tough bird, this Sukhoi, and a favorite. Its nice to see her back on her feet.