That ominous feeling when things just go too well...

After fixing the completely loose muffler, cleaning up the engine on the MX-Bach, I cleaned and touched up the paint on the prop, added white tips and clear coated the entire thing. Came out very nice. I put it back on and that weird feeling that it went too easily came over me. It reminds me of "found time", that ominous feeling when you suddenly have free time when you shouldn't, and you begin to fear there is something you are supposed to be doing and you're not. It's like that. Like this: the bolts for the prop went in perfectly, the holes lined up miraculously, I woke in the middle of the night and it came in a flash. I forgot to re-balance the prop, which I had been reminding myself the whole time to do.

So the next morning I took it off, balanced it, which it REALLY needed (the three big pieces of electrical tape each go down the back of the blade), and re-installed it.  Took her outside and ran her, easily tuning the low idle, and re--tuning a bit the high needle, and she ran marvelously like she usually does. This RCGF-USA 35cc engine is a sweet one, and her shenanigans not running right or idling the other day were gone with fixing the muffler and the mild re-tuning. She even likes her silencer again!

I had mentioned that the Sukhoi with her RCGF-USA 10cc (one of the early ones) was running great but seemed a bit laconic. I had a Master Airscrew 13x8x3 blade on her, and she has suggested she liked a twin blade better, unlike her sister the Stik with the same engine who does great with the 3-blade prop. I static tested the thrust with the 3-blade and got about 3.7 lbs at WOT. I then put an APC 14x8 two blade prop on and she consistently gave the same ~780 rpm but the thrust was now 4.7 - 5.2 lbs! Needless to say I left the twin blade on and will see how this translates in flight as soon as the weather stops acting the fool. I meant to weight the aircraft but forgot to. I will later and will update this post.

I still think the Sukhoi would be much better suited for a 15-20cc engine. The Stik loves the 10cc and has great vertical. You can see the size difference here. Both are great fliers and a lot of fun!