Sukhoi SU-26 Successful Maiden

The conditions were near perfect. I was feeling it. I took the Alpha 450 up to practice and refine my eyes and fingers, to check my focus.

I preflighted the Sukhoi, convinced she was about to take the place of my Pulse XT as my favorite and GOTO plane. I wasn't nervous, I was ready. So, I committed and pushed the throttle to the firewall.

She rolled, and lifted off smoothly with precision. I fell madly in love.

I had 5 6S packs but realized I had not velcroed the 3 new ones. I didn't want them sliding around on just the strap, so I only flew two packs. I put her through basic flight maneuvers, and the wings stayed on. She made her attitude changes with the grace, power and precision of a ballet dancer. Everything happened when, where and how I wanted it to. I practiced no flap stalls, saw her right wing dip in warning, clean response to power. Sweeter with flaps. The first landing was perfect. For that my heart was in my throat as I learned she had a point where she would tip stall, and I was determined not to on approach and landing. Landed fast, no flaps. Photo op!

I made a few changes to the D/R, but kept the Expos, and took out the differential. To calm my nerves I took the Alpha up for a 4th pack. I returned to the Sukhoi, quick preflight, new pack, check surfaces, pushed the throttle forward to get her rolling through the thick grass and she lifted off perfectly level. This time I took her through some basic aerobatics, and tested her handling with flaps. Made a couple of practice approaches and a couple of full stop landings. Final approach and landinf with full flap, flawless. Love had turned to lust. I am smitten.

So the Sukhoi is my new mistress. I am recharging the Breitling 30cc ignition and receiver packs and will go back out to the field. If its still mine, I may have yet another love...

Burbbly Day

Finally got some time to fly. Seemed nice enough, a little breezy, but calm. Got up to the field, bringing the Eflite PulseXT and the new Sukhoi. I put the Pulse up to test the winds aloft and they were all over the place. And for some reason she was nose heavy with a tendency to roll left. I had to trim her quite a bit, but the burbly winds tossed her around. Made a cooils of landings and couldnt see anything wrong...

The winds on the field started shifting from end, then the other, then cross, all within a few seconds. Made a final landing when I decided I'd had enough, and it took a couple of tries and a rough bounce that broke the prop. Had to take her around with a tip missing and finally got her down.

The Sukhoi never got out of the car...

Skyline 70 Sukhoi SU-26

Introducing my completed build of my Skyline 70 Sukhoi SU-26 from General Hobby! I think she is my new favorite airplane. I have always been fond of the radial engine cowl and her simple Russian design. I have a feeling she will be a good flyer!

I am using the Skyline SBach 70 electronics from my crashed plane, but with a Spektrum AR7100 received. On 6S with a 17x8 APC nylon prop she produces 1180 watts, pulling only about 5 lbs! Hugely over powered, so I will need to be cautious.

Camera away!

Not that I planned it that way...

Dropped the fam off at the airport on their way to Mechacon in New Orleans, thought I would take advantage of the ungodly hour and beautiful wx to capture some gorgeous vid from aloft in my new $10 pinhole camera.

And somewhere over the trees and fields, in the light of the morning sun, some critter was bonked on the head with a gift from the gods, with which it has absolutely no use.

So, no video.

Don't Tell Maria...

But, my wife doesn't need to know I decided to replace the dead Sbach 70... Though, really, she'll know soon enough.

I finally bought the Sukhoi SU-26 I have wanted for a very long time. I will use the electronics and motor from the Sbach 70 I lost last week. I really didn't like the way any of my Sbachs fly, but this beauty is a classic airframe and I expect good things from her.

I expect to start the build after I get back from vacay!

PS: I couldn't bear it... I told her. I married up!

Now I'm starting to worry...

Flew for over an hour today. And ran into what is becoming a recurrent problem that is making me nervous. I was flying the Alpha Sport and she suddenly would not turn left and she required hard left aileron and rudder to keep wings level. I did the UPS Delivery "Right Turns Only" thing by easing off aileron to let her fall right. It took some major skills but I landed her.

Here's the scary thing... The right aileron thought its center was full up. It barely moved down. Sound familiar? This happened with the MX-Bach, and the Alpha's rudder, now it was happening to the Alpha's aileron. This time though the small plastic control horn was stripped. I had to replace the entire servo, which failed, and the horn.

This is really weird. Did this kill the Sbach and the Sopwith? I haven't done the post crash yet. I need to get on the website and see if anyone has seen this before. The only common is my Spektrum DX8.

I met a neighbor who stopped by, Brock. Took him up in the Alpha (of course, its always something, so that's when the Alpha went wacky). I took him up on a buddy box with the Pulse, and he noted being a pilot of full scale, this was really weird for him. I have heard that from a couple of pilots of full scale: orientation is harder to sort out.

Took the MX-B up, and the tall grass (it has been way too long for too long) grabbed the main gear and they cracked.

It's always something.

I. Can't. Even.

UPDATE (7/3/15 @ 0930hrs): Ok.. I was so pissed yesterday. The words that came to mind were pretty ugly. This is my Skyline 70 SBach. I had flown her, she flew pretty well actually (never really enjoy flying SBachs, except my 30cc) and landed fine. New battery, took her up, toodled around and made an approach. It was long, so I went around, 20 deg flaps. Stayed inside the field (surrounded by trees). On the downwind at about 20', crossed the sun and she didn't come out. I noticed I wasn't controlling her, cried out, "Oh, no!" (point being there was time...), thinking she was stalling I applied power slowly but deliberately, and she drilled in hard. She is literally tooth picks.