New FMS/Eflite Su-30 coming soon

[radfordc]

Hi Su30 flyers,
Saturday I made the maiden out of gras. The speedbrake stops working during the second flight. My question, how many lead do you have in the rear? When I use 6000er LiPo with 840g I need nearly 400g in the tail by using CG of 150mm.
Christian

400g!! Wow. I'm using batteries that weight 770g and added about 70g to the tail. My CG is 145mm. I also added a larger nosewheel and extended the nose strut by 5mm. Grass takeoffs and landings went well.

[Hugh Wiedman]

Hi Su30 flyers,
Saturday I made the maiden out of gras. The speedbrake stops working during the second flight. My question, how many lead do you have in the rear? When I use 6000er LiPo with 840g I need nearly 400g in the tail by using CG of 150mm.
Christian

Christian, that sounds about right for a 6000 mah LiPo. I've tried several different batteries in mine to try and get longer flight times and optimum performance and it's a tough puzzle to figure out. IMO, this is a very heavy EDF and underpowered. I've used RT 5500, HRB 6000's and even a HobbyStar 8000 but with the weight of those batteries (794g/825g/890g) nothing seemed to really help. I added about 100 g of lead in the tail but was only able to get the CG back to 130mm with RT 5500 (794g). Still didn't fly all that well and with the 8000 mah barely got off the grass and had no vertical. Just as bad, to keep it going, with the higher capacity batteries I had to use more throttle, thus reducing flight time. In the end, about all I could get was just over 3 minutes no matter what battery I used. Lately I've been flying it on a 5000 mah battery with a weight of 754 g. This offers the best flight characteristics and ends up giving just about the same amount of flight time, 3 minutes (with a reserve for a go-around). With that set-up and the 3 ounces of lead in the tail (also have some extra weight there from 2 LED afterburners), it flies about as well as it's going to and my CG is close to 150mm. This is a great looking jet on the ground and in the air, but it is just not the best flying EDF, always a challenge.

I even use flaperons to help grass take-offs and changed the front nose wheel from the stock 1 7/8th to a Hangar Nine Pro-Lite 2 1/4", all of which helped get it's fat arse off the deck. Not sure what's up with your speed brake though. To get it to work, you need the travel to go from -100 to +100 (or vice versa). If the travel from your TX switch is only -100 to 0, it won't work properly.

[hcew]

Hi Su30 flyers,
Saturday I made the maiden out of gras. The speedbrake stops working during the second flight. My question, how many lead do you have in the rear? When I use 6000er LiPo with 840g I need nearly 400g in the tail by using CG of 150mm.
Christian

[Chrisi f-18]

Thanks 😊👍

[radfordc]

Hi I have also the su30. I made a turbine conversation with a lambert Kolibri t30. The plane is soo amazing with this combo. The complete su has a semi scale Weathering, Afterburner simulation and the gun isolation replicate with flite metal. Greets chris

Sehr gut!

[Chrisi f-18]

Hi I have also the su30. I made a turbine conversation with a lambert Kolibri t30. The plane is soo amazing with this combo. The complete su has a semi scale Weathering, Afterburner simulation and the gun isolation replicate with flite metal. Greets chris

[radfordc]

The repairs are coming along. I used strips of CF on the outside of the fuse to hold the broken parts together while being glued. I had some areas with no foam and I used some expanding spray foam to fill in the holes. My bigger issue is trying to find a replacement for the wing spar. HH doesn't have one in stock. They may have them in April. I measured the original and it is 9.65mm (.380) which isn't a standard size. I can find 10mm or .375". Will try one of those and see if it works.

[Wild Man]

I have flown mine many times. I have done more damage to it moving it in and out of the house and or garage last thing I did to it was set it on a table out side between the house and garage, it fell off the table and before I could catch it it wriggled the left wing when it hit the floor Ouch.

[Hugh Wiedman]

radfordc As long as you're rebuilding/repairing, a couple things to consider.

1) I put some reinforcement behind the nose gear brace rod (or whatever it's called). In the Stock setup, it goes into a piece of plastic that's glued into foam between the air intakes, no real bracing. After about 50 flights noticed mine was pancaking the foam and causing the rod to be loose. 90 degreed some carbon tubing and other pieces to take and spread the load of my "bull in a china shop" landings.

2) Carbon fiber tubes in the fuselage end just behind the battery bay, real clever engineering. Again happening after some 60 flights the fuselage started developing stress cracks just behind the battery where the nose wheel folds in. But being stupid, I disregarded the stress cracks and in an effort to get more flight time, I tried my Hobbystar 8000 mah that flies outstanding in my F16 and gives me over 5 minutes of flight time. Well, it barely got off the grass, had almost 0 vertical and required almost 80 to 90 % throttle to keep it up, resulting in almost no additional flight time. Upon landing, even with the nose up, when the front wheel came down, the entire front section with the battery dropped off.

I now only fly it on a 5000, at least it performs better than on a 6000 and I still get about the same flight time. Maybe it's just me or my flying, so just some food for thought.

[radfordc]

I use Frsky so no remotes. It's possible the battery blocked the signal, but I haven't had any problems in other jets that have the battery in front of the Rx. I'll make sure the antennas are oriented as well as possible next time.

[Hugh Wiedman]

BTW, radfordc, your initial take offs, flight and landing all looked great, so you definitely got the "right stuff" to fly this. Seems you lost signal when it was coming at you, meaning the battery was probably blocking the signal to the RX behind it. 1 of my remotes is in the very front of the nose.

[Hugh Wiedman]

Flew mine for the first time yesterday. The day was nice...light breeze down the runway and about 65 degrees. With the larger nosewheel and extended strut the plane flew off the grass strip with no problem. My impression of the jet is much like others....flys heavy, rolls very slow, short flight time. First three flights went well but disaster on the fourth flight. The plane stopped responding to my control and hit the ground hard. I suspect that the BEC may have come unplugged....whatever it was it happened quick. Plane is rebuildable.

https://youtu.be/Nq_OfvGNfYk

Sorry to hear that. For me, this is one aircraft that every 10 flights or so, I'm repairing / rebuilding something. So far all doable but who knows what it's lifespan is.

radfordc I replaced the stock AR636 with an older 7 channel AS3X for flaperons (grass ops as well) and keeping the airbrake, but also to hook up a satellite remote. Didn't like the stock RX placement cause I felt it could lead to issues being between the battery and ESC. Also added as many RF chokes I could, maybe at least 6, as per GliderGuy. Sounds like you may have lost signal. This is one aircraft that's tough enough to get a decent flight out of without having to worry about signal loss.

[radfordc]

Flew mine for the first time yesterday. The day was nice...light breeze down the runway and about 65 degrees. With the larger nosewheel and extended strut the plane flew off the grass strip with no problem. My impression of the jet is much like others....flys heavy, rolls very slow, short flight time. First three flights went well but disaster on the fourth flight. The plane stopped responding to my control and hit the ground hard. I suspect that the BEC may have come unplugged....whatever it was it happened quick. Plane is rebuildable.

https://youtu.be/Nq_OfvGNfYk

[Rcfiddy1]

Sounds like a bad receiver. One other think to check, Have you tried to rebind it ? I have not had any problems with mine

Receiver works. Tested gear and they don’t work. I ordered a new set and installed only to see them fail after cycling them a few times. It seems to be something in this gear door sequencer. I’m out $120 and have 2 sets of faulty landing gear. Plus the new airbrake uses a different size aluminum brace tube than what was originally used. So that needs to be fixed. Starting to think this plane is a 1st batch lemon. May just cut my losses and part her out or sell airframe. I’ve only flown it a half dozen times and always had issues. Bad steering servo right out of box, airbrake doesn’t sit flush with fuse, wing to fuse joint wasn’t right. Never again will I jump on a preorder.

[Hugh Wiedman]

Just finished this Royal Malaysian Air Force scheme! Now just need decals.

Very Nice! Post some final photos with the decals, Callie's no doubt.

[JeremySean]

Just finished this Royal Malaysian Air Force scheme! Now just need decals.

[Wild Man]

No asphalt here...just a not so smooth grass field. I'm flying a 70mm BAE Hawk, twin 70 Me-262, 80mm Gripen, and twin 80 Mig-29 and they are all doing OK.

I have the FMS BEA Hawk Red Arrow 80mm and the twin 70mm Me-262 and many more The BAE Hawk from FMS is a great Flier. I really like to relax while I am flying I still have two JR 10 X's that I still use out here in fly over Country LOL!!!!

[Hugh Wiedman]

No asphalt here...just a not so smooth grass field. I'm flying a 70mm BAE Hawk, twin 70 Me-262, 80mm Gripen, and twin 80 Mig-29 and they are all doing OK.

A buddy of mine has both the Gripen and the Mig-29 and they get off our grass field with no problem in 100' or less. The SU-30 on the same field, not so much, more like 150' with no wind, but a decent 10 mph head wind helps quite a bit. My 90 mm F-4 (with the original 1750 Kv outrunner), the F-18 (with the same older fan as the F-4) and my F-16 with the 12 blade 1835 Kv inrunner also get off in less than 100', just for a few comparisons to the SU-30 on the same grass field. I'm sure you'll be able to get it off OK, just don't expect it to take off as quick as the Gripen or Mig. Can't wait to hear about your maiden, I'm sure you'll do great!

[radfordc]

No asphalt here...just a not so smooth grass field. I'm flying a 70mm BAE Hawk, twin 70 Me-262, 80mm Gripen, and twin 80 Mig-29 and they are all doing OK.

[Hugh Wiedman]

Hugh, thanks for your input. I haven't flown mine yet but have modified the nose gear like you did. I will fly it on batts that weight 760 g at first.

Sounds like a plan, let me know how it goes, it always helps me to get other pilots info and tips that can aid in my flying. I did program in flaperons with a 7 channel AS3X to help in take-off from grass (along with the larger nose wheel). This also seemed to help a bit in landing but it definitely needed some power at landing to keep it from dropping too fast. I've tried landing with full flaps and no air brake, as well as full flaps with the air brake and for some reason it seems like I get a better landing without the air brake. I know some have said in this thread that with the air brake it pitches up, however, I've experienced just the opposite (not that savvy of a pilot with this one so who knows what's really going on). Without the air brake on landing, for some reason I can slow it down enough and get the nose slightly up for landing without it dropping too fast but with the air brake it seems to keep the nose down and make it more difficult to do a main gear first landing and usually comes in as a 3 pointer, not the worst thing, but definitely want to keep it from being nose first and having it bounce.

One other thing I found is on take-off of grass, I need to keep it at full up elevator from the beginning, to try and relieve any downforce on the nose wheel which causes a lot of drag and makes it difficult to gain take-off speed on the runway. As I see it getting what looks like enough ground speed and the nose getting loose from the grass, I reduce the elevator to maybe 30% up so the take-off is a decent attitude instead of too high and causing a stall. When this first came out, a rep from Horizon was at our field for an event we had and he had told me that the SU-30 would not be a good candidate for grass ops, but of course I wouldn't listen to the experts and had to get one anyway. It's taken some work, but I have been able to make it a grass ops capable EDF, just not the best one in the bunch. I bet this jet is a completely different animal on asphalt and you could get more flight time since you don't have to waste so much battery on getting it off of grass, but then what's the fun in doing things the right way?