I got out yesterday morning and blasted through almost every lipo I have in my Su35 of all sizes, 1600/1800 and 2200. Fourteen flights on it in total... :)
Fortunately it was relatively calm for the first couple hours, so I was able to get a much better feel for the plane without the wind.
I remember when I did the flyoff originally between the Su35 and Su37 how I had described the Su37 as smooth and the Su35 as aggressive. Well now with these mods, the Su35 is smooth and more precise than anything else. It will snap in and out of maneuvers when I want it to by slamming the sticks around, but for the most part when I am flying around or doing scale type aerobatics, it just feels so precise with the smaller control surfaces and everything else that is going on.
To see if the reduced ailerons and elevons had any big impact on slower speed cruising, I spent one flight just cruising at 50% throttle just like I normally used to with the stock surfaces. It actually performed better because when I went into a turn, loop or roll, I didn't have as much surface area being dragged through the slipstream. I also cruised around as best I could at about 40% throttle without aid of any high lift devices (flaps, spoilers, etc) and even then it was very responsive. I had to be a little smoother with the inputs so as not to stall, but that is normal for any plane as it slows down I think.
I could get a bit of high alpha with it, but definitely nowhere near where I can get with my F18. I started off with about half inch travel on the flaps, etc. I tried all the configurations flaps, spoilers, flaperons and spoilerons and as soon as I got up about 25 degrees AOA, wing rock would come on and then if I tried to ease it up just a little higher..wow, wing rock came on pretty violently to the point where I had less than about 3 seconds to drop the nose and fly away or I would end up inverted!
So I tried another configuration, less flap, etc like down to as low as 1/4" travel and that softened it a bit, but not by much. I also found that I had to have the extra weight of a 2200 battery to get any kind of stability in a nose high attitude, anything lighter and it was like trying to put a feral cat on a leash...not fun!
With straight flaps (not flaperons) I could actually fly around level at about 30% throttle, it gave me that extra lift, but it was a bit of a razor's edge, too much bank or just a bit too slow and bang, it would stall. It behaved like a tip stall, but not sure if it was that or just the low wing stalling in a turn, either way it made for some interesting recoveries...or lack thereof...as you can see in the picture below I got a little bit of a battle scar, but now it has more character! Just some dirt, fortunately not one bit of structural damage. I tried a couple approaches and landings with flaps, but in all honesty, I don't really need them now, this plane glides so much more stable and smooth than the stock Su35, flaps are not really a requirement.
So next calm day I might trying to go down just a bit more on the flaps, etc to see if that helps. I think that this is not really a high alpha model, which is fine, I know folks get good high alpha with the Su37 when they play around with canards, but I prefer the profile of the Su35 MK2, so I'll live with that.
So back to the good news again.... :) I have my throws down around 70% still in the roll and pitch and would not go any higher than that. Even with the reduced elevons and ailerons at 70% throws it does non scale flip loops and rifle bullet rolls, so it definitely doesn't need more. I had thought about reducing the throws even more, but then sometimes with slow maneuvers I want that extra bit of throw just to get me over the top or around the corner.
The rudders are very effective for special aerobatics, but I need to tone them down a bit for slow speed flying and high alpha, they are a bit too big for my liking. I tried a couple of hammerhead stall turns today though and they worked well for that and the plane stayed true in the roll axis, the old Su35 would try to do an inside roll if I tried just kicking the rudders when I was approaching stall in the vertical, so I think that dihedral effect of the vert stabs helps with the stability in the yaw even when kicking some pretty hard rudder.
So like I said earlier, precision is what is really impressing me about this plane with these mods, it just carves beautifully in and out of turns, staying true and solid all the way through, very smooth through loops and it rolls true on it's axis very smoothly and precisely.
Cheers,
Scott
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