Ordered my Su-26

[rmyers]

I'm slowly plugging away. Everything dry fit ok. Landing gear is on.Tail surfaces glued up. Elevator servos installed. Waiting for the UPS guy for an engine. Then I'll get serious. Trying to get some stick time in between the snow and high winds out here.

 

[rmyers]

I used the telescoping magnet idea to start the main gear bolts, that, and a dremel

 

[Bill Burkert]

The washer was bigger than the hole for me, the slots and holes were way off and one TNUT wasnt threaded. I ended up cutting open both areas and made new balsa pieces and recovered. When I cut open the areas I found the sheeting wasn't glued at all on the one side and tri-stock pieces were kinda cracked in half instead of cut and the whole areas looked much different than the other. I cut more covering off so I could sand the new pieces of balsa and recovered, everything is fine now.
View attachment 46136 View attachment 46135

 

[Luchnia]

This is a PAU? They are usually much better built than this.

 

[Bartman]

When PAU bought BME's line of airplanes they continued production of most of them. The big Ultimate has been through a complete redesign but not all of them have had that kind of attention. They're still great looking and flying airplanes but some of the details are a little less refined than the PAU planes that Herve has been personally developing the last few years.

I had a few zits to deal with when I built my PAU 50cc Pitts Challenger earlier this year but it flies great and looks awesome all swagged out.

 

[rmyers]

That would help me understand some of the other issues I'm going to have to deal with. Nothing major but not like the Extra 300 my fellow club member has . That's the airframe that I based my decision on. I'm looking forward to flying this Sukhoi!

 

[Bill Burkert]

This is a PAU? They are usually much better built than this.

Yes it's a PAU and not what I was expecting either. I couldnt believe I had a problem with nearly every step that I will not get into but the final step was the wing bolts and they were really mis-aligned. Now I see the pull-pull wires are rubbing on the inside of the fuselage, I tried crossing the wires to no avail.

I agree that the newly designed PAU planes are likely much better quality but I wanted a Sukhoi and only read good things.

 

[Luchnia]

When PAU bought BME's line of airplanes they continued production of most of them. The big Ultimate has been through a complete redesign but not all of them have had that kind of attention. They're still great looking and flying airplanes but some of the details are a little less refined than the PAU planes that Herve has been personally developing the last few years.

I had a few zits to deal with when I built my PAU 50cc Pitts Challenger earlier this year but it flies great and looks awesome all swagged out.

Very interesting. About two years ago I built a Pitts Bulldog and the bottom wing dihedral was not correct. It comes with a wooden piece that has the dihedral preset. You just put the wood piece in and assemble the wings and they are supposed to be correct. I epoxied them and they fit perfectly however once I was almost complete I found that they were about a half inch off in distance from the top wing.

I had to get creative and change several mount holes. Quite a bit of unexpected work. I should have only assembled them instead of expoxying them. It would have been some work to change the wings to get them right. I got it to work and it was a beautiful plane and flew awesome.

I sold it last year as I did not fly it much (not really a bipe guy). I must admit I was surprised at the problem for a PAU plane. Everything else went together fine.

 

[rmyers]

Come on snow! Whoo

Hoo! I hope there's a pitts muffler out there somewhere.

 

[rmyers]

Please let's not turn this into a bash PAU thread. My issues are minor, cosmetic, and will not affect the flight characteristicsof this airplane.