I spent a little time today doing some maintenance and repairs on my Gaserized Cessna and the 3w 170 Sukhoi. Late last fall I had a mishap with the Cessna and as much as I hate to admit it, totally my fault. I guess I have gotten used to flying in a "stalled" condition with my aerobatic planes. Last flight of the day on final, I slowed the Cessna down just a little too much with flaps fully depoyed and realized it a little too late. I mashed the gas pedal but didn't give the plane enough time to gain back the airspeed for a go around and she stalled over to her nose and left wing. Not too much damage to the plane but my ego sure took a hit. No big though, The engine survived just fine and the rest of the plane not badly damaged. Just needed to do some repairs to the motor box and left wing panel. I've since repaired the motor box and now have to cut the new cowl to fit. Today I finished up the repair on the wing and recovered it and re-installed the aileron and flap servos and tested everything. Seems good to go. I'll probably finish up the cowl in the next couple of days.
Next up I decided to do a little work on the Sukhoi. Since I have decided to faithfully persue flying the Sportsman class in IMAC this year, I wanted to make sure the big orange bird was ready to go. When I had her out a week ago Sunday, I noticed she was not tracking as true as I wanted. Mostly in higher speed straight and level flight, she would want to climb just a little. It tracks really nicely in all other maneuvers with no mix or compensation for coupling. It doesn't seem to do it at lower speeds and I believe I have it figured out why. When I built the plane two years ago, I added five cooling louvers to the bottom of the fuse from just behind the gear to 17" back to the furthest back louver to help "suck" out warm air from the engine compartment. I have since realized she doesn't need quite that many so I removed three of the five louvers. After removing the louvers, I recovered the belly to seal up that gaping hole in the fuse belly. I am hoping this will eliminate the tucking to the canopy at higher speeds. Will see very soon. I also noticed the "pulse" tube from the carb to the air horn had a cut in it and though the 170 never misses a beat, I figured it probably should be something that needed to be replaced. Done. Also noticed my aileron ball linkages were starting to squeak a little so it's time for a little lube on all the ball links. I also decided to relocate one of the rx. antennas to a cleaner reception area. I had noticed on very rare and random occasions a weird momentary lack of response from tx. input. I am thinking that maybe the dual boda antennas have been too close. We'll see if my new placement will help this issue.
The 170 is really starting to break in and wake up quite nicely and have discovered that lately it is ripping the Falcon 32x11 as much as the 157cs on my 260 does the Falcon 32x10. At just over 8 or so gallons, I know it will wake up a heap more still. I am considering taking the 32x11 from the 170 and putting it on the 157cs. And since I have a new Falcon 32x12, I am thinking of putting it on the 170. Plus having a 12 pitch, it should allow better braking in down line. But this is where you IMAC guru's come in with your expertise. What do all you think of my "prop swap" plan? Maybe some of you have a better suggestion? Last year was my first time getting my feet wet with IMAC, so I am a little behind in knowledge and would appreciate some input here. I am looking forward to really devoting some time to IMAC this year with the Sukhoi so I want her perfect.