BH SU-34 50mm twin

[19000rpm]

I contacted Don at Don's RC about hopping up the SU34 and he recommended The Wicked 5400's motors, 50mm Wemetco fans, 30A ESC's and a 2200 3S 30C.

That combo makes 560Watts. Although I haven't measured the stock set up; that must be twice as many watts as it's making now. It should be wicked fast with the hop ups.

Two things are making me pause: 1) The wing loading with the 2200 is marginal. I've tried that with the stock set up. 2) Is this plane worth re-investing its original cost to repower it? At that point I'd have almost as much in it as the larger HLI SU34.

I think I'll keep flying it stock until I have problems with the power system. At that point I may spring for the upgrades.

I'm really liking these smaller EDF's. I can fly them off of the HS running track and smaller parking areas, if the have landing gears, and if they're belly landers on smaller grass areas. Plus I can get 5-6 of them in the back of the truck.

[Gabe]

That's a lot of power for that mini. I'm a fan of power, I just wonder how the airframe will hold up. Do all the control surfaces move properly with that bend in the servo arm? That was my major issue with the mini AMX.

[19000rpm]

That's a good point Gabe. Something I need to look into. That plus CF in the wings too.

[19000rpm]

I was flying it yesterday. It was 100 ft., or so, up and I hear a couple of pops and then no power.

It was a struggle to get it landed because it was fairly windy out, but it came in with little damage to the foam.

When I looked down one exhaust pipe it was apparent there were no blades. Then I looked down the other pipe and there were no blades there either.

So how did I lose 2 fans with in half a second of each other? Must of flown through a bunch of big bugs. What else? Since the fans are in 2 seperate thrust tubes it would make sense they were individually struck by 2 different objects.

Oh, well, it could have been worse. One fan housing had a crack in it. I have 2 new EDF units installed and the dented nose repaired. One landing gear broke and I bent a new one.

It will be back in the air this AM. A happier ending than I would have guessed when I heard those pops and walked over to inspect the damage.

[Gabe]

Strange. Maybe a swarm of June bugs? Losing 2 EDFs in 2 different chambers seems fishy.

[19000rpm]

Right Gabe, it does seem fishy. They'd have to be big bugs, like a June Bug, you'd think, to take out a fan.

I flew it with the new fans and all went well.

You mentioned that twin EDF sound earlier. It is awesome. I'm going to look into some other twin EDF planes.

[Gabe]

The first time I heard it was with the stealth plane that I almost bought from BH. I watched the video and it was music to my ears. I'm still contemplating adding that one to the fleet, just for the dual fans.

[19000rpm]

Yeah, that stealth makes some sweet noise.