Originally Posted by Alerberg

A battery for the ignition, a battery for the receiver, and a battery for the smoke system. I am going to have more batteries in this thing than my kid has in her mini four-wheeler. I am worried about the weight with having a smoke system installed.

I would suggest getting rid of the smoke system. They are cool, but add to much weight on a 50CC airframe in my opinion.

Engine will be here tomorrow, plane on Monday. Looking forward to seeing what I bought...

If the sukhoi is still the same basic build as the DawgHouse R/C prototypes were you will find it very easy to make it tail heavy with the TMM 53. Just make sure you do not mount the batteries untill you get a good balance check in. Also this plane has awesome tumbling abilities when the CG is right.

Which smoke system are you putting on it? I have a topdawg edge with smoke. My smoke is a TME and I don't have to run a second batt for the smoke. You can run it off the reciever. I have a Fromco 2600 on my ignition and a 5200 on my reciever with regulators. I have 8611's all the way around.

Got the plane today, engine last Friday... I will post some pics, all looked good. It ended up being V2 and not V3 which has the carbon fiber gear but not a big deal. Everything else is Carbon Fiber. The cowl was good except a chip in the side where the paint started to flake. I think a little 30min epox will secure it. The smoke systems is a sullivan which to my knowledge requires the extra bat. I have the same setup in my Talyorcraft, it works great. By the way crewdog, what muff do have for smoke? I am going to put a nipple in my stock muff and call it a day. Did the same for the Taylor and it works very well. This is my first BIG airplane so every step is new. I plan on CA'ing the inside tonight to sure up any missed glue spots. I am nervous about the hinges, any advice? It seems everyone has a different view on the proper way to build an airplane of this size.

Also... So far have purchased two 7955 TG's, not sure yet about the other surfaces. I have a feeling I am going with 7955's all the way around, unless someone can talk me out of it.

Stick with the 7955s. Slight overkill but wont let you down. You'll use them in something bigger down the road.

Just remembered... The TMM engine didn't come with any documentation or instructions so I am relying soley on this forum for the engine install. Thanks for the advice Boosier on the servos, I was leaning that direction.

Very simple engine to work with. No different than any other. Tunes easy and is very reliable!! Has gobs of torque toooooooooo!!! You can find a mounting temp. if you search the sites I believe. Good luck.

Got the plane yesterday... Outer box was pretty beat up but the inner box was o.k. The plane was in pretty good shape, I was surprised that there wasnt more protection to keep the stuff from banging together inside the box. Something Goldwing could improve. I took out and inspected all the parts, looks good, this thing is big. I thought the cowling looked great, I did find a small chip of paint that has started to flake off, I will try a dab of epoxy tonight to see if it will lay back down. I started by applying thin CA to all the major connection joints concentrating most on the firewall and engine box. I checked for any loose glue joints but didn't find any. I noticed the firewall and engine box have already been re-inforced so I don't think I am going to add any blocking ect. I started with the gear, the pants were easy to assemble, I thought the gear was made out of some lightweight aluminum but now appears to be a painted CF. How did I know this? As I was tightening the gear bolt the wheel goes on, into the frame I heard a crack, and noticed a hairline fracture as I went a little too tight. I put some CA in the tiny crack but am concerned it will not hold up. Anyone else ever done this? Is it o.k.?

Installed the wing servo and the rudder servo, the wing was so easy there is no sense in talking about it, if you have built an ARF before it was just like any other servo installation. The rudder servo came with a large annondized aluminum arm that I really wanted to use. However, it requires you to attach it with four small bolts to the circle servo arm that comes standard with a servo. However, the 7955's dont have a standard circle plastic control arm they have a large harded plastic one that wont fit. So, I used an older plastic one that came with other Hitec servos and attached the aluminum arm to this. Had to drill a little bit bigger hole for the bolts but it fit. I am concerned about the plastic teeth stripping with such a powerful servo, thoughts?

After installing the aileron servos, rudder, and gear I had a good look at the engine. The good news is the entire engine (with exception of the muffler exhaust of course) will fit inside the cowl without any cutting. However, I am wondering where I am going to let air escape. As I see it, I have two choices, one is to cut an opening in the square section of the cowl on the very bottom, the other is to cut a hole further back in the covering where a canister/tuned pipe was meant to be installed. The air flow would go over the engine and escape further back in the fuse. Any suggestions?

Last but not least, I took out the motor last night, again, no instructions so I will be going back and looking at old build posts to see how to do it. TMM also only included bolts but no nuts to go on them??? I thought this was strange, what would hold the engine to the firewall? Also, they included a template where I matched up the target cross hairs to the one on the firewall. However, the picture (template) shows the carb on the right when the carb is actually on the left. Again, anyone that owns a 3MM engine I am looking for advice here.

Sorry this is so long, a ton of questions came up last night, these are just my major concerns. Any help is appreciated. I have attached pics and will continue to do so... THANKS FOR THE HELP IN ADVANCE!

With that combo you need to damn the cowl up in front and then open the cannister tunnel. You do not need to cut the cowl except for the exhaust, then just use some light weight material to make a baffel blocking all but the lower 30% of the cowl opening to let air cool the cylinder heads.

A couple more thoughts: Tonight I plan on installing the rudder, it's my first time working with these big hinges, I assume 30min epoxy will do the trick. How tight is that joint? Should they butt together?

Also: I noticed this morning the canopy doesn't fit just right... In the back there is a misfit by about 1/8 of an inch. The other thing I noticed was the rudder seems a little warped. Anyone else have this problem? How do you fix?

Thanks again in advance, I will post more pics tomorrow morning.

I have an Edge and wanted a pitts style muffler so the exhaust would come out at the bottom in the middle. I had to have a custom exhaust made for this. I tried a DA 50 pitts muffler but the bolts pattern was a off. J&A Engineering made my exhaust, they make exhaust for AI 3w motors.

The stand offs that come with the motor are threaded on both ends so its bolted from the firewall side and the motor side as well. If you do it that way be sure to use red loctite on your bolts. I got different stand offs because I prefer to run my bolts all the way thru to a blind nut I put in the firewall with a lock nut jammed down from the inside. I locktite everything when I put it together, even my wheel pants. I use blue on everthing except around the motor, I use red there. Things have a tendency to vibrate loose if you don't.

I used the template that comes with the motor to mount mine and it was spot on when I put my cowling on. I would try it and if you need to move it then plug the holes with some dowl expoxied in and re drill to fit.

As far as break in on the motor it is pretty much the same as a DA 50. You can find the exact info if you go to the tmm or 3mm website. Tuning is same as all gas engines, set your high needle just on the rich side and set the low side for a smooth transition. I am running 50:1 amsoil on 87 octane.

When you put the rudder on make the gap as small as possible and still have your travel. I trial fit mine before I glue it so I know how it will fit. 30 min epoxy will be fine, I use gorilla glue for my hinges and have not ever had any problems with them.

I use swb metal servo arms on mine but durbro heavy duty arms would probably work good on a 50cc plane as well.

I use swb metal servo arms on mine but durbro heavy duty arms would probably work good on a 50cc plane as well.

I will caution you on this. The way the wings are constructed if you use heavy duty plastic arms with ball links it may be just enough twist on the arm to cause a flutter situation. I have seen this on two diffrent aircraft, one was a Yak 54 with a very similar wing construction method.

Good stuff guys... I installed the rudder per your instructions, turned out great. Figured out the stand-offs, you are correct, bolts from both sides, purchased the 5mm X 16mm bolts today from Menards. Using locktight on everything, I am not aware of red locktight? Different? Also completed the aileron/servo install. Vsap I will watch for the flutter, seems solid at this point but something to watch after several flights. Thanks for the motor tuning instructions, I got a 22X8 for break in. Will probably go to the 23X8 Xoar for future use. I will post pics this weekend. Need to figure out how much to cut the cowl to let air escape. Also need to cut a perfect round hole for the muff exhaust port. I HATE CUTTING THE COWL! I am having problems with the servo install in the tail, will take pics to show the issue, comes down to location of servo arms in the slits... Oh, quick side note, Dennis from TopDawg Avaition has been great helping me with some of the motor issues.