Parkzone Sukhoi 26 xp Review

Well I’m very pleased to say I received my Parkzone Sukhoi this morning, just two working days after ordering it from Model Flight (the local importer here in Australia). Given the calm winds today, it was the perfect opportunity to take it for a test flight.

Un-packing and assembly of the ultra-micro

Opening the box was exactly what I expected – the little model safely in the foam, with a spare propeller, the landing gear and manual securely taped in place too.

Interestingly, this plane looks even smaller “in the flesh” than it does on the Parkzone web site. That said, I’m not at all worried, I have big planes and this was a purchase for a small electric RC plane to fly at my local park – so fits the bill nicely!

I found the lipo battery half-charged out of the box (this prolongs the life of the battery when in long term storage), and as a result it took only 15 minutes to charge fully in the included charger (with 4x AA batteries conveniently in the box as well).

After giving a quick top-up charge of my Spektrum DX7 transmitter and binding it to the plane I was ready to set the appropriate throw rates (this model does not come with a transmitter, you need to provide your own DSM2 compatible one).

One thing you’ll notice is that the control surfaces are very generously sized – so this model is definitely equipped to do some pretty impressive aerobatics.

Although I have a few years’ experience flying low wing models, I haven’t really done a lot with 3D planes – as a result, I decided to conservatively set the control surface throws – knowing they can always be moved out in the future.

As a result, the low rates were set as 60% movement, with 35% exponential for all surfaces (ailerons, elevators and rudder).

I left the high rates at 100% movement, and with 45% exponential for all surfaces.

The undercarriage also clips neatly into the fuselage, and although feels quite sturdy, given my first landing would be on grass thought it best to detach them (a blade of grass is about the same height as the undercarriage – so this undercarriage is purely for cement/indoor landings only!)

First flight

My first pleasure I have to admit was being able to drive only a short distance to the local park, given this rc electric plane is so small! (It’s not called an ultra micro for nothing!).

I found a quiet soccer field, and in winds of only about 5 knots, throttled up to 50% and gave it a gentle throw after checking to ensure I was on low rates. Impressively, the plane did not require any trim at all – it flew perfectly, straight away.

After taking it up to about 30 feet, I did about five circuits to get a feel for the model. Even at 60% throw, I noticed the ailerons were still very responsive (with nice fast rolls) – so much so that in hindsight I’d probably drop the throws to 50% for a first flight.

Throttling up to 100% demonstrates what this parkzone ultra micro is capable of – certainly plenty of vertical performance – it’s a fast little monster actually.

One thing I did notice, although I was only in light winds, was that when it gusted the model certainly does tend to jerk around. At a guess the wind probably got up to about 8 knots – so certainly quite light, but enough to knock the little model off course.

The motor provides adequate power to charge through the gusts, and given I was at a safe height, just needed to re-orient the Sukhoi back onto its path. I suspect if I was running closer to 100% throttle (most of the time it flew around at 50% power) the gust would have had a less noticeable impact.

The only slight negative I found was that even the slightly higher capacity 150mAh battery (many parkzone ultra micro’s come with a 130mAh lipo) only gave me a flight time of about 8 minutes. I noticed that in the last two minutes of this, the top range of the throttle did tend to drop right off too (maximum appeared to fall to about 60%). For the flying I was doing this didn’t really matter, but I could imagine a more experienced pilot doing 3D manouvers may feel the flight duration is a little on the short side for an electric model.

One other side note worth a mention is that I placed battery at the most forward location to shift the centre of gravity as forward as possible. In actual fact, it appears this is pretty much the desired CofG setting as stated in the manual (3cm from the leading edge of the wing), so really it is actually quite hard to get to a very “nose heavy” settting. Even though the Parkzone promo video’s suggest the battery can be moved “up and down” to the pilot’s liking, it really should be re-worded as moving “down” to really just add more weight to the tail as the pilot gains more experience.

I know this is splitting hairs, but essentially you’re not really able to make this model more nose heavy should you wish to. Although for most hobbyists I don’t think you’ll need to do this either.

Distance wise, I flew this model up to about 100m away from me. The receiver worked perfectly and I didn’t receive any interference or loss of control. Any further than this distance and I found I’d start to lose sight of the direction of the model given its size. As a result, the space this model needs is genuinely quite small. An area the size of two basketball courts is really quite perfect.

Final comments

Horizon Hobbies claim it’s a model for intermediate to advanced pilots, and I tend to agree if you want to get the most out of it – however it is not that difficult to fly – just set the low rates to about 50% and you’ll absolutely love this model. If you’re comfortable with low-winged planes, I think you’ll find you’ll be OK with this Parkzone Sukhoi 26 xp too.

Grab yourself an extra battery and you’ll have a heap of fun – definitely the perfect model for taking a break from the office during your lunch hour!