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Yak 55cc busted fuse side

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Yak 55cc busted fuse side

Old 11-06-2010, 09:51 PM
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FlyStraight
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Default Yak 55cc busted fuse side

During a crosswind landing, one side of the wing dropped and the plane hit the ground quite hard and busted the left load member inside the fuse. I wish those two vertical side load members that carry the engine and wing were made out of solid carbon fiber. The bottom wood gear block would then attach to the carbon vertical sides with those aluminium L brackets. The wooden engine firewall could also attach to the carbon load members with L brackets. AW could do this on all of their planes to make them super strong and light. I think I'm going to use some wooden sticks (I'm out of plywood) to laminate the entire left load member so on landing there is no compression. Oh yeah, the whole front left side of the fuse that attaches to the load member is busted as well. But since it's for decoration only I'll patch it up with epoxy.
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Old 11-06-2010, 10:34 PM
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Default RE: Yak 55cc busted fuse side

How did the landing gear survive?
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Old 11-07-2010, 10:22 PM
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Default RE: Yak 55cc busted fuse side

The left side of the landing gear hit the ground and bent backwards. I'm not sure I can bend it back. Couldn't believe that the thick alum. gear can even bend like that. I'm in the process of reinforcing both sides of those load members with wood. I'm taking two pieces of wood and gluing them together as a sandwitch then using it to reinforce the load members. I recommend everyone does this on their kit. I was also thinking that AW could instead of making the load members of solid carbon they could make a carbon/plywood sandwitch.

Despite the hardware problems, fuel tank leaking, weak landing gear blocks, etc. I do like the plane a lot otherwise I wouldn't bother to fix it. Forgot to tell you guys that during the hard landing the left main wheel almost busted thru the wheel pant. So I'm taking the pants off and keeping them off. The bottom of the pants was also scraping off on our asphalt runway. So yeah, the plane will be a bit heavier. I imagine the way technology is going nowdays, soon there will be carbon/balsa sandwitch 50cc planes on the market if not already. Some of those smaller electrics are already using that carbon fusion tech. I would like AW to include all carbon stuff in their next run of their Yak like all the others are doing. They're doing it and for less money. AW is doing it for new kits, I wish they go back and do it for their older kits. Plus, I wish they throw away that metal tail gear and replace it with carbon and include the carbon tailwheel horn as well. Can't wait to get back into the air.

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Old 11-14-2010, 02:23 AM
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Default RE: Yak 55cc busted fuse side

Thinking back on the bad landing event, what happened was that the non-local airport runway was narrow and short and I was flying in a crosswind with varying winds. As I was landing two feet off the ground, the wind lessened and I dropped the plane on the ground. The left wheel hit the soft sandy like dirt which stopped the plane and bent the landing gear backwards. I used some scrap wood to fill out the lightening holes in the left side plywood load member and that made the left side much stronger. I left the right side as it is as I don't plan on making hard landings like that again. Interestingly, I could not bend the gear back into shape so it's bent backwards a little bit. That must have been some incredible force to bend that gear back like that. I really feel that there shouldn't have been any lighting holes in the load members above the main gear block for strength reasons. I'm going to go fly the plane tomorrow and hopefully the repairs will hold up. That left side now seems much stronger that the right side eventhough I laminated the left side only from one side and not both, like in a sandwitch. Notice the two vertical pieces of wood (laminates) above the gear block. No way that the gear is going to compress that left load member again.

Basically, the way I see it is like this. For normal landings the current arf is good enough. Only when making harder than usual landings do we need stronger wood or a laminate above the gear block. Knowing this, I will be extra careful from now on when landing. Trying not to come in too slow and stall and drop the plane the last foot or two above the ground. I took the wheel pants off, it's better that way as I don't scape the front of them off when tilt carrying(nose down, tail up) the plane to the pits. Here's a pic of the repairs:
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Old 11-18-2010, 06:16 PM
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Default RE: Yak 55cc busted fuse side

Did four more flights on the repaired fuse and no problems during normal landings. I also did couple of lomcevaks and no problems. The plane does beautiful lomcevaks. The heavy duty plastic control horns seem to hold well. So I'm happy with the plane.
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