RE: Great Planes 41" YAK 54 Elevator Issues
 

ElectricFlyboy, the horizontal stab mods are a must or you will lose the plane as descibed by others in a tail taco style crash. The first page of the tread details the mods. 3mm flat carbon fiber works in the 3mm stab balsa. Its a bit of a p.i.t.a but manditory. I would also reinforce the inside of the fuse with 1/16 lite ply where the wing meets it. I also added a second reinforsing plate to the wing spar center glue joint to sandwhich the spar. Also I added a 1/14 x 1/2 spruce stock from the bottom to the top of the inside of the fuse centered over the trailing edge dowel hole and drilled it out to offer more strengh. Hopefully this rear mini spar effect keeps the wings from breaking off. This plane is a new idea in ARF`s, you get to finish the engineering at home! Good luck. You might want to wrap every expensive piece of electronics in crash foam like a gasser. Especially the lipo cause theres a good chance of a catastofic failure on this bird.

RE: Great Planes 41" YAK 54 Elevator Issues
 

See my post #30.

RE: Great Planes 41" YAK 54 Elevator Issues
 

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RE: Great Planes 41" YAK 54 Elevator Issues
 

The plane is complete crap! Pretty, but crap. You shouldn't have to modify something from a company that builds planes as it's main business. I spoke with them, and they stated the same... "We've never heard of that problem". It doesn't matter if it has a 15 size motor in it or a 480. Who test flies these planes? If they did, there is no way they could not have had this happen. I performed a simple loop, and it folded the right elevator. Straight into the ground (pavement), from about 150 feet up. Sweet crash, with a nice high pitched fart sound! I bought the E-Flite Mini Funtana to replace it, even though they are sending me a new Yak. When I get it, I am impregnating CF rods into all of the wood, and running another one through the elevator from end to end, and glue with super thin CA. When I first was assembling the plane I was wondering how strong could this possibly be?
One thing I did improve on, was the battery cover. When you assemble the mounting ring on the cowl, if you let it overlap the battery cover just the slightest bit, it acts like a saftey lock. When you install the battery, you just need to pull the cowl forward a bit. The cover will never come off unless you do it manually. Hey I got another plane out of the deal, my Mini Funtana. Actually two. New Yak, and Mini Funtana. If I had all GP electronics, they would have replaced that too. No such luck. They said the battery will be replaced even though it is a Thunder Power Xtreme. Sweet!

RE: Great Planes 41" YAK 54 Elevator Issues
 

I performed the horizontal stab upgrades on my new GP Yak as recommended. I rebuilt it from scratch using a carbon spar. Recovered the wings and fuse bottom to get rid of the clear color scheme[:'(]

Has anyone done anything to the landing gear to add support? I've heard that is another weak point.

RE: Great Planes 41" YAK 54 Elevator Issues
 

Wish I read this before I built and flew mine. On the 6th flight, just took off, slow climb, low throttle, elevator flutter like a flag in the wind, PANIC, stabilize, confirm no elevator control, roll to use rudder to maintain altitude, slow but definite decent to an abrupt thud.
Almost pulled it out of the fire and I so loved the way this flew.
When I picked up the pieces I noted that the control horn ripped itself out of the elevator. No signs of issues or fatigue at preflight. In my opinion, the elevator balsa or structure was just not strong enough.
The stab and just about everything else was in tact, other than the smushed in nose and impacted under-carriage after the crash.
The annoying thing is the wings are in such good condition and I can't even reuse them. Sucks.

GP should have sold these for cheaper if they were going to design them to be disposable.

Next one I'll add thin ply around horn mount and carbon fiber strip across the stab.
LHS was only too happy to sell me another but nothing more. At least I got one shot at practicing altitude control with the Rudder. It got me to thinking I should practice this maneuver for any future major failures like the guy that landed his Extra using the rudder after a wing came off.

RE: Great Planes 41" YAK 54 Elevator Issues
 

Oh and by the way, I like clear! it lets you check for damage or fatigue where normally you would never be able to. Once in the air, you can't see the clear!

RE: Great Planes 41
 

Is anyone that has modified this plane w CF still flying it?  If so how is it holding up?