bzyguy01

I honestly don't know the answer to your CF question as I have never used that product. The CF I used are small strips of CF on edge for sheer strength.

aviationinfo

My Feedback: (3)

Thanks for your great info on this plane---I totally would've just flown it with no reinforcement whatsoever had I not learned from your experience. Probably would also have put in the lower powered Rimfire too.

In retrospect I'm not so sure my iron-on CF reinforced with CA is the way to go in this case. Not sure how I'd get that inbetween the cross-pieces (ribs). I was thinking of laying it flat along the sheeting, but that wouldn't have nearly as much strength as a hard piece on edge along the spars like you did.

I'm going to order the Hacker---for $15-20 extra sounds like it's well worth it. Never a bad thing to have more power with equal weight!

bzyguy01

I think Those are wise choices my freind.

Regaeds
Shayne

ryanotown22

I see the pictures but I still dont understand how to put the CF strip in there can you explain! Thank you

Capt G

My Feedback: (8)

Here's what I did. Remove covering from bottom of stab. Slit the seam where the fore/aft strips meet the aft spar. Cut a CF strip the length of the stab and the same thickness as the stab. Force the cf piece into the slit you made and secure the length with thin CA. Cut a small groove across the bottom of the front part of the stab- about 4" long. Use thick CA to glue a CF rod of the same length into the groove. Recover with your choice of covering (I used red).

Bush Tripper

Mine was cut thru both sheets of balsa for the wing pocket on the right side. Essentially for 1.25 inches from the leading edge down following the airfoil shape you had no support to glue to as the inset should only be the outer sheet cut away, not both sheets cut tru. I added 1/16 lite ply sheeting to the inside and along the rest of the inside of the fuse to support the glued area. I added 1/4 inch drilled spruce blocks on the inside where the anti rotation pins go tru to offer more support. My right wing spar had a crack in it for 1/2 an inch fron the end back towards the wing root rib. Lots of questionable looking balsa on my wing root ribs. C/A`d all exposed balsa on the wing /spar/ and wing pocket. My motor box pieces are all warped and have been requested for replacement form GP`s. With right wings snapping on some planes maybe the defects on the right side of my plane are why. I emailed GP`s and let them know about the issues, they acted like they had not heard of any planes returned for wing failures. I also added a second piece of 1/16 lite ply to sandwich the wing spar on both sides. The covering on mine was badly wrinkled and I have had a tough time getting the covering to tighten. I do not remember Monocoat being this tuff to work with. I will reinforce the motor box with triangle stock and do the carbon fiber horizontal stab modification. All mod to date should not add too much extra weight. I thought I bought an ARF but it now seems more like building a kit! Hope it flys well for the extra effort.

ryanotown22

AHHH Come on Tower I ordered with them and It was backordered until let Jan now it says Mid Feb... I wanna fly this thing.. I hate waiting

WGRoper

My Feedback: (2)

Me too. Same deal. I expected it to be delayed. Everything I've ever back ordered from Tower gets delayed.

WGRoper

My Feedback: (2)

Got an email that mine shipped yesterday! Sweet.

ryanotown22

YES!!!! Got an email mine has shipped too.. sweet...

Capt G

My Feedback: (8)

About 25 flights so far - no issues. Here's a couple pics from today.G.

ECP666

CAP G:

Glad to hear your stabiliser mod appears to be successful. I am building one now, and asked Great Planes via email for guidiance on this stab issue. I got the 'we never heard about the problem' reply. I was amazed that these guys don't LIVE on the forums. I reminded them that it's their business to know, and gave this link. I am waiting for another reply. I will do your mod unless I get an alternate suggestion from them. I have already beefed up the motor mounting by applying epoxy to all joins, including inside the firewall (front of fusealage).

Thanks to all for the tips....I really want to love this GREAT looking plane...

G.P.

My Feedback: (1)

Here's another link if you need more back up: http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=575732

Also has reports of wing failures.

WGRoper

My Feedback: (2)

I picked up some CF strips for mine h-stab last night. I hope to start assembly sometime this week.

Bush Tripper

I have spent 2 weeks trying to get warped motor box parts replaced. I called the customer support number (non 1800) and paid to sit on hold for 5 minutes before I gave up. The email address for support for me has been a black hole were most of my sent emails dissapear into nothing ("could be our spam settings"). If I do get a reply and immediatly reply to that, its usually 3 days for any further contact. The staff are very nice, they just confuse activities with results. I am going back to my hobby retailer to get him to get the parts as I am done wasting time with Great Planes. Its bad enough their quality control problems become ours, but to experience this level in frustration to get some service is the icing on the cake. On a positive note, if I can keep it from self destructing in flight with all the mods, it looks to be a nice plane.

WGRoper

My Feedback: (2)

I haven't looked at the motor mount parts in mine yet. I've got it all spread out on the bench and ready to begin assembly, so I'll try to make a point of inspecting those parts this evening and I'll report back here.

WGRoper

My Feedback: (2)

My motor box parts appear to be straight, no noticeable warp at all. Time will tell as I began assembly.

ECP666

I never got a response to my second email to Great Planes, so I called and talked with a tech named Warren. They had become familiar with this thread, and noted that the elevator failures happened on an up-engined plane. They were comfortable that properly built, and using suggested power levels, that the plane's stab was fine. When I removed the covering in the center of the stab, I flowed in some thin CA to add strength. It's easy to damage the balsa while cutting the Mono-Cote. Time will tell.

I have found the firewall very scary looking and applied braces behind the three upper 'spokes' that hold the motor box in place. Given the weight of the motor, I fear it would break on anything short of a perfect landing.

Those two things aside, the plane looks pretty good to me. In fact, It looks gerat!

bzyguy01

Two of the GP Yaks that crashed were both on the reccomended Power! They both had the Rimfire 950KV outrunner. Thats not a true statement by GP Tech! See pic with the 950 KV Rimfire!

Bush Tripper

Not taking responcibility for the issues with this plane is a common theme at Great Planes. First it was denial, now blaming. Weeks after initial reports of right wing failures and guys waiting for GP`s to ship a warranty replacement as promised, they emailed me and stated in writing they have not heard of any right wing failures. ( I wanted in writing that my warranty would cover wing failures when I fly it in the spring ) They seem to think their customers are stupid. I had my hobby retailer get my motor box parts shipped as the frustration of unanswered phones, 13 "lost" email requests over 2 weeks for motor box parts wore me out. It took my hobby retailer 2 days of calling to get somebody to ship the parts. This will be my last Great Planes product ever. Too many other quality choices out there ( I wish I had gone for the BME Yak now). The RC community deserves better than this from a well established company.

G.P.

My Feedback: (1)

Very disappointing to say the least. Here's another thread that was started because of Great Planes poor customer service and this airplane.

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=635276

Bush Tripper

GP, Thanks for the RC groups thread lead, more of the same frustration. My next plane will be a 80 inch Cub... a H9 one! I plan on writing a letter to their president (they refused my request for Mr. Andersons email address) just to let them know what a crappy experience dealing with them has been. I say we punish them by not buying their products when possible. I certainly am. During the 2 weeks of agrivation of trying to get replacement parts, I started my punishment program by cancelling the Rimfire motor I had on order and got a Hacker A30-28 instead. No more GP anything, ever again.

caliberfiveo

I too had a tail taco flying GP Yak-54 in straight and level flight at at about half throttle. I was running a Hacker A-30 16M w/ a Castle 35 speed control. Also, I would like to mention that the crash took place on my maiden flight and I hadn't even had a chance to loop the airplane before the elevator folded up on me. The crash was catestrophic costing me $79 for my motor $89 on the speed controller 4X $17 for all my smashed servos and $59 for my descimated JR RS6UL receiver and $16 for the broken crystal. Not to mention the cost of the airplane! My local hobby shop said they will get GP to compensate us in some way for all the problems, all while at least 5 of our smashed Yaks sit around the shop for everyone to see. At least they took the palnes off the shelves and are not selling them to anyone at the shop. What an ebarrasment!

bzyguy01

Hey Caliberfiveo,
When did yours go in? Also...are we talkin about the same LHS on Cactus and 32nd? If so I'm curious to see what it is that the owner told you he would do for you as I have been waiting for nearly 2 mos. for a reply as to what GP is going to do about all our Electronics that we lost due to their POS yak! I was trying to be good about it but the owner told me that the recent reply they gave him is "It Happens". This was just on monday....I'm Furious!!! I also maidened my freinds GP yak that the store employee owns and another employee assembled it with "Struts" on the rear elevator and this folded up in maiden as well.

G.P.

My Feedback: (1)

It's obvious that the elevator has has some issues, but what were you thinking when you put an A30-16m in a plane of this size? That's asking for problems on a plane of this size, especially one with known problems.