slowglowflyer

Hello I just recieved an 86" Yak for christmas and I am really impressed with the quality of this kit. Does anybody have any little assembly tips/tricks that you have found to be benificial. Is there anything really neat that you have done to your plane that you wouldn't mind sharing? I am interested in things like where you mounted the switch and all of those little accessories. Above all I would just like to compliment QQ aircraft company for the outstanding job they have done with this plane. Now if I could just learn how to fly it to its potential............

octanehuffer

Nothing special to do. Just build it as per the instructions and you will a very well built kit. I personally use Gorilla Glue on the hinges. My switches are in different locations from the manual. I put them where I need them.

Plane Insane

My Feedback: (4)

Gorilla Glue.. Now that is an interesting idea. I started with the Pacer hinge glue per spec but I was able to pull one out after it should have cured on the first control surface I completed so I moved back to epoxy. I was curious about the gap space inside the hinge slots, but Gorilla Glue expands as it cures and sounds like it might be a good alternative as long as it doesn't expand out so far that it effects control surface deflection.

David

slowglowflyer

I am kindof confused about the hinging teqnique also. What exactally is the cutting all about? Wouldnt you want a nice tight hinge and not a bunch of wood cut out around them? Mabe I just missunderstood what the instructions were trying to tell me. Reza or anybody else can you please help clear this up for me?

Walo

Hinges are not so good. My first one (rudder hinge) has cracked und needs to be replaced after 25 flights. I also rebuilt the small part (Tailwheel) where the piano wire fits in. I made it out of steel in order to be able to tighten screws enough. Canopy doesen't fit nicely so I allways fix it with clear tape additional to the two screws.
Then the geometrie of my rudder pull pull instalation is not correct; the cable gets loose when applying full rudder. Probably my fault when building!

These are all minor problems. In general the quality is very good, and it flys perfect. Landing is easy and the new aluminium landing gear is well dimensioned.
Great aircraft!

brewer00psd

I, like Fritz and Slow Glow, would love to hear more on how to prep the hinge and recieving slots to be able to use Gorilla Glue. How much material do you remove from the slot or do not need to remove any material? How do you know how much GG to put in the recieving slots or do you put it on the hinge?
Sorry for so many questions. I bought this plane a month or so ago because I knew this year I am going to want to step up to a gasser and could not walk away from the sale. I am very excited about getting started building it. (need to finish a couple other projects first) Thank you in advance for any tips offered.

octanehuffer

Using a urethane glue is kind of tedeous, but very strong. It also needs constant supervision to ensure that the surfaces will not bind.
There is no special or proper way to apply the glue. Do it like any other bonding agent. I like to use flat tooth picks. Get the glue into the root of the slot. I always add three dabs of glue per slot and ensure that I try not to get any around the slot. I try to rock the hinges into their home to get as much glue on the plastic as possible. The glue will expand while it dries and the less you get on the outside, the less that will try and wick into the hinge joint. The hinges will also need to be fully packed with petroleum jelly, just like any other kind of glue being used. You will have around 1/2 hour to work with the glue before it starts to expand. Make sure that it does not creep into the hinge. I always monitor it, and scrape away the excess.
The glue works best if the wood is wet or moist, but in this application I prefer to use it dry. If I glue wood to wood, I will always wet the wood. 24 hours is the cure time, but you can handle it gently after 4-5. Just do your tug test after 24. Remember to keep deflecting the surfaces to move the petroleum around.
Good luck.
The main reason to use the glue is that it will expand to fill all of the voids in the wood slots and textures on the hinge. You will never pull a hinge out.

brewer00psd

Thank you for the pointers! it is greatly appreciated.
Matt

dmccormick001

Let me add a few pointers that have worked well for me. Prepare the hinge slot as you would for any other type of glue. Make it only as wide as it needs to be to allow the hinge to fully seat back into the surface, try not to get it so wide that the hinge gets sloppy in the hinge slot. Take an old hobby knife blade and begin to coat both sides of the slot with a little GG, working it in and out of the slot to spread the glue. Do this several times, and remember that this glue expands up to three times it's volume after it cures, so a a little will go a long way. You don't need to pack the hinge slot 'til it oozes out, just a thin coat on top and bottom will do the trick. Now, coat the hinge joint with a drop of after-run oil, 3-in-one oil, petroleum jelly, what ever you have or like to use. Now here's my big trick. Take a pretty good size piece of clear packing tape, about 2 inches square, and cut a slot in the center of it just big enough to slide one side of the hinge through it, and insert the hinge through it with the sticky side towards the hinge slot. Keep it as snug as you can. Now take the hobby knife blade you've been using for glue and put a very, very thin coat of GG on the top and bottom of the one side of the hinge you're working on.it. Just "grease" it with glue, no more. It's important to put the glue on the hinge thin, thin, thin, and only after you have pushed it through the tape. Too much glue on the hinges will expand and try to ooze out of the hinge slot and cause you problems like binding. OK, now just slide the hinge into the slot slowly, and if any excess glue begins to ooze out and try to build up next to the hinge pivot, take a Q-tip or the corner of a paper towel and wipe it away. Once you have the hinge seated fully against the surface, and have cleaned up any excess glue that's come off the hinge or out of the hinge slot, smooth the clear tape down on the wing or whatever to hold it snug against it. The tape will keep any glue from expanding out of the hinge slot onto and into the hinge pivot point, which can cause binding. Now do the same thing on the other side. Don't push the two pieces too close together or you'll bind the control surface. The two layers of clear packing tape will create just about the right amount of gap between the surfaces, so don't try to push them too close together. I usually deflect the control surface one way or the other fully and then hold it deflected by adding a couple of extra strips of tape to the opposite side that spans across the two pieces to hold them together snug and eliminate excess gap.

Once the GG glue dries, it's easy to peal the clear tape off the two sides and you'll have a very neat, clean installation. And believe me, you'll tear up the balsa out of both sides before you get it pulled apart. The GG expands to fill evey little nook and cranny, and is permanent and strong.

slowglowflyer

That is very informative. Thanks to all of you guys. So you only want to cut the hinge slot bigg enough for the hinge to slide into right? Or do you want a little wiggle room for the Gorilla glue? I have never used pin style hinges before this, only CA hinges so that is why I am struggling to grasp the slotting concept. The trick with the packing tape makes sense and I will be sure to use it.

octanehuffer

I have always had a wider slot than the hinge itself for every Quique kit I built. Never needed to make it larger. An Exacto blade will do it though.

dmccormick001

No, I don't recommend trying to leave any "wiggle room" for the glue. When you try to enlarge a hinge slot, it's hard to keep it even and uniform and you risk getting the hinge in crooked if the slot is too big. If they get in there crooked so that they don't move perfectly parallel to the surfaces, that's not good, because it can cause stress on the servo. Keep the slot snug, but not too tight. If you have to, enlarge it just enough to let the thicker plastic hinge slide in fully. If you were using epoxy, you might want to leave a little more room for the glue to add a little strength, but you don't need to with the GG. That's one big reason I like the GG better, because it works so differently. It expands as it cures, kinda like the expanding foam you use to fill cracks around doors and windows. It will expand to approximately three times it's uncured volume, so you don't want to use too much or it will actually push the balsa apart on either side of the hinge and cause a bulge at that point on the edges. That's why the tape works so well, because it keeps the glue from expanding out of the slot onto and around the hinge, which can cause it to bind up or freeze completely. The glue itself is plenty stong, even just a thin layer, but you're actually almost wedging the hinge in place as much as you are glueing it. Once the glue expands, it fills the holes in the hinge and all the tiny pores in the balsa so that once it gets hard you simply can't pull it out without seriously damaging the wood. Just grease the hinge with it, and put a thin coat on the inside of the slot, and you'll have all the strength you need, with a much better, stronger hinge than a CA hinge can ever be.

BTW, the tape also keeps the control surfaces from sticking to the fuse or wing like they do sometimes when you glue a CA hinge. Try it, it works great. Just be sure to use the thin, clear (or brown) packing tape.

slowglowflyer

I just re-read the part of QQ's instructions and think I figured out what was confusing me. If you go here( http://www.qqaircraft.com/images/yak86manual.pdf ) on page 16 it talks about cutting the slots. I understand this to mean that you cut the part of the slot furthest out at a bevel so that the pin part of the hinge will fit into the slot. Am I correct? Am about 95% sure that that is what they are wanting you to do. Also it sounds like gorilla glue is the best thing for hinges, is this correct? Thanks again for all of the help, I want to make sure to build this fantastic plane to the best of my abilities and make it "perfect"!

dmccormick001

Yeah, since the pinned, or center part of the hinge is thicker than the rest of it, the slot may need to be widened just a tad just along the very front, or beginning, of the slot, to allow the hinge to go deep enough into the slot to prevent the fatter center part from holding the two surfaces too far apart. The goal is to make the gap between the surfaces as small as possible, and to do that you'll have to get at least part of the center section that holds the pin embedded a little bit into each half of the two surfaces you're joining. However, be careful here. Don't push them together too tightly. Be sure you deflect the control surface to it's maximum deflection after you push the hinges in and before the glue has set, or you will hinder the movement of the control surface and limit the amount of throw you can achieve. Apply the glue, push the two parts together, and then move the control surface back and forth to it's max deflection and then tape them together until the glue dries. If you've pushed them together too tightly, deflecting them will pull the hinges back out just enough to allow free movement and prevent binding of the servos. Leave them at that point, put some masking tape loosely across them to hold them steady, and let your glue dry. You should be set to go by the next morning.

slowglowflyer

Do you glue the hinges into both surfaces at the same time? The instructions say to glue one, let dry then glue the surface to the hinged wing, tail, ect. I can how doing it at the same time with tape and taping the surface in the deflected position would allow for perfect alingment. At the same time though the instructions tell me not to do it this way for a reason. What is that reason? []

dmccormick001

I like to glue both sides at the same time when using GG. You'll have plenty of time to reposition and adjust before the glue begins to harden. Get everything laid out and ready, keep a little mineral spirits habdy to dab at any little spots you may get on the other parts of the plane and to keep your fingers clean so you don't. Dry fit the pieces together and make any cuts or adjustments in the slots you need to make, and go ahead and put the two pieces of packing tape back-to-back on the hinges, sticky side out away from each other and from the hinge center. Glue the inside of each slot, top and bottom, just enough to get it wet with glue, and clean any extra that will almost certainly get on the back of the trailing edge of whatever surface you're glueing. You don't need any reside there on the outside next to the hinge. Now just smear a little glue on each hinge, top and bottom, and insert them into the slots slowly, wiping away any glue that builds up on them as you push them into the slot. When you have them up close, you might want to work them in and out just a little to distribute the glue some, and then snug them together. Deflect the control surface all the way in both directions a couple of times, and then hold it deflected in one or the other, and smoothly press the tape down on the plane side first, then on the control surface. You can just stop there and let it all dry, or if you prefer you can add a piece of masking tape placed loosely across both surfaces to keep them from speading apart any more. Just don't pull them together if you do. You must allow the gap of about 1/32" or so to keep the control surface from binding when it moves.

Freezer

Decided to purchase QQ Yak 86", how do you think - MVVS/Evolution 58 ccm engine (1800gr) will not make plane too much nose heavy ? And engine will not be too big to fit in COWL ?

octanehuffer

PERFECT COMBO!!!!!!!!!! Run a muffler to save weight

BaldEagel

I put an MVVS 58 Pro in the 85" with a cannister silencer and the batteries had to go just behind the wing tube, I think the 86" has an extended front section beyond the wing so the 58 may be a bit heavy with a cannister, but can't be sure of that assumption, however, the canniste is better for the Evolution or MVVS they need to have a free flowing exhaust to develop full power, not that the 58 lacks in that, most of my flying is done on half to threequater throttle as at full throttle its just an insane amount of thrust, but fun.

Mike

Agilefalcon

My Feedback: (5)

If you use the Loctite product in place of the Gorilla Glue, you will have less of a problem with expansion. The Loctite product expands about 1/3rd that of GG so you have less of a problem.

You can get it at any Walmart.

The Loctite product is a polyurethane expanding glue like GG; also, it cures in half the time.

Chris.

tailspins

My Feedback: (7)

Thanks for your explination of how to use GG. I have always had problems using this glue because I just always use too much! ( learing curve problem)

What is the name of the Loctite product that you were talking about?

I am also glad that the 86 incher has a thread like the 85 incher did.

slowglowflyer

I am very impressed with this plane. I am dying now though because I have to wrap up a few other projects before I start this one. I think threads on here are very usefull for information storage and Q&A. I hope the thread grows and some people post some build thread type stuff, pictures or anything 86" yak related.

tailspins

My Feedback: (7)

I noticed that my tail wheel assembly is different than the one shown in the manual. Any one have any idea how to attach this rod and spring to the rudder? ( mine is a caged wheel assembly that is purple in color).

It has been known that over the years that when a change has been made in building the model that the supplier add a short explination of the change with the model, but not QQ.

slowglowflyer

I have come across the same problem as tailspins. My tailwheel assembly is different and I am wondering how you guys hooked it up.

tailspins

My Feedback: (7)

HI


I hooked the spring in the loop of the black wire that comes out of the tail wheel. Stretched it back to the rudder and where it came in contact with the rudder I marked the spot. Then I drilled a 1/4 inch hole in the bottom of the rudder, and glued in a 1/2 long piece of 1/4 inch dowel rod. Then I drilled a starter hole in the center of the dowel rod, stretched out the spring and used the screw through the spring loop and screwed it into the dowel. Seems to work pretty good.