YAT-28E

Just got one.....but it matches one of navy's!!

navyt28

Very nicely build Model !

My Yat-28E crashed because of a broken soldering point at Elevator steering gear .
The Model was first powered with a Saito FA-118 and later with Hacker A-50 electric Motor.
I have still some Fotos in flight, one of them, here. It was the best Kit I ever had in Hand !

navyt28

PLANEBENDER

My Feedback: (3)

If anyone has a spare yellow canopy I would be happy to purchase.
Thank you.
Dave

[email protected]

helinut1

I have just about finished my T-28 project and wanted to share it on this thread . After reading through it several times I have ussed a lot of info to update my plane . this build I wanted to be the best of all the ideas put together so I will try and list most of them. I started with an ESM kit reinforced the tail and changed the elevator linkage to carbon pushrods added a former inside the tail for strenth and have strengthened the landing gear and firewall. I added the air brake as in this thread and gear doors made from aluminum . The engine for this plane I wanted to be special so I went with the Saito FG60 R3 . this 3 cyl radial fit right in the cowel and required no cutting anywhere to make it fit . The engiine is modified with a Walbro carb set up from Morris mini motors and a kelio exhaust ring. The exhaust also has 3 outlets welded on each side to come out the scale outlets. The vent doors on the side of the cowel have been cut out and opened for cooling they can actually be adjusted. The spinner and prop are from Troy built . its one of there adjustable scale hubs 20-10 three blade which never worked right due to bad blades . We put it on the lath cut out the inside and made it fit a Biela 3 blade 20-10 . The landing gear are Sierra gear with brakes and scale wheels. I also have spent a lot of time making a slidding canopy. We started by making a mold of the stock canopy then made a fiberglass shel to strenthen the frame of the windows . glued the glass on the inside and put it on slidding rails and you have sliding canopy. There are 4000 rivets added to the fuse and wing . I am now working on scale cockpit but i will fly it first then finish when all is working right. The weight came out at 23 LBS and has a DX18QQ for radio with a demon gyro set up. hope you all enjoy and I will update more after the maiden flight.

helinut1

Do not know why the pictures loaded upside down sorry.

drifter

My Feedback: (53)

I thought Helinut's attractive T-28 deserved to be enjoyed right side up.

navyt28

Congratulations !

extraordinary expenses you have done to this ESM Trojan !

How much lead will you put to the tali section ? The Motor- Prop- and Spinner are very heavy.

Regards,

Franz J.

Doomking

My Feedback: (38)

Thanks for sharing....please keep us posted after the maiden.....

helinut1

navyt28 I have not had to add any weight to the plane at all . I have wieghed it many times durring the build and moved pieces around to make sure the weight came out right . I hate to add led when with some carefull planning you can work it out without any. I also did some strenthening to the tail which is a better use of weight than led.

jamac

My Feedback: (1)

Helinut1....Fantastic job, looks great. I have the same plane from ESM and in the same colors. A friend from my local club helped me install the pull-pull cable setup for the elevators but I am not sure if this is the best approach. I am relatively new to the hobby and learning how to build. Did you take any pictures of the work you did reinforcing the tail section and installing the carbon pushrods? That seems like the way to go (some other people have done the same approach and have posted it in this thread but I was curious if your approach was different).

Thanks!!

helinut1

Jamac My build was influinced by this thread as to what to do . I ussed Dave Brown carbon pushrods and put control horns on each elevator half . 2 servos operate the system going through a Smart-fly EQ6 power board . this gives me the option to adjust each servo by itself. they are perfectly matched and work great . I will take the wing off tonight and take some pictures of the set up.

SWORDSN

My Feedback: (13)

Are you going to use any baffling for cooling the radial engine?

helinut1

Here is an update on my T-28 . Did the maden flight on Sunday and it was perfect . The sound that this motor makes is increadable . I had to add 4 clicks elevator and 5 clicks aileron and it flew straight as an arrow . The landing was a greaser right the way it should be nose high mains touch and then nose . This could possibly be my favorite plane yet . As for baffling I do not think it needed it there were no issues with heat or motor running lean . The only problem was exhaust black oil that got on the plane but this is just like the real one . Everyone liked the plane now comes the scale cockpit and install on the slidding canopy . Here are some pictures of the rear elevator set up .

jamac

My Feedback: (1)

Thank you Helinut1, nicely done. I appreciate you taking the time to snap a few photos of the elevator setup.

lumacurve

My Feedback: (4)

Hello all, Just maiden my T-28 this past week, thanks to all the info in this thead , Plane is powered with a DLE 35 ra , Century jet model retracts, I did add a former to the rear of fuse and changed the pull-pull on the elevator to a 2 servo aluminum arrow shaft set up. I had to add 1 lbs of weight to the nose for balance. My plane DID want to climb at higher throttle (as mentioned earlier in this thread due to wing incidents) nothing terrible but noticeable. The plane lands great at full flaps ( Kinda surprised me ) really slows down. Flight characteristicsare scale with the dle 35 up front.

f6hlct

My Feedback: (4)

I know that the CG location has been mentioned several times but the location of the measurement seems to be up to interpretation. I have included the drawing from the manual and if you use Engineering Drawing Standards, measurement “A” should be the one. I have seen stated that if from the leading edge of the wing at the fuse is used, that could be “B” or “C”. I would appreciate hearing from someone who has a flying plane as to what you have used. I would also like to know if your elevator is neutral to the fuselage at this setting.

helinut1

i have flown the plane with B as in your picture and it flies very well . I had to add 4 clicks on the elevator to level it out perfect, not much . with flaps it did not react much I only have one or 2 clicks down when the plane is flying with everything down. Do not let the plane slow down to much on landing , with flaps it will slow to a stall very quick . Its a great plane to fly and is much like a trainer.

Roy Conomos

If you use 'B' then that corresponds with the location on the drawing, 'A' and 'C' do not. I also used 'B'.
Cheers.

lumacurve

My Feedback: (4)

Mine is slightly aft of "B" and flies great also. Like I stated before it has a DLE 35ra + 1 lbs of nose weight to get to that balance point. and batteries forward.

f6hlct

My Feedback: (4)

I appreciate all your feedback on the CG locations that you have successfully been using. My interpretation was for choice “A” during the build which required 6oz of lead at the rudder post and batteries back by the wing bolts. I have test flown several planes for others that were tail heavy and some were pretty scary flights. I know that a little tail heavy makes it very pitch sensitive at best and kindling when things get too crazy. My plane took about ¼” of down elevator, but I do have 10 flights like this without the pitch sensitivity. I could tell during flight tests that it was slightly tail heavy and I had slowly been removing lead to find the sweet spot. I had no idea that it was this severe. This must be a very magical airfoil to handle this much of a CG change. I have since removed the tail weight, moved the batteries to the first front bulkhead and it balances with about a Lb. of lead mounted on the firewall with my DLE-35. I know that it will fly with the very tail heavy CG as I have proven, so I think I might try first with about ½ Lb. of lead on the firewall and see where things sit. I consider myself very lucky as experience has shown there are very few surviving flights on a plane this unbalanced. The weather this week has not been very conducive to flying, so I will let you know how things workout with the new balance point.

f6hlct

My Feedback: (4)

I had a chance to fly it with the new balancing today and can report very favorable results. I chose measurement “B” and made it a little farther back as I knew that it still flew after being way tail heavy. At 130mm, ¼” back, it balanced with 7.2 oz. on the firewall and was very controllable especially on the landings. Strangely though my elevators still trimmed with the same ¼” down trim as it did when tail heavy. I was concerned with the situation of having too much weight on the nose wheel making it harder to rotate and that was the reason for the change. The photos show the new forward placement of the batteries and the rearward 130mm CG from the marked 123mm as you can see on the wing.

f6hlct

My Feedback: (4)

Here are some photos of the days flying. Now that the plane is working well, I can put on the wheel pants and maybe some pilots in the cockpit. I have a new canopy on the way to fix the original one that arrived cracked.

marksp

My Feedback: (9)

After a long search for a round cowl airframe suitable for my FG-60R3, I stumbled across the ESM T-28 which appears to still be available in yellow. helinut1 confirms cowl and balance fitment so it's on my short list. Before clicking 'buy', I have a few questions related to mentioned mods:

1. Stiffening the tail by adding a fuselage former. Anyone have pics? Suggestions on placement?
2. Sierra vs Century vs ... retracts. Any feedback of strength, durability, reliability?
3. Gear mount reinforcement. Pics?

Cheers

Doomking

My Feedback: (38)

Wow this thread still goes on....I would suggest if you have not done it yet to read this thread from page one where you will find many answer to your questions.....briefly with mine I added formers in the tail to stiffen the tails some,just two or three equally spaced.... I think there should be discussion on that in the early pages.
I use Sierra for retracts and they work great....bit pricey but it's the best in my opinion money can buy.
I would reinforce only the nose gear former for landing gear modifications.....the front former has a tendency to fracture if you land hard on your nose wheel like I did few times...the main gear mounts I left them stock and they work great...

f6hlct

My Feedback: (4)

I have both good and bad things to say about this plane. On the positive side, it’s a really nice looking plane and is a real eye catcher at any field you go to. Its nice to have a unique plane for a change as well it flies like a T-28 should. I am using a DLE 35 and it has more than enough power to go through all the maneuvers with more than scale speeds. I would suspect that it might need reinforcements with a DLE 55 for power, but I have not made any nor have I noticed any flexing or other signs of strain here. I am using Sierra gear and they are fabulous. This is not my first time using their products but they are the best in my opinion. The piston assembly does look small but it has not proven to be an issue.

Now to the negatives. The gear mounts are and accident waiting to happen. You will notice in most of the plane that the use of glue is a foreign concept. Most of the joints rely on tongue and grove instead. For the mains, they use 4 layers of soft ply in an ill-fitting hole for support. The red circle shows that tiny piece of soft ply to hold things together. The photo of the front gear mount shows the one and only spot of glue in the whole plate. If you fix these before ever flying you will have a very enjoyable plane.