Here we go. First the Yak 54 68" made by Extreme Flight. YS 110, Hitec MG servo 5625 and 5645 and 645, 16x6 prop. Weight ready to fly less fuel 8lbs 10 ozs.
Building
Cost/Value 7.5 Most expensive plane by far. $330
Availability 4.5 This is by far the hardest plane to get in America. I bought mine from a private party
Orientaion/Visual 9.5 Very easy to see which direction the plane is
Durability 9.0
Weight as advertised 9.0 Is on the high end of the scale but certainly within specs
Manual, readability and info 8.5 Pictures and some info on motor mounting could be more clear
Hardware 9.0 Wheels are poor everything else is very good. I replaced rudder cables
Build Quality 8.5 Had to drill the landing gear and firewall
Covering 9.5
Total 75/9 = 8.3
Flying
Knife Edge 10.0 Best KE of the 3, very little coupling, easy to do
Harrier 9.0 Pretty easy but required a lot of spoileron
Rolling Circles 9.5 Very nice and easy to do
Waterfalls 9.0 Nice but harder and not as tight as the others
Staircases 9.5
Rolling Harrier n/a Beyond me at this point as a pilot
Inverted Flat Spin 7.0 Does them "scale" like but won't hold in flat spin and not very flat
Upright Flat Spin 8.0 Better than inverted but still the worst of all the planes
Hover 9.0 Does them nice but the hardest of all 3. Falls back towards the canopy
Precision Flying 9.0 Best 3D plane but not the best at precision
Landing 9.0 Easy to land but not the easiest
Total 89/10 = 8.9
Fun Factor 9.0 Fun to fly but not the most fun
Total Rating: 8.3 + 8.9 + 9.0 = 26.2/3 = 8.7
Comments:
1. Landing gear not drilled.
2. Canopy weak and need reinforced. Also cracked after about 10 flights
3. Tires could be better and I changed them
4. Firewall needed to be drilled
5. Most expensive airplane
6. This plane is not available to the general public. Because it is so hard to get it has a mystic about it that makes people think it's better than it is. It's hard to evaluate it if you can't fly it. I spent 6 months looking for mine.
7. Will not flat spin (pinwheel) like the other 3D planes. Even my UCD will do a better flat spin
There you have it. My review of the Yak. The other two will follow shortly.
Thanks,
Barry