RE: Carden Yak 54
I flew against this plane in Unlimited at the Nats and in Invitational at the Shootout. The Carden Yak looks good in the air - it rolls and tracks well. At the Nats I did not observe any problems with power to weight ratio for this plane. At the Shootout (higher elevation) it appeared that the Carden Yak could have been slightly underpowered or a bit on the heavy side to fly the Invitational Class sequences (which had a large number of snap and roll combinations on vertical uplines - much more than you would see in an Unlimited class Known or Unknown sequence).
I believe that Frank and Jason may have had a header installed with the wrong length during the beginning of the Shootout and were able to increase power after changing headers during the contest (hopefully my memory is correct on this one). Also, remember that Frank and Jason were flying a prototype plane built stock without any attempt to lighten the airframe. With this stock plane Frank and Jason competed well against some of the best pilots in the world - the plane won't be the limiting factor - pilot skill will be! I am sure this Yak could be built a couple of pounds lighter without much difficulty - and would perform even better in the most power demanding sequences.
Take care,
Kurt