Ak, if the Yak-54, the big one, flies anything like the one they have on RealFlight G3, the Twist is NOT a good prep plane. The Yak flies more like a bipe, needing lots of airspeed, seeems to stall easily, on G3, anyway. I always get it way up. It doesn't float.

Dutch, if this is your first Twist, use the CA hinges. The bird won't prolly last long enough to warrant GP pinned hinges--and putting them on IS an art form--that's why Waldo has trouble with them. He's an artist IN THE AIR, but not on the ground, no patience. Me, neither, but I've replaced too many CA hinges not to develop some patience installing GPs. I don't wish to sound pessimistic, and I sure as heck don't know what your flying talents are, but the CA hinges are easy and WILL endure a very long time--but not four flights a day, four times a week, for 6 months. If you are a weekend flyer, they'll last a year or more--if you don't crash doing something stupid as I did.

If you DO try GP pinned hinges, the ones that look like two broad arrowheads, attached to one another at the base, try this: first enlarge every hinge slot on the plane. [I bought one of those nice slotting machines. Works great, fast, and since I've gone exclusively to GP hinges on all my planes, it pays time dividends.] GPs are thicker and WILL bulge the balsa if you don't.

Trial fit them all and MARK where they go! Then use some medium or thick CA and let it percolate into one of the slots, hit both sides of the hinge with a drop of thick CA, and quickly insert it into the slot. You have about one full second, no more, to seat it correctly. When it's seated, grab some light oil and put it on the hinge, working the hinge to let it percolate onto the wire. Keep moving the hinge for a couple seconds. Do the next hinge, then move them both, then the next, etc.--and keep moving them until you're sure they're not gummed up. (When you're done with the plane, the surfaces will feel stiffer than with CA hinges, but they will work in--and the S3004 servo will do the job--with 4.8 or 6 v. rx bats).

When the whole surface, lets say wing, has four hinges sticking out of it, solid, wipe all the oil off with rubbing or de-natured alcohol. You don't want any oil on the plastic when you put on the 30 min epoxy. Trial fit the aileron again, making sure the aileron matches up with the outboard end of the wing. Then prep some 30 minute epoxy. When it's ready, dollop some in each of the four receiving slots and let it percolate into the hole, THEN find a thin, broad tool (I have some special corrugated plastic I use for the job) and push the expoxy into the hole, then slop a thin layer, filling the holes of the receiving wing hinge on BOTH sides of the hinge. With an alcohol-wet rag or swab wipe all the excess expoxy OFF the aileron, then quickly insert the aileron on the wing and push at each hinge to seat them--making sure the aileron lines up with the wing tip.

Note: once the aileron is seated it's almost impossible to slide it inboard or outboard--at all, so don't PUSH on those hinges until you are SURE you are lined up with the wing tip, which is the hinge you start with.

Then spray each hinge with alcohol and wipe everything off, both sides, and get down to the hinge and adjacent areas. Put thin oil, AGAIN, on each hinge, one side, and work the aileron until you know the oil gets into it. Push the hinges tight again--and make sure you have full deflection of the aileron. As you work on the other wing half, GO BACK to the first one and work it some more, checking it out. On second and third "pushing" of the aileron, you may have to alcohol-wipe the whole thing again if the expoxy oozes out.

DO NOT WORRY ABOUT THE SIZE OF THE AILERON/WING SLOT. It makes darn little difference, if any, in flight characteristics on a Twist, though PATTERN pilots swear it does. It's MORE important to get the deflection you want. Keep moving the aileron for a while and check that the aileron is as close as it can be (we want it to look good, and the closer the better, granted) to the wing while still having the deflection you want.

Down (who is really good at replacing old CA hinges with NEW CA hinges) will tell you I have had to redo several score of CA hinges on my favorite planes--the Twists and Katana, mostly. They just wear out! And before I went to GP hinges I tried installing CA hinges using crayon on the center of the hinge (so they wouldn't absorb CA where the problem is, that small area between the wing, stab, or fin and the moving surface.

When I first started with GP hinges, I had trouble with them gumming up, and I tried to get that wing/aileron slot as small as possible by inletting the hinge in the slot (not good) but the above installation system has worked now through several birds--and I have had NO hinge failures since (a year and a half).

The trick is all in the oil--and you have to use it, carefully, as if you were in an operating theater. Wipe your hands all the time with alcohol. Oil is DISASTER, a contaminant, with epoxy, so you have to keep the plastic of the hinges CLEAR of any oil. Meanwhile, the epoxy or CA will surely ruin the hinge if it gets between the metal and the plastic.

Every one of my birds, including my Big Stik, the oldest plane I own, has had a CA hinge failure--except the first three Twists and the Extreme 540, none of which lasted four months. Ugh.

No question, CA hinges are easy, fast, keep the aileron/wing slot thin, and are very pliable, but if you fly more than average, they will fail you, one way or another, before you put the bird to rest, in one way or another. Oh, and if you live near or where Waldo does, use CA hinges, forget GPs. He doesn't get enough flying time (weather) to hurt or wear out... anything, even himself.

J

P.S. And, none of youse, don't touch my glue, or my sniffing it--or I'll stab your break... no, I mean break your stab... no, wait.... Well, something like that you no what I meen.