mydartswinger

I agree, having experienced help available is invaluable. I plan on at least maidening the Yak before the season's out (or at least before new year, people can fly here nearly all year long). If I could, I would fly every day, but since the field is nearly an hour away w/ traffic, I can only go to the field on the weekends. During the week I practice on FSOne and RealFlight G3.5.

As for my training, I have about 7-8 flights on my Hangar 9 P-51 Mustang PTS. I have not soloed, I almost did today (dead stick stopped it), but still have not. Had I have chosen an Alpha 40 or similar high wing trainer, I likely would have soloed my first weekend (about 3-5 flights), but since I chose the Mustang for longevity, it has been a bit longer road, but much more worth it. I've flown on the simulators for over a year now (helis and fixed wing). I did, however, get a loop in with the Mustang on about the 3rd or 4th flight. You can read a more detailed account of my flight training [link=http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_7620741/tm.htm]here.[/link]

My setup on the Yak is as follows:
Engine: O.S. .61 FX
Prop: APC 12x8
Aileron Servo: JR Sport ST47
Rudder Servo: JR Sport ST47
Throttle Servo: JR Sport ST47
Elevator Servo 1&2: JR Sport ST126MG
Rx: Spektrum AR7000
Tx: Spektrum DX7
Battery: JR Sport 1500 mah
Fuel: Cool Power 15%
Misc: Du-Bro Quick Filler, Switch w/ external charge jack.

I haven't gotten the radio fully programmed for D/R, Expo, etc... The D/R will be done very soon, though.

Happy Flying.

alcarafa

Well guys I started this thread about the Yak from seagull , after some flights I decided to stop trying to fly this sort of acro plane, been flying pattern planes for many years, but this lil yak is the most unstable plane i ever flew.

Stall speed is amazing high and the plane just flies terrible, just didnt like it at all I just gave it away to some 3D fanatic " the trash can " and that was the end of story.

SlabBro

Hey dart! Seems like you have a real sound setup for the plane. And you're right, I see how you will get farther through on the same plane, smart thinking i shall say lol . The sims are great for mucsle memory. That's how my nine year old is getting so far so fast on an extra 300. Buddy boxes are great cause now i get to teach him As for you alcarafa, i'm really sorry to hear about the plane. I too was starting to feel this way about the lil yak. I found out that yes is a nervous little beast some times, the balancing of the plane is so critical it seems. We( Gary the great and myself) had to set the balance by flight to get it right. The only complaint i atill have about this yak is mine just doesn't want to come down. What i've come to do and it seems the way, i fly it like my f4u corsair, it's flown to the ground hot, and stuck all the landing except for the cross wind one that snuk up on me. This bird will force a newer pilot to learn the balancing finer points but it's worth the time i think to get it right. I also have a .40 venus pattern and that yak is twitchy little ankle biter compared to the venus. But the venus won't do many things near as well as that yak. Wanna make it look smooth? Never run a straight line!!Turn and burn and it all looks good lolOh and the venus won't hover so, different planes for different moods right?
Just a quick shot from flyin today and i'm out!! later all

jrsaoe

Got the yak a while ago.....it has a saito .91 with hitec-625s and a 645 on the rudder (very much overkill for this plane.)
For great performance this really needs more than the .91 4s. I may be upgrading the motor soon, other than that the plane flies great and is really light.

Some pics too.

HUSABEARG

There is a cool plane for the sim realflight G3.5 on knife edge forum (free). http://www.knifeedge.com/forums/down...o=file&id=6634
It is a YAK-54 with a 60 size motor and it flys a lot more like the SEAGULL than the big default plane.
Then I noticed who made the plane MYDARTSWINGER.
I found its more like the real thing with the dule rate switch down.(small throws)
On the real plane if I set the elevator to much even at full throttle it will stop the plane dead in its tracks.
unlike the sim it will keep right on flying.
And as far as landing goes I also found that fast is safe. I dont wont to stall 5 feet off the ground.
a little head wind helps a lot. The more my tank gets empty the harder it gets.(more tail hevy)
It not to hard at our fileld PALOMAR FLYERS has a 600 foot paved runway.
Any ways cool sim.

mydartswinger

HUSA,
Yes, that was me that created that. Thanks for the kind words. I haven't actually flown my real Yak, so I just went with what I thought would work well for it as far as scaling, motor size, and prop. I have also created a version with ailerons that don't take up half the wing, but I haven't posted it up. If there is anything on the posted Yak that you think should be changed, besides the low rates (and even then, what you think I should have them set to), please feel free to comment and let me know. I'll make the changes, and post a new version. I want to make sure that the end result is as close to the real thing as possible.

If I have read your post correctly, the following is what I need to do to it:
1. Tame the throws
2. Work on getting it to stall with full elevator throws

Please correct me if I'm wrong. Like I mentioned before, I want to get this as close to the real airplane as possible.

BTW, jrsaoe, beautiful Yak.

HUSABEARG

I think the sim is ok.The g3.5 helped me a and my 11 year old son to fly.
He learned on the sim first with the NESTSTAR then we bought it.
With a buddy box and the sim he was landing after about 5 flights.
But for me it was a big jump to the yak. I think I got it down now after about 5 gal of fuel.
I think the best thing was real small throws and flying 3 mistakes hi. (way up there)
I started with with the throws by the manual. low dule rate at sport flying and hi at the aerobatic setting.
Only turn on the hi rate after i got way up there do some stunts then put it back.
This plane is not to bad at about half throttle but dont let it slow down to much or it will roll over.
Again I just get it way up there and make it stall to find out how it will act.

SlabBro

One way to minimize the snapping affect is make sure you are laterally balanced. Mine went from wanting to stall and snap to the right to a fairly predictable bird. I'm not saying this is going to stop a snap roll from a slow speed but i may help to reduce a ttendency the plane may have. Mine flew like crap till we balanced it on the cross roads. And a little throttle coming in and then stick her to the ground. I land it like a fighter. Keep the rates down till you're are comfortable because if the rates aare to high, it is a stallin little @%^%$ on the elevator if you give full throw and area t a stall speed. I like mine also

amarxyz

what size wheels should i buy to use this plane on a bumpy grass field?

SlabBro

Got a video but the nine year old shot it so have to edit it. Thanks to that virus, got redownload the editing software and so on. get a link to a short vid when i can

SlabBro

http://rcuvideos.com/item/RF577YQJD2VYXK3W
It's not much but it's something

SlabBro

Well guys, I think i can honestly say after today, it will hover, and knife edge perfect with about 5 degrees of elevator mixed to the rudder. The hover is a little on the unstable side, meaning the elevator and rudder have the through i think for some serious 3D but the ailerons are lacking. I had to go into the hover an immediatly start holding right aileron, once it started to torque it was almost impossible to get back. Still love this bird though. Finess will master the hover. I would say a total of 14 flights today was good way to spend Sunday. Later guys[8D]

mydartswinger

Wow, no posts in this thread in over a month.
Well, I broke down and made the decision to let someone else maiden her for me. I got to watching Quique Somenzini fly his turbine Yak 54 on YouTube, and it made me want to at least see mine fly. A fellow club member will do a preflight check and the maiden. If we feel that my still green skills can handle it, then I may make a flight with it. I'll report back afterwards. I do plan on making a vid of it, so maybe I'll have one up soon. Later.

SlabBro

Ive been flying the snot out of mine!! Seems the balance is pretty critical, especially the landings. If she is to tail heavy, you will have to fight her to the ground. Get the balances right and she is really fun. I will tell you this, the linkage rod stuff that came with the plane, really needs to be replaced.
http://www.us215225.bizhostnet.com/dubro/00019.htm
these are the clevis I use along with the 2-56 ball links i just purchased. The reason I used these is because if put some time on the plane, the cheap hardware getts sloppy, bad, which causes flutter and that causes big probs. Just set your rates up conservatively and take a deep breath. The plane flies great when set properly, so let the maiden happen and see if she looks somfortable for ya, if so , give here whirl. Happy flyin!!

mydartswinger

Well, she had her maiden today. mr67stang did the maiden for me. She looked great in the air. He did find a couple of bad habits that I need to be aware of when I fly her on my own (I'll get to me flying later). They were both snap roll when she shouldn't have been. One was in forward flight when pulling full up elevator, she pulls straight up, then comes right back down into a snap roll. She does the same with full rudder input. She had a good wringing out, then a very nice landing. I was all smiles just getting to see her in the air.

She did have a second flight today. Before it was time to pack up and go home, we set her up on the leash and took her up. He did the takeoff and climb to altitude, then let me take over so I can feel how she handles. She was extremely fun to fly, but I am NOT ready to take her up by myself yet. He told me about those habits that she had, then had me perform those maneuvers so I could feel for myself how she reacts. Other than that, I was doing loops, rolls, knife edges, stalls, and snaps at high altitude with her. I made a few high altitude mock approaches to feel how she is when coming in for a landing. I noticed how the tail likes to "drift" through turns, as well as how quickly she will drop without throttle. After doing that (we had already decided this before the flight), we decided that I'm not ready to start making real approaches and landings with her just yet. So he took over and landed her beautifully.

Some pictures and some video was taken of the second flight. I'll have to go through it to see if I can post any of it.

Until my skills are ready, I'll stick with my PTS Mustang that has recently been upgraded to an OS .55AX engine. I got a couple of flights on her in today as well, but that's for the PTS thread.

Later guys.

SlabBro

Glad to hear all went well!! glad to hear how much you like it so far. Stick time on mustang is gonna get you there. Got mine all ready for tomarrow morning

mydartswinger

You never know, I may get a little more leash time to wet my whistle with the Yak until I'm truly ready for her. And it might help build my skills as well as be a fun break in my routine. Have fun with her. Later.

majupo2

well, finally got my own yak up and going.

Quick overview or equipment and build story and what not:

Engine: THunder tiger 91 4 stroke. Great engine. had some minro trouble getting it to run properly right before the maiden, but a little help from the guys at the field and we were all good.
Servos: 4x Hitec HS475HB's on the ailerons and elevator, JR DS821 on the rudder and a JR ST47BB on the throttle
Rx: JR R790 PCM Scanselect
Rx pack: 5 cell 1400 NiMH Hydrimax pack
Tx: JR 8103

Build of this plane was quite straight forward and required minimal adjustments from the instructions. The only 2 defects out of the box was the wrinkling on the horizontal stab covering and 2 of the metal clevis pins being broken out. Otherwise, the only modification required was to move the throttle pushrod hole to a custom drilled spot so it would work with the thunder tiger 91.

CG was dead on at 6.5cm with no weight added. i'm going to add some weight to the tail as it was just slightly too nose heavy for me but not too much where it was uncontrollable.

First flight was uneventful and she just rolled right into the air after around 100 feet. needed around 4 clicks or up elevator and 2 of right aileron and she was hands off. the elevator on this yak is extremely sensitive. i had to dial down my low rates even lower than the manual said to get it to be a cruiser. rolls are extremely extremely axial and on high rates she rips around. stall turns are beautiful and look as graceful as anything. first flight was around 6 minutes and surprisingly i had about a half a tank of fuel left (this 91 sips fuel even though its still really really rich!!)

second flight had a little bit more thrashing to it but nothing crazy. tried a few blenders and it was too nose heavy and would snap out. aside from that all was well. with the 14x6 evolution prop it really hauls even though not fully broken in. Landing is a little different as she like to just float down with some speed.

hopefully more flying tomorrow (and sorry about the novel)

mydartswinger

As promised, I have posted a vid of my Yak in the air. This is during it's second flight. I was the one doing most of the flying during this clip. mr67stang took off and landed it for me. My appologies in advance for the poor quality of the vid.

Here's the link to it.

[link=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFKolnoKf6E]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFKolnoKf6E[/link]

SlabBro

Glad to hear everyone so upbeat about this hopper. I got mine to inverted flat spin today. My bud that showed me how to do them the other day says i was putting to much throttle in it which caused the little bit of wing rock. Have to practice that one some more!!(Just another great reason to be at thte field)!! Going to watch the vid. later!!

mydartswinger

I went back to the video editing board and fixed the small screen on the video. I should have it posted some time this evening, it's putting it all together as I wright this.

Well, gotta go to work to earn the dough to fly. Later.

mydartswinger

I re-edited the video, and it's reposted on YouTube [link=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNB90oVgXt4]here.[/link]

later

kidflyer9

you'll love how this thing in inverted flat spins! take her 4 mis high, push down elevator till it's on the canopy, hold full down elevator, at med speed , feed in full left rudder and hit the throttle at 1/4 to 1/2. Takes about 3 spins for it to lock in. let the nose drop and roll 180 to right side up and pul out. love this one, hell i just learned it

mydartswinger

My skills are nowhere near doing flat spins yet. I've still got to have the Yak on a leash for me to fly her. I've also still got to get my loops, rolls, snaps, etc.. more precise before I move on to more advanced aerobatics, as well as getting to where I can fly her on my own. I'll get there soon enough. Working on both her on the leash, and the Mustang on my own, I should progress quick enough. Just have to make sure I don't progress to quick, as I'm already starting to see the consequences of such behavior (see the PTS Mustang thread for more on that).

Later.

SlabBro

You're very right dart! See, another example of don't listen to the people behind you, or don''t listen to your friends lol . you'll get there soon enough. happy skies man!!