VinceL

I have the OMP 65" Yak and love it. I got a little carried away and damaged the fuse. Not too bad but wrinkled the sheeting on one side just behind the wing. I'm still flying it but if it survives until winter a repair or replacement is in order. Wondering what kinds of repair schemes that others have used. I know it's a profile but maitaning good looks is important to me. A big scab patch over the wrinkle just aint gonna cut it. I really don't mind a sustantial recover if it is necessary.

Thanks,

AFSalmon

My Feedback: (3)

The foam core is easy to fix. If you busted the sheeting, just peel that stuff off and use either epoxy or gorilla glue (don't use much!) to repair the area and graft in new wood if needed. Most times you can just glue the area back together and be off on your way. A syringe is a handy tool for applying the glue into cracks as well.

martyg

My Feedback: (42)

Once the foam/sheeting is repaired and straight, I like to laminate the repair with 2oz fiberglass over the fractured area. Overlap about 2 inches into the undamaged area on eboth sides of the fuselage . This restores the stressed skin structure, adds negligible weight, and is vitualy undetectable once re-covered.

Constrictor

My Feedback: (46)

For me, fixing this plane is a snap with the foam fuse. I am a woodworker by trade, so at any given time ive got at least a dozen hand held routers laying around the shop. I prefer to use the small, hand-held Laminate trim router and i clamp a guide board on the fuse ( easy to do since the wings come off) and take a 3/4" wide router dado bit and set the router dept just the same thickness as the balsa sheeting. If one 3/4" pass is wide enough, great, but if you need like 3" wide keep scooting the Guide board over until youve routed a perfect slot out of the fuse, then cut the replacment sheeting out and gorrilla glue the new one back in. The beauty of this is it doesnt gain weight, and if the slot is routed too deep, the gorrilla glue will push the sheeting out perfectly flush with the rest of the sheeting. Make sure to put a piece of wax paper and a bunch of weight on top overnight. Doesn't everybody have a router in their shop?

Steve

VinceL

Thanks for the ideas guys. I guess I never considered using a router to just barely remove the skin. I have access to just such tools, sounds like the way to go. I think I will still get a backup bird in progress, it's just a matter of time for this one. It's just too much fun to live forever. Now I've got to decide between another Yak and the fusion.

ryans1000

Good tips above.

Well I got about 50 full flights on my omp yak 65". Its a great flying plane that i've really learned a lot of 3d from it. Unfortunately today I snapped it in half today when I lost altitude in a stall a bit quicker than I thought and I ended smacking the ground. It came almost straight down like an elevator maneuver and even hit the landing gear pretty even almost like a normal landing but at 5 times the rate of decent

Anyway, my fuselage completely split right behind the wing and I feel like I can graft in the outer balsa portion of the fuse.I just had a question about repairing the foam center. The foam was split very jagged and rough, bits of the foam missing. Do I need to fill it in somehow with something? Do I just glue what foam I can? Or do I just focus on repairing the outer balsa frame stronger to make up for the lack of foam support/integrity in the center?

Ryan

Constrictor

My Feedback: (46)

Thats the beauty of the foaming Poly glue. It will foam up as big as your fist if you let it, put the glue on the foams break and it will fill it solid like glue "foam" no gaps will be left when that stuff gets done foaming.

ryans1000

Just for the record, my omp yak has been repaired and flys as good as new. The gorrilla poly glue works awesome for this foam profile fuse. I was going to cut out a nice rectangular area around the fuse split and graft in a nice new balsa section but the balsa likes to stick to the foam and is difficult to cut out. I suppose that is why the guy above used a router. In my case i decided that i would just push the two parts of the fuse back together lining up the jagged balsa edges like a puzzle. Put gorrilla glue in the middle before reassembly.

Ended up being real straight and you could barely tell that it was split. Fast and easy and flys great.

Ryan

AFSalmon

My Feedback: (3)

That's great Ryan, glad you are back in business.