JIM B , A YAK 54 and the IAC

[SleepyC]

Jim Bourke the owner of RCGroups.com, Crackroll.com and Flyinggiants.com owns the only flying Yak 54 in the US. Since the Yak 54 is SO popular in the modeling community I found this to be REALLY interesting.
I had posted a small blurb about this on a thread a week ago, but after thinking about this again, I really think it deserves a home page article.

Jim owns the only Flying Yak 54 in the US. This makes it a very rare aircraft indeed. If a part breaks you can't simply phone the local parts store and order a new one, you basically have to make them or hopefully find one somewhere in the world!
Most guys who own rare planes or cars like this hanger them, and possibly take them out once in a while just to keep them working. Well, not Jim. Jim chooses to wring the Yak 54 out! (Totally FG style!)

Jim competed in his first IAC competition in Sportsman at the "Apple Turnover" event in Ephrata, Washington, and ended up in 5th place out of 15 pilots!
(only 3 of the pilots were fellow rookies!)

Here is a description of the event in Jims words:

	Quote:
	This past weekend I flew my Yak-54, Russian Thunder, to Ephrata, Washington. There I competed in my first International Aerobatics Club competition, the Apple Turnover. I flew in Sportsman and placed well for my first outing. On my first flight, I finished in 11th, on the second flight, I finished in fourth, and on the third flight I finished in third. I did well enough overall to take fifth place. More importantly, I met a lot of cool people and had a blast! The IAC-ers are a great bunch. I look forward to flying with them again soon. The Sportsman sequence is pretty basic by R/C standards. I've attached it for your reference. Sportsman competitors may optionally perform a freestyle sequence or they may repeat the known sequence for their freestyle. I chose that option since this was my first time, and it worked well. Some things I learned: The aerobatic box is 1000x1000 meters. The sequence has to be flown within that. Leaving the box incurs a penalty. This is much harder than it seems because planes move very fast and most of the time the box markers are hidden by the bottom of the plane, the wings, etc. During my first flight, a lot of my vertical lines weren't really vertical and a lot of my looping maneuvers weren't very round. I picked up some advice and that made a huge difference. It's so much easier to do this stuff with an R/C plane, where you can see exactly what the judge sees! Judges like the Yak-54. It's big and noisy and presents well. Several of them commented on the plane after I flew. I don't know if that got me any extra points, but if it did, I'll take 'em! Here is a video I took from a Hobby-Lobby FlyCamOne2 mounted to my cap:

[SleepyC]

Few pictures!
And the Video!

Also a link to Jim's Blog about Russian Thunder:

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/member.php?u=486

[Mithrandir]

Ughhh.. those landing gear!!!!

Manly looking plane... but the gear look like something from a prehistoric bird!!!!

How many G's did he pull???

[jbourke]

	Quote: Originally Posted by Mithrandir
	Ughhh.. those landing gear!!!! Manly looking plane... but the gear look like something from a prehistoric bird!!!!

Sacrilege!

	Quote:
	How many G's did he pull???

About 5.5 during the split-S.

Jim

[Edge 540]

The spin was cool!

[Edge 540]

You mean he runs the engine backwards on purpose?!?

[jbourke]

	Quote: Originally Posted by Edge 540
	The spin was cool!

The audio doesn't seem to match, but you can hear me call out "half", "one" and "one and a half" to keep track of the spin.

The timing of the spin recovery is tricky in the Yak. It isn't uncommon at all for me to come out late or early. Everything sort of clicked in Ephrata, so maybe I'm getting a handle on it. Still, I sometimes seem to end up in a flatter spin than usual, and I'm not sure why that is. When that happens, the rate of rotation changes significantly, and I lose more altitude than I'd like.

Jim

[statbeast]

That is so awesome. I can't imagine how much fun it would be to go through the sequence in such an aerbatic bird. Congrats Jim!

[Yakov]

	Quote: Originally Posted by RTDriver
	The audio doesn't seem to match, but you can hear me call out "half", "one" and "one and a half" to keep track of the spin. The timing of the spin recovery is tricky in the Yak. It isn't uncommon at all for me to come out late or early. Everything sort of clicked in Ephrata, so maybe I'm getting a handle on it. Still, I sometimes seem to end up in a flatter spin than usual, and I'm not sure why that is. When that happens, the rate of rotation changes significantly, and I lose more altitude than I'd like. Jim

Jim,

First off.. great name!

Second, I am very envious of you. Beeing a full scale pilot myself I would love to own a full-scale Yak but for now have to settle for a 35% one. There was one for sale in Florida a few years back but my wife just wouldn't part with the $125K to finance it for me.:lol:

Hmm seems the full-scale and the model act the same in a spin. How are your entries. Will the plane stall easily with all that metal up front?

What altitudes are you working with? What is the Hard Deck set at normally?

Have fun... wish I was you man!

[jbourke]

	Quote: Originally Posted by Yakov
	Hmm seems the full-scale and the model act the same in a spin. How are your entries. Will the plane stall easily with all that metal up front?

The aircraft stalls at about 105 km/hr. It stalls nicely but sometimes it wants to fall to the left instead of the right. I'm unsure exactly what is going on there, but feeding a bit of right rudder just before the stall does the trick.

	Quote:
	What altitudes are you working with? What is the Hard Deck set at normally?

I begin the Sportsman sequence by diving from 5,000 feet to about 3,500. The floor of the Sportsman class is 1,500 feet. All altitudes are AGL.

When practicing new things or messing around, I stay quite a bit higher. I try to plan things out so I don't go below 2,500. I scared myself last week by doing a vertical roll with a tumble at the top. The tumble became an inverted spin. I recovered and lost a lot of altitude, but still pulled out at about 3,000 feet. So I had plenty of room to scare myself and come away from the experience unharmed, even given a couple of mistakes along the way.

Of course, training pays off big time with all of this. I was fortunate to learn under Rich Stowell, and I intend to get together with him some more as soon as possible.

Jim

[jbourke]

	Quote: Originally Posted by statbeast
	I can't imagine how much fun it would be to go through the sequence in such an aerbatic bird.

It is a lot of fun, but it is also a lot of work, and there are physiological effects that require time to overcome. If you have any interest then I say go for it, but don't be surprised if you get a bit (or a lot) queasy. That's part of the "fun".

Jim

[scalefreak]

Right on Jim! Awesome stuff!

[SleepyC]

	Quote: Originally Posted by RTDriver
	I scared myself last week by doing a vertical roll with a tumble at the top. The tumble became an inverted spin. I recovered and lost a lot of altitude, but still pulled out at about 3,000 feet. So I had plenty of room to scare myself and come away from the experience unharmed, even given a couple of mistakes along the way. Jim

Hey ummmm.

I REALLY, REALLY, REALLY like my job... so could you NOT scare your self TOO much?


I can't wait to see this plane in person.
Perhaps next year at a few of the BIG events?

[3D Meatshield]

Yeah, there happens to be a couple of airports VERY conveniently located near Thistledown... an Ohio Huckfest 2009 appearance, maybe?

[3Dguy]

Kewl.