Composite-ARF 3M Yak 55 sp Build

[John Blackwell]

Eagle 1,
The plane is looking good.pix are very clear.keep up the good work.once a TEXAN always aTEXAN.I have lived in GEORGIA 20 years now but most of my life was in TEXAS before that, my wife is from Groom,TX . about 40 miles east of amarillo.talk to you soon,
John

[eagle1]

thanks John, been here all my life going on my 38th year

[pepatrick]

John says he is a Texan..but he has truely been reformed as a Georgia red neck.... You know I love you John...

[John Blackwell]

Phillip,
Lets go flying it's only blowing about 30mph out .

[pepatrick]

no kidding...the wind is not our friend today...so the Krill Yak gets a little bit of luvin today.

[eagle1]

awe well isn't that special, two lovers settin in the tree K I S S I N G .....lol you guys need to get a room

[pepatrick]

He would never be the same.

[eagle1]

too much of a man for him huh?

[eagle1]

mounted all 8 louvers tonight and cut out the canopy, I still have to mount the ply mounting blocks in the cowl housing for the louver bolts, match some paint so the stars will shine through, and that part will be done, I will tackle this tomorrow a get the canopy ready for glueing, as canopy goes this has to be the worst canopy I have seen from Comp.
looks like they need to remake the mold and not stretch the plastic sooo much, this might be the root of the cracking. looks like the plastic is thinner than the previous canopys I have done 3 to be exact, rough looking plastic, but I can live with it, you will look more at the plane than the canopy for sure, I will take pictures tomorrow

[pepatrick]

I wish Compy would use the material used on the Krill Yak 55m. It is crystal clear and looks like its almost bullet proof. Its a little heavier, but gotta be worth it.

[eagle1]

After mounting the louvers I removed all of them and cut 14mmx14mm fly mounting plates, glued them in , drilled the hole, before reinstalling the screws I used thin ca in the holes to harden them, installed all the louvers back on the plane then moved on to mounting the canopy to the canopy frame, this is getting too easy or I am getting good at this, it only took me about an hour to cut the canopy to fit the frame, sand the inside of the frame, make tape handles to pull on while glueing the canopy to the frame, I started with a small drop in the center at the front, after that I put a small drop in the rear top to hold everything up, used more at thr front sides the moved back to the lower back corners tehn filled in all the areas that were not hit with thin CA, now it is looking more like a plane, tomorrow I will mix some micro ballons and milled glass to seal the canopy to the fram on the inside.

[eagle1]

sorry for the delay on the pictures, last night I was having internet drama, but all better now, I am going to my room and mix some resin, micro-balloons and milled glass to seal the canopy to the frame

[wgdenge]

DUDE.... Don't use epoxy for canopy. It WILL GET STRESS CRACKS.!!!
People have found that Zap-A-Dap-A-Goo works best. It stays flexable, and won't stress crack the plastic.
I just removed mine, and am waiting for new canopy to arrive. It was no fun cutting out old one, and grinding off the eopxy/Mill mix.

My 2.6 Yak did not do this, or MANY of the other CompARFs, but the 3M YAK does crack much easier.

Just my 2cents..

wayne

[eagle1]

sorry just finished the resin mix, I know on the other compy's that this works fine but this canopy is thinner than the rest of there canopy's that I have installed

[eagle1]

can any of you give me the lenghts of the turnbuckles for all the surfaces??