Composite-ARF 3M Yak 55 sp Build

[eagle1]

After I returned from an almost exspensive day of flying, I cut some glass strips, mixed up some milled glass and micro-ballons, used thick CA to glue the tray mount into the fuse, after that has dried I used the mixture all around the mount, then used some heavy woven glass to perminently glass the mount into the fuse, i do not think this mount will budge, I also sealed the mount eith resin while I had some mixed up.
I hate sanding the carbon because it always blackins the surrounding good looking glass and I cannot get it out, just an astetic thing, I may end up painting the interior

[Tex]

your not done with that plane yet. As many of these things you build you should be able to build one blind folded
Cant wait to get a flight report on this one with 170

[eagle1]

hey I am workin on it Tex!!! lol
I have ordered everything for the plane except for the engine and prop, those will be ordered when my Rep gets the engine in his hands or should I say in the warehouse. should be about a week for him to get the engine and then it's another week to get the thing here.
I talked to Jeff at Desert Aircraft about which cans would work best and his answer was the KS 90 cans so thats what is coming along with 70mm dropped flex headers for the new 170 it shouldn't be long.
everthing else should be here at the end of the week and I should have all the electronics installed awaiting the engine and prop.

[Tex]

cant wait

[pepatrick]

I agree...the 90s will work better than the 70s...make sure it fits. I originally got the MTW 80s and they were too tight to get in the tunnel. There is not a lot of room for wiggle in there...I plan on using the 70mm cans with the DA-170. I should be getting mine in the next few days per DA.. mine was a May order.

[eagle1]

DA told me that the ks 90 cans are only 75mm , so they should fit just don't know about the lenght.
Now back to the build and the part I always hate with a passion, cutting the pull-pull exits,
before I did the slots I had to install the servo tray to the servo mount,I drilled holes for the 6-32 blind nuts, installed the nuts and then installed the servo tray, works great, next I did more measuring than I like to do, first I had to find out the distance between the control horn eyes on the rudder, turns out to be around 4 7/8", the I measured the distance on the tiller arm 118mm, so I cleared a portion of my building table, made a starting mark square with the table, trnasfered the rudder measurements to the back side and put two nails in the table, during all of this I had a centerline to help me as I go, next I measured the distance between the rudder and the tiller arm amd made a mark, then I transfered the tiller arm measurements to this line, used kite string and crossed those as the wires would be in the plane, then I measured the back end of the plane to get the width,marked, same for the front, marked turns out where I have everything mounted the hole should be 8 inches from the eye of the control horn, transfered these markings to the fuse and away we go putting more holes in this beautiful plane( I always hate putting holes in a new plane) started with the right side, cut a 20mm x 3 mm slot ran the cable, turns out I need to carry the slot to the bulck head in the rear of the plane to get the cables to go right, (sure put the slots more forward than what I wanted but you gotta do what you gotta do) so out came the mill bit on the dremel tool cut the bulkhead all the way through and tightened up on the cable, slot came out great, went to the left side and transfered the same measurements made my little slot as before, out comes the dremel tool to go through the bulkhead and.............................reverb from the dremel put a 1/4 in hole in the front of the slot &%^&%$#$&^%)*&........but not to worry as I lengtheneed the slot and made it to match the hole it all came out in the wash,.....pull-pull cables are done, rx's should be here tomorrow and I can get the servos in the wings and elev.so far so good.......on a sad note I was changing bulbs in the hobby room ( I have the light covers that are arched square glass with sharpe corners) picked up the cover and BAMMM hit the bottom of the fuse and out a nice little hole in it SHI&&&^&%%$^%..........more patch work to do when I paint the louvers to match the stars. you'll never see it I promise you this

[eagle1]

I received the two rx's yesterday and the KS 90 cans, headers in today, I had to shave a little off the provided can mount to get the larger ks cans to fit, I mixed up some resin, fuel proofed the mount and cut the groumets to fit and installed them to the mounting plate,still waiting on the power box royal , turnbuckles , connector ends , spinner , and of course the engine itself, after tomorrow I will install the servos

[eagle1]

elevators done!
rudder servo tray done!
I received the turnbuckles in todat and the connector ends also, I was a little worried about the servo mount doublers in the elevators, all the threads I read on this plane some had trouble getting the screw holes to match up, I had no problems in getting this done. I first made sure that the doublers would fit into the elevators correctly, after I cut and sanded a little I got the perfect fit, I put some thick CA on the doubler, laid it on it's side and slid it into position,stood it up and Bam it was in, took some kit string to route the servo wire , screwed the servo into place and installed the 1 1/2 servo arm on the servo, made the slots a little longer and wider for full deflection, I installed the 1 1/2" turnbuckles to the rudder servos and got them adjusted pretty close. all and all not much to do but install the servos in the wings make extensions for elevators and ailerons, engine should be here end of next week or first part of the next

[eagle1]

wake up tex

[eagle1]

today so far, I have found the location of the fuel tank tray and used thick CA to spot the tray where it needs to be, mixed up some milled glass and micro balloons to fill the gap in between the fuse sides and the tray, when that dries I will mix some resin and cut some heavy glass and glass the tray into place, pictures later after that is done, I may even get the servos installed into the wings

[eagle1]

I have the tray glassed in place, fuel tank built and started plumbing, I mounted the DA fuel dot, I was going to put it on the top of the fuse but the seam was too big so I went with the side mount instead, then I mounted the sensor switch for the Power Box Royal, is it me or does it seem like every time you turn around it is time to put another hole in the plane, just a few more holes to go and this thing will be more holy than richous..lol
I also have the multi-plex ends soildered to the batteries, I am usung the lithium Ion 5200 fromeco battery packs.

[Tex]

Real nice Eagle, this plane is looking good.

[eagle1]

So today after serving my civic duty(jury Duty) I attempted the programming of my rudder servos through the Power Box Royal, about half way through the programming I ran into a little problem, for some reason the plug for servo 2 in the B bank went hey wire on me, acted like a servo was going out, it slowly went to one extreme then just quit all together, after trying to get ahold of Reza, and a frustrating wait 30 minutes or so I went in the room and tried it again, had no problems this time.
I spent about 2 hours getting them programmed just right, zero draw in neutral, zero draw full deflection with an occassional buz every now and then, now I will do the three aileron servos with a servo synchronizer in each wing to ease the installation of 3 servos per wing half, I talked to Ray Labonte about this and this is what he does on his so I will give it a try, and contiue watching the servo plug that was giving the trouble, no pictures of programming the servos but I am pleased at the way it all camer together in the end.
I also spoke to Ray about my engine, I should have it paid for either tomorrow or thursday and should have it by mid next week, I also ordered my prob, Tru-turn dropped the ball and I am still waiting on the spinner, I will call them tomorrow to find out if they made the spinner and shipped it

[eagle1]

engine is paid for should start it's journey to me on friday, called tru-turn, my spinner has not been turned as of yet, don't know what they are waiting for, just need to drill for a DA150 and enlarge the bolt holes to 6 mm thats it,
I spoke with Reza about the power box, then went into the room to check everything again and for some reason I had everything on the wrong bank, reconnected the servo wires back where they belong and ran into the same problem as before, I re-initialized the pbr and seemed to stop the hey wire event, I will work on the wing servos or the elev servos this evening, it will not be long now that the engine is soon to be here, maybe try-turn will have the spinner cut in time

[eagle1]

elevator servos are programmed.It was amasing to me that you could reverse a servo with the pbr , I am liking it more and more the more I learn to use it, I recomend if you have a big bird that you use one of these, radio is down on voltage and I have to make a few extensions to the servos in the wing, I also have to mount the synchronizer in the wing and get the inner servos mounted in both wings,after the wings are programmed I will be out of things to do until the engine comes in