Aero-Works 50cc Yak 54 ARF?

[Kenny]

Hi guys, Have any of you flown or know if this is a good plane. It's a very pretty Yak, this would be my first gas plane. I love the edge 540's but this plane has caught my eye

[LookNatU2]

Seen plenty of video's of this plane flying... Flys awesome with a DA-50 on it.

[Kenny]

Thanks for your response

[bodywerks]

The build quality and completeness of construction is the best you will ever see, and flight performance is awesome. I have their 35% 260 and couldn't be happier with how easily it went together or how it flies.

[TrojanMan]

I am having fun with mine! I use it as a practice airplane and I have well over 50 flights on mine with ZERO problems!

[Steve Campbell]

	Quote: Originally Posted by bodywerks
	The build quality... is the best you will ever see...

Hmmm... there's a few fellows on another site who might take exception to that statement.

[phoneman]

Go to downonthedeck--a friend of mine has just finished his and you can see the build process along with things he changed--maidened it last Sunday--flew really good

[Flatlandman]

the plane flys excellent but it is a 18 pounder with a lot of work to get it that lite. the wing loading is still good at that weight just the vertical isnt great.

The area in the fuse between the wing tube and the motor box is super weak if you double that area with some lite ply you will be great other wise its just a matter of time before the landing gear fold no matter how good you land every flight

heres the video of the 4th or 5th flight

http://videos.pitsbros.com/mikeg-yak5-6-06.wmv

[Big J]

Mine is NOT an 18 pounder. The all-up weight on mine was 17.2 lbs. This was on an accurate, calibrated digital scale, accurate to .5 ounces. The only weight-saving features are the carbon fiber wing tube and Fromeco Li-Ion batteries. This is not to say that there are not some 18 pound Yak QBs out there, but they are not neccessarily all the same weight. Right now I have a little handling problem with mine (some pitch sensitivity), but the well broken in DA-50 pulls it with authority. Mine is the one that Phoneman refers to.

[Big J]

Here are some pics of mine:

[Big J]

Anybody out there?

[Flatlandman]

We used the same EQ except i used a 4 cell Fromeco Im glad yours came out liter than mine man i bet my vertical would be much better with a pound less weight on it. Are you going to reinforce the area i spoke about ? It would really suck if your gear folds like mine and the fuse snaps like a trig. The repair would have been much better / easier if that area didnt fold up also.

[Big J]

Yeah, Mike. I've got some carbon fiber sheet on order to reinforce the interior frame work between the wing tube and motor box and the landing gear plate itself. You know, in a way I feel sorry for the companies that buy these planes from overseas. Yes, they are ultimately responsible for any defects in these planes. But they design, or pay to have designed some really nice planes. They are forced to take the designs offshore because they can't use expensive American labor and expect to be able to compete with other companies that deal offshore. They find a place that seems like it can do a creditable job of tranforming their designs into nice airplanes. Then as soon as they return to the U.S., the offshore companies start to severely cut corners and use nothing but inferior materials, adhesives, and hardware to produce the planes. Then the U.S. vendors get left holding the bag, responsible for any problems that arise. Then, half the time, the offshore companies steal the original design and begin marketing the planes themselves, cutting the original designers out of the equation. Look at what happened to Chris Hinson at Extreme Flight RC. It won't be long at all before the only things made in the U.S. are products produced in American plants owned by foreign countries. I have to agree with the words of Ross Perot, when he was running against George Bush and Bill Clinton for President. He said that if NAFTA was passed, it would be like an atomic bomb hitting our economy. North American Free Trade Agreement? That apparently meant we were free to trade with any foreign country, as long as that country had a much more favorable trade position. Oh well, let me get down off my soap box. I think that once I get the pitch sensitivity problem solved, the Yak is going to be a great flying plane. The consensus of opinion seems to be that I just have it a little too tail heavy. If that is the problem, it will be easy enough to fix.

[buildflycrash]

	Quote: Originally Posted by Big J
	I have to agree with the words of Ross Perot, when he was running against George Bush and Bill Clinton for President. He said that if NAFTA was passed, it would be like an atomic bomb hitting our economy. North American Free Trade Agreement? That apparently meant we were free to trade with any foreign country, as long as that country had a much more favorable trade position. Oh well, let me get down off my soap box. I think that once I get the pitch sensitivity problem solved, the Yak is going to be a great flying plane. The consensus of opinion seems to be that I just have it a little too tail heavy. If that is the problem, it will be easy enough to fix.

Not to start a big political discussion but NAFTA did pass and our economy is going stronger than ever. Rosss Perot (and you) were obvoisly wrong.

[bodywerks]

	Quote: Originally Posted by Steve Campbell
	Hmmm... there's a few fellows on another site who might take exception to that statement.

I won't go there. It's a group of guys from one state that all fly together and tell lies together that have problems with this plane, and have done there very best to slam the product even though the majority of AWX Yak owners couldn't be more pleased. I won't name the person, but I know for a fact that one of them admits they can't fly worth a darn, yet blames the plane's "weak" construction for his "less-than-perfect" landings. Both "weak" and "less-than-perfect" are highly open to interpretation. To me, "weak" is any construction that won't hold up to the rigors of flight, and has nothing to do with how well it handles poor landings. And "less than perfect" is a landing that bounces 1 inch off the ground a couple times before finally settling in, not a landing that stalls 2 feet off the ground or is flown directly into the ground - those are what I call crashes. And if I did that and the plane broke, I'd have no one to blame but myself for the bad landing attempt and for purchasing a plane that was beyond my flying ability.