RC League Yak54

[atique]

Yea look at the shiny servo tray!! lol

[SleepyC]

Whats the weight...

The thing about composites is that its easy to make it weigh a lot, if the material isn't laid up just right.

It may be lite, I just want to know!

[1bwana1]

My final report on the RCLeague YAK. I was flying The IMAC Sportsman sequence today and the Plane was finaly starting to get dialed in. In general it was doing well. My final flight I decided to do some more aggresive flying so I went to high rates. On my first snap roll the wing tube broke in half and shed the right wing. Of course the plane became a lawn dart from about 400 ft., total loss. Surprisingly the nylon wing nuts on the plane held but the entire wood area on that side of the plane departed with the wing. Inexpensive plane but maybe too expensive at any price.

-STEVE-

[atique]

So what do you think where Ishould do some reinforcment?

[atique]

	Quote: Originally Posted by SleepyC
	Whats the weight... The thing about composites is that its easy to make it weigh a lot, if the material isn't laid up just right. It may be lite, I just want to know!

I don't know about the wieght right now but i will tell you when i get it.

[1bwana1]

atique,
As I said, I'm not sure which part failed first. For starters I would not use the aluminum wing tube, switch to carbon fiber. It could be that the plastic part of the control horns let go first causing flutter that overstressed the wing so I would upgrade the hardware to brand name stuff to be sure. I would also check the glue and reinforce the area where the wing bolts in to the fuse. The failure happened very fast in the snap so any one of these things could have been the original point of failure. The wings themselves seem very strong as they survived in pretty good shape.

-STEVE-

-STEVE-

[atique]

I already am on carbon fiber and yes I already have changed the control horns if you go back and try to see which ones i have. I don't use the ones given with the airframe. I will reinforce the mounts of the wing bolts.
Thanks for tellin me.

[atique]

You can see them over here.

[1bwana1]

Your control horns look good and should be no problem. The CF wing tube should be better as well. Now just check the glue and wood in the fuse at the attachment point and you should avoid the problem I had. Looks like you have made good choices in your build. Enjoy your plane, if it flies a good as mine did you should be happy. I miss mine already.

-STEVE-

[1bwana1]

I sent a detialed report of the incident to Mr. Lee at RCLeague Models. I have not recieved a reply yet, but I have had conversations with him in the past and he seems like a good honest business person. Hopefully he can identify the source of the problem and make changes to the kit to avoid future failures. From the pictures provided by Atique it looks like the mods he made in hardware and the carbon wing tube should provent him from having a similar failure.

-STEVE-

[LookNatU2]

Sorry for the loss, wow, surprized to hear the wing tube just snapped..That would make me really upset.

[1bwana1]

LookNatU2,
Thanks, it is a sad thing to lose a plane that flew so nice. Like I said not sure I am willing to place the entire blame on the aluminum wing tube (althought the carbon option that atique is using should eleminate that as a cause). It could be that the fuse itself failed first. It could also be that poor quality plastic in the supplied control horns failed. I really should have upgraded the hardware like atique did. I don't want to bash the kit. In general it seemed pretty good for the price. The plane flew great! I have heard (and seen) expensive kits having similar issues. The primary difference may be having a manufactorer that stands behind the kit and makes things right. We'll see about that.

-STEVE-

[1bwana1]

Just to let you know. Mr. Lee from RC League responded quickly to my e-mail regarding the failure of my YAK 54. As I have said, during my previous contacts with him he seemed like a good honest person. He has acknowleged that they have made some changes to the model recently to address some issues. Without hesitation he offered to send the new version of the YAK to me free. I think this kind of excellent customer service is all we could ask of a company, U.S. or Chinese. I look forward to trying the new version of this YAK and will keep you guys updated.

-STEVE-

[atique]

	Quote: Originally Posted by 1bwana1
	Just to let you know. Mr. Lee from RC League responded quickly to my e-mail regarding the failure of my YAK 54. As I have said, during my previous contacts with him he seemed like a good honest person. He has acknowleged that they have made some changes to the model recently to address some issues. Without hesitation he offered to send the new version of the YAK to me free. I think this kind of excellent customer service is all we could ask of a company, U.S. or Chinese. I look forward to trying the new version of this YAK and will keep you guys updated. -STEVE-

THAT IS SOME CUSTOMER SERVICE

HE IS A GREAT GUY

[atique]

Post some pics of the new version of the yak and we will compare it !