Well Gents,

Peer pressure can be a dangerous thing. Especially when it comes to buying model airplanes. It all started innocently enough a few weeks ago when my friend Junior showed me and another friend the video of Extreme Flight's Yak 54 electric. My friend says, "OH man, I think I wanna buy one of those, how much is it?" I came back with, "I'll buy one if you do." So what do you think happened... that's right, out came the plastic, and with a call to the great guys over at Atlanta Hobby, our new birds were on their way.

Unfortunately, it took 3.5 weeks for the planes to get here! (might have something to do with shipping to APOs...) Anyhow, my plane arrived the day before yesterday and man it sure looked nice! Yesterday, I set to work, and finished it this afternoon. It's a very complete ARF, with excellent covering and minimal headache factor. Fit and finish on this plane is superior! I'm not going to go into a full detailed build thread, but here are a few pics I took along the way. There are a couple of points that I will highlight however.

Firstly, it appears that the aircraft was originally designed for two elevator servos, with split elevators. My kit arrived with a prejoined elevator. The instructions however could use a little updating. If you follow them word for word, you will end up gluing the vert. and horz. stab in place before inserting the elevator, which will result in you having to cut out a gap at the back for the joiner to pass thru! I caught this discrepancy just in time.

Secondly, the tailwheel set up is pretty flimsy. A bent wire is inserted into the rudder and taped in place... Mine has already gone wobbly, just from setting on the bench. I'll need to come up with a remedy before I fly it as I'm afraid the base of the rudder will rip out. No big deal if you live near a hobby shop, but i think the closest hobby shop to me is probably 2000 miles!

My final issue was the lack of motor mount screws... again, no big deal if you live near civilization. I was able to scrounge the bolts from Junior's non-airworthy EF Extra 300... don't tell him!

With that said, I can't wait to get this thing in the air. It's a beautiful plane with a great reputation. It should be a blast!

Here are the pics...

-Matt




















P.S. The sand bags in the window are not for building planes... they are to keep the bad guys out!

Looks great! Are you using EF's motor/ESC?

I'm using the EF "Torque" motor, Castle Creations PHX 45 ESC, and 4s Flight Power pack. HS65s all around.

Cracky, I love the Avatar!!!

Looking good Krashmaster! Be carefull installing the elevator servo. After inlarging the opening, don't push too hard. Infact, before you install the servo, add a little thin CA to the wood reinforcment for the servo inside. That thing is just tacked in, and can come free. Have fun fishing it out, and reinstalled it if it comes loose. As far as the tail wheel goes, The stock wire is just fine on the rudder. I cut a groove in the bottom of the rudder, installed the wire sealed it off with thin CA, and used two small strips of fiberglass tape. I didn't care for the stock tail wheel itself. I simply installed a Dubro foam wheel that I had turned down on my disc sander.

Hey Warbird,

I too noticed the backing plate was a tight fit on the servo cut out... that was the other area that took a little bit of doing... but nothing out of the ordinary. I can see how it would be a real PITA if that plate popped off! I think i'll give the tailwheel another go, a little thin CA would probably help a lot.

-Matt

More info on the 4S flight power pack?

Matt - I started my very own EF Yak 54 build this weekend, and I ran into every single one of the issues you outlined in your first post.. ha! Wish I had seen this earlier.

I ended up gluing the vertical and horizontal stabs in place before the elevator and ended up having to cut out a slot to insert it.. Doh! Nothing that can't be patched up though. And the lack of proper screws for mounting the motor is an annoyance for sure, that's where I'm left right now, waiting until I can get some longer 3mm screws.

It sure is a nice plane though, I can't wait to get mine done even though it could well eat my lunch when I get it in the air.

Justin,

If you set the low rates up as per the manual, you'll have a nice flying plane. It seems to track nice and straight with no tendency to drop a wing during slow flight. I've only put two packs through mine thus far. It's a nice flying plane! The roll rate can is very quick, yet it stops the instant you let go of the stick. I attribute this to the extremely light wing construction!

One more issue, the canopy pops off in flight! The manual states that you "MAY" put a baffle in the cowling to block too much air entering the fuselage. I think this should be changed to "MUST". With out the baffle, ram air at high speeds pressurizes the cabin so to speak, and POP the canopy comes off! I discovered that a CD fits nicely in the front of the cowl, so I traced a CD onto a piece of 6mil depron type foam, cut it out to fit, cut a hole for the prop shaft, and trimmed openings for the cooling ducts. I then attached this to the front of the motor box with a couple dabs of hot glue. I also colored in some "vanes" to look something like the real Yak, which uses adjustable vanes to regulate cylinder temps. Hopefully this cures the popping canopy issue. You can also add a couple pieces of colored electrical tape to the fore and aft seam of the canopy.

I'm using a Flight Power 4S 2170 pack, Torque out runner, CC PHX 25 ESC, and 12x6 APC E prop. I'm going to try out some Thunder Power Extreme 3S packs with an APC 13x6.5 and 14x7 next.

-Matt

How much time do you get on that 4S 2170? I'd be interested to know the difference in power and time as compared with the 3S after you try that...

Cracky- That avatar is frickin' classic!

Krashmaster, glad to hear you are enjoying the Yak. From day one the Yak was intended for a single elevator servo. There are servo holes on each side so you have the choice to place the servo where you want it. Make sure to open some air escape holes in the bottom of the fuselage just behind the canopy. This, in conjunction with the baffling will help prevent the canopy from coming off.
Thanks again for your business!

Matt - Sounds cool, I can't wait to get mine finished! I keep getting held up on my build for various reasons... I had 5 or 6 new hitec servos waiting in a drawer, I thought I had 4 HS65's, but when I got down to needing the 4th and final HS65 I realized that the rest of them were all HS56's... oops! So I had to wait til one of the LHS's around here got some in stock, there were none to be found for a while. It's always something... I've read other reports about the canopy popping off, I'll take some measures to keep that from happening. And I'll definitely be flying on low rates the first few flights until I get comfortable with it.

That airplane looks great.

I have one too, everything for it as well, servos, motor, esc, 4cell, receiver………

One day after Christmas my brother moved the box that everything was in onto the garage floor. 10 minutes later my mom came home with the suburban and ran over it all.

Wings, elevators, rudder and basically everything airframe wise was crushed including servos, wheel pants...basically everything............except of course the fuselage.

So now I have a fuse that needs just about everything else.

Some time when I get some money maybe I can order up a whole new kit minus the fuselage. That would probably raise some eyebrows over at EF.

I loved my plane, and it looks awesome and easy to build, I can’t wait to start mine soon, I hope.

Do you think Extreme Flight would part out a kit like that for my sake or would it just be cheaper to order a new airplane?

Also, I have never understood why you would use a smaller prop with the bigger 4 cell battery and a larger prop with the smaller 3 cell battery.

Everyone says that it is harder on the 3 cell when you run the 3 cell setup and a larger prop but why do you have to run a smaller prop on a 4 cell, wouldn’t the 4 cell be able to turn an even bigger prop?

Where can I purchase the perfect prop for a 4S Thunder Power and EF’s motor and ESC setup, would it be something like a 13X4 electric APC prop? Why couldn’t I use a 14X7.5 with this 4S setup

Chris, that black and yellow scheme is sick! We want one!! Good luck with your build Matt, looks awesome!

Hey Stainless,

Sorry to hear that about your Yak!! You might talk to Atlanta Hobbies, I believe they will work with you on getting particular parts for your plane, i.e. fuselage.

As far as the prop size vs battery voltage... I'm going to let somebody else explain that. I think I know what's going on with that BUT I'm not quite sure I could explain it very well. Anybody wanna chime in??

-Matt