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Finally i find time to write review about my last year plane Extreme Flight Yak 54. I fly RC for more than 13 years, (more than half of my life now ), and since i saw 2002 TOC videos, i knew i have to fly these big planes one day. And here this day come, naturally 88inch is not 35 ore 40 percent bird, but everything will come in time! 
2008 year summer in Alytus, with my friends Ricardas and Vitalijus. First look on kit; In 2007 year i join Extreme Flight RC team, and since then i fly with EF planes, probably no need to talk here about quality, overal look and performance of EF planes. No other company (only except Bill Hempel;) build bigger scale ARF's. I think only EF planes are build bigger than it should be for engine size, 88inch Yak54 is not exception, simply HUGE fuselage, remind more 35 percent plane than ussual 50cc. One thing i have to say im very happy to see this company grow and building bigger 100cc and 150cc F3M/Imac planes. Ok enought talking lets start review. First of all i must say EF did great job on packing, plane kit is well packed in 3 boxs, one of them is for wing and stabilizer, second is for cowling and third is for fuselage. As you see it have good plywood reinforcements, so plane came without single scratch to me. Plywood reinforcements. Soft packed fuselage. I will not go into detailed building, this is already done in many different forums and can be seen very clear in Yak 54 manual given by Extreme Flight. Building and setup; Here is list of equipment i use ; Engine; DA-50r./DA ignition
Powerbox; Emcotec Mini DSPI 6 / Flight power EVO LITEV2 1600mah 2s packs x 2
Emcotec DSPI ignition switch Micro RCS / Flight Power Evo lite V2 2100mah.
Tunned pipe; ES composites ES50G. (only 115g!!!)
Fueling system, Jersey modeller RHP-R 2.5gal
Radio; JR9V2
Servos; Hitec 5955 all around except thrt/ with long SWB servo arms.
Prop; Xoar 23x8 , going to change to Vess. Weight with all this equipment (without fuel) is 8232g. So here i will show you random pictures of Yak54 assembly, first you can see how i prepare parts for assembly of aileron control horns; Locate all necessary parts. Cut holes in film to be able insert control horns. 
Insert fiberglass control horns, and mark area of film you need to remove neffore ussing epoxy. 
Cut it with sharp hobby knife, be carefull and don't cut to deep. 
Ussing hot iron make sure film will not come off the ailerons. For better epoxy contact with wood sand fiberglass horns. 
It take some time to make hinges right on first time, but when you get us to it, its quite easy, use 30-60 min epoxy and you have enough time to adjust them as manual suggest, keeping straignt line of bending points as manual suggest. 
Elevator construction quality, all glue joints made really nice. Fuselage inside view beffore building, very well designed and build, so strong , big and light. 
Neat detail EF kit come with own wings and stab bags also cover for coskpit is included as well.  I was happy to use Desert Aircraft engine in this model, this is most recognisable gas engine brand in the world, that is famous for its reliability and good characterystics. I follow instructions on engine setup and made about 55 flights durring last season. For brake in i use 22x8 prop, and affter that i use Xoar 23x8 with great success. Preparing for Agenoria cup i tested Vess 23A prop, i change needle seting and made it slightly to lean, power was great, but in last flight i get deadstick in quite unpleasant possition, 2m from ground in inverted harrier.... Damage was not so big but it require couple days of work. Cowling and cockpit was cracked, also rudder brake out. I replase broken rudder hinges with stronger Graupner hinges, and it work well untill now. Affter repair i put back Xoar 23x8 prop and old neddle possitions, and everything work very well again. 
Side view of mounted DA-50, notice all wires are secured and attached to motor mount, its dangerous to leave them hanging, after some flying vibration can lead to wires braking. 
Another example of clean DA-50 installation and you can clear see pull push chocke rod. FlyingGiants.com members are very helpfull, and help me with advices putting this plane together, so special thanks goes to them! 
All accessories that are necessary for motor and pipe mounting are available at; www.escomposites.com 
In this picture you can see soft ignition box instalation, i put square piece of foam and secure it with bracket that is inserted in fuel line, this way box is protected from vibrations. 
Tunned pipe instalation, view from front. 
Although tuned pipe is secured in place with clamps connected to header and middle support, i still decide to glue triangular piece of balsa that don't let pipe move back from vibrations. Yak have simply huge rudder, and it is controled with very powerfull 24kg torque Hitec 5955 servo, so i decide to reinforce mounting of servo with 4 hard balsa 10x10mm sticks. Here you can see rudder servo mounting from top, also notice on right plywood piece and bolt for tunned pipe suport. SWB servo arms ussed to achieve necessary lenght. Again notice all wires secured with velcro to avoid any unnecessary movement, and possible failure. Also RX, powerbox and all other electronics are mounted on foam, this is very important, since vibration on planes powered by gas engines are quite big. Soft Emcotec Mini DSPI 6 installation. For first test flights i use ussual 35mhz JR system, later i switch to DSM 2.4ghz , next test will be very pormissing Duplex 2.4ghz system from Jeti. I build box from balsa for RX batteries when right CG location is reached. You can see ignition battery installed inside motor box, same as RX packs it is fixed with velcro. Double 1600mah 2S RX packs and single 2S 2100mah lypo pack was more than enough for 5 (10 minutes) hard 3D flights. Last pleasant work was sponsors and friend stickers on wings and stab. |
