About a year ago I purchased a micro4site and was very disappointed with the flight performance of the model(weren't we all?) so I started working on my own design for the radio gear. This 18" yak was the end result, I also became very frustrated with the lack of performance I was getting out of the sub micro gear(I am much more of a 6g servo hacker a-10-9l foamie kinda guy) Also working with the gear takes more patience than I care to give to a foamie...

But after the recent success of selling off the 22" yak kits I had laying around for a the umx beast gear I decided that it would be worth it to try and offer a short kit of my 18" yak for the real ultra micro junkie's. This model is designed to run off the salvaged radio gear from a UMX Extra or UMX 4Site, It builds in between 1-1.2oz and has been flown on a tiger 1302 out runner on 1s with good success. The model fly's very well with little to no coupling of any kind.

Specs:
Wingspan: 18"
Length: aprox 20" (minus motor)
Flying weight: 1-1.2 oz
Radio gear used: ar6400 brick and 2x long throw linear servo's from eflight
Motor:flight UMX 4site/extra motor or 1s outrunner EG. Tiger 1302
Battery: 120 mah 1s lipo

What comes in the kit?
CnC precision cut and milled gediplac foam parts
all carbon fiber rods needed for construction and push rods
music wire for Z bends & heat shrink for making connections
The kit also comes with a cutting guide to install the eflight umx motor.

Why no control horns? I wanted to keep the cost of this model down as much as possible for you, Horns can be either salvaged from another crashed UMX airframe or you can make your own out of almost anything. I recently Used the plastic package from a hacker a-10-9l.

(please note this kit is designed for the UMX junkie's and not for the first time builders. This kit does not come with step by step build instructions of any kind, This thread is the instruction manual.)

How to order:http://www.bowker-aircraft.com/18-yak-54/

CnC precision cut and milled gediplac foam parts
all carbon fiber rods needed for construction and push rods
music wire for Z bends & heat shrink for making connections
Two piece carbon fiber motor mount for the park 180


This model on the tiger 1302 brushless:

dsm 18 yak on t1302 brushless (1 min 59 sec)

Same wing but on a 55 fuse flown on the stock 4site motor:

micro yak55 (1 min 50 sec)

Thanks for looking, I will start posting a short build in the next post.

Chris
Bowker Aero Models(formerly DarkSide Models)
BowkerAero@gmail.com
505-301-6033

The construction of the airframe is very easy and just like building a larger foamie.

I will finish the build tomorrow with pics of the motor installation. Please note that some of these pics are of larger models and were used to show an important step in the build.

Chris

Hey gang; I have one of Chris's early kits that I acquired at the Tiny event last march. I am running the brick and long throw servos on it, but I am using a HK 5 Gram motor, and it flies great. I have built and flown several of Chris's models (Yak 54,Sukhoi) and love them. Destroyed the Suk a while back (flying beyond my expertise), but the Yak is still going. I just purchased several kits from Chris, and PPed him early in the day , and kits were on the way same day. His kits are top notch, and come well packed. I am building one of them right now, and the machine work is so precise, that my wife had to look closely to find the joint in the shockey. I am a retired machinist and tool and die maker, and I will tell you that the fit on these kits is astronomical!!! I have known Chris for about a year, and have been dealing with him as long. He has become my source for plane kits, and is one of the most knowledgeable people in the business. Between Chris, Gary and Dennis, I have become a much better builder and pilot, even though I flew Pattern for 30 years. This is your opportunity to get a very well designed and machined model for a very good price. Come and join the fun with Chris and the rest of us. I decided to add some pics of my planes. Red and yellow are the lil Yak, the pink one is the defunct Sukhoi, and the one with the flames is the big yak. Roy

Thanks for the complement Roy, Ive been at this a long time trying to perfect my machining process and think I am finally done The newest 33" kits are easily my best flying and nicest kits I've ever done.

I will post more info tomorrow on installing the motor ect. Please note that the first post was edited to reflect the contents of the kit. Please feel free to ask any questions you might have.

Chris
Bowker Aero Models
BowkerAero@gmail.com
505-301-6033

Looks awesome, can you PM me the price with shipping to Canada (L3T 7S7) if possible?

Pm sent.

Chris

After many flights over the last couple of days on my 18" Bowker Yak I can definitely say this plane is a MUST HAVE if you have already bought a UMX Extra and found it a bit underwhelming. I really don't dislike the Extra at all, in fact I thought, for what it is, its a great little plane! After the bit bigger size and equal weight of the CB Yak, it is apparent Chris hit the nail on the head for power to weight and wing loading. The fits on all the parts are perfect. The kit goes together well and the build thread on this forum is wonderful for guidance.
I realize I sound a bit nutty about this little plane. I have been away from competitive flying (pattern) and sport flying in general for some time. Now, coming back to all of this and seeing what strides have been made in little radios, motors, batteries and the designers like Chris who have taken advantage of all of it, I am very excited to be involved again.

Do yourself a favor, strip the gear out of your 4-Site or Extra, order up one of these 18" or 22" Yaks and plan on having a blast this winter flying a really great, well though out little plane

Guy

This is neat!

Just finished my 18" Bowker,VERY NICE kit to build.Looking forward to her maiden this week.Followed pretty much every step on the OP except added wheels to LG,a tiny bead of 560 on all seams,and some CF on leading edges of wings(Sorry about that chris,I fly with a realy tough crowd,need the protection).

No idea yet as to finished weight.I still need to get a scale.Paint job done with sharpie's.Also like to add that chris is a great guy to deal with.very helpful person.Thanks!

looks good! I dig the sharpie over the unmilled sections on the bottom of the wing.

Also for anyone looking at picking up one of my short kits, they are defiantly still available and orders typically ship the next business day.

Chris

What's in the short kit?

Is it possible to build one of these to use one rotary servo instead of two linears?

I think its ok, I have changed the servo plug on HK 1.7g servo with Parkzone linear and it worked fine, so you may save 1.5g.

Originally Posted by buratino

I think its ok, I have changed the servo plug on HK 1.7g servo with Parkzone linear and it worked fine, so you may save 1.5g.

I'm just not a fan of the linear aileron servo so I thought I'd try to think outside the box.

Originally Posted by BryanEW710

I'm just not a fan of the linear aileron servo so I thought I'd try to think outside the box.

I agree, thats why I haven't flown my umx yak's in a couple months...You could adapt the kit with a little work for a rotary servo, you would need some kind of diff horn to correct the geyomity issues tho.

Chris