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Great indoors or great outdoors? How about both? Napo Monasterio takes this nimble aerobat to task in both venues and is quite impressed with the results.
 
Dualsky Yak-54 31" F3P/3D Review
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By Napo Monasterio Spackles94 is offline
Old Feb 19, 2010, 11:51 AM
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Introduction

It's winter-time, and for me, this means:

  • Building season — especially if you like laser-cut balsa kits as much as I do.
  • Not worrying about a mild case of frostbite every once in a while. After all, a man has to feed his addiction and justify his yearly dues to his bona fide AMA club.
  • Scouring every place imaginable for an indoor venue and getting my aerobatic fix without getting hypothermia.

I had gotten my balsa kits built already, and my fingers had already frozen to the transmitter a couple of times. So, it was time to get a new something prepared for the gym. Slow, relaxing three-channel planes are fun and all, and it's nice to putt around with a the latest micro helicopter. But this year, it was the Dualsky Yak-54 (distributed by 2DogRC), that would make its trek to the closed-quarters venue.

So, c'mon in, it's cold outside. Let's build it and fly it and see if it can survive the durability testing at the Monasterio Electric Aerospace Institute and Crash Test Facility© (motto: "Electrons Rule, Yet Gravity Always Laughs Last"©).

Kit contents


Wingspan: 31"
Wing Area: 170 square inches
Weight: 5.5-6 oz. (on 2S or 3S, respectively)
Wing loading: 4.25-5 oz./square foot (on 2S or 3S, respectively)
Length: 32.5"
Servos: Two 4.5g sub-micro servos (for rudder and elevator) and one 9-gram sub-micro servo (for aileron)
Transmitter: Spektrum DX7 Special Edition
Receiver: Spektrum AR6100
Battery: Dualsky GT series 3S 450mAh 25C LiPo
Motor: Dualsky 2812CA-33T brushless motor
Speed controller: Dualsky 6-amp brushless speed controller
Manufacturer: Dualksy
Available From: 2DogRC
Price: $38.42 (airframe only) or $110.15 (airframe/motor)

The package from 2DogRC arrived in a rather overt fashion: The charismatic logo was printed all over the box, so there's no chance you can get away with telling your significant other it's a Christmas present that must be put in the attic right away. That said, here's what I found in the kit:

  • Depron airframe: Everything is perfectly cut and vividly decorated (the bottom and top of the wings feature plenty of contrast). All the slots for servos and such have been cut already, too. A set of airbrakes also is included.
  • Hardware package: There are not that many parts, but they are all you need. The bag includes screws, pushrod ends with Z-bends already in place, plastic wheels and more.
  • Laser-cut plywood: All of the control horns and the motor mount are ready to be installed.
  • Carbon fiber galore: There's carbon fiber for the leading edges, for the fuselage, for the pushrods and for whatever else you need.

I could get used to finding a few more boxes such as this one on my front porch. By the looks of the bag I found inside, it certainly looked like the harbinger for a flat Yak-54 foamie. The print job on the Depron sheets is impeccable — and highly contrasting for both sides of the wing and fuselage.
 
The manual includes plenty of photography to guide you along the way. The parts count on this ARF kit is relatively low, which should mean I ought to be in the air in record time.
 

For this review, I also received the Dualsky recommended 3D power system. It's comprised of:


Dualsky XM-2822-CA
Type: Brushless outrunner
RPM/Volt (kV): 1470
Turns: 33
Weight: 20g
Cells: 2S-3S LiPo
Maximum efficiency: 6 amps
Maximum current: 10 amps
Maximum output: 80 watts
Prop range: 7x3.5 to 8x4
Price: $35.99


Dualsky XC0610BA speed controller
Current: Six amps continuous, 10-amp bursts
Voltage: 2S-3S LiPo
Weight (with wires): 5.7g
BEC: 5 amps
MSRP: $23.99


Dualsky EX series 3s 450mAh 30C LiPo
Capacity: 450mAh
Cells: 3
Weight: 42 grams
C Rating: 25C
Maximum continuous current: 11.25 amps


Spektrum AR6100 park-flyer receiver
Frequency: 2.4Ghz DSM2
Number of channels: 6
Voltage range: 3.5 - 9.6V
Weight: 3.5 grams
Dimensions: 21 x 28.7 x 10mm
MSRP: $49.99

Beyond that, there's not much more you'll need. This is what I used, straight out of my spares box:

  • Servos: Three are needed. I used two 4.5g sub-micro servos for the rudder and elevator, while I resorted to a more powerful Hitec HS-55 for the ailerons, at the suggestion of 2DogRC's own Mark Grohe.
  • Receiver: In the interest of saving weight, I used the all-too-great Spektrum AR6100, hooked up to the all-too-great Spektrum DX7SE.
  • Propellers: For indoor flight, I used a GWS 8x3.8SF prop, while outdoors I went for the 8x4HD from GWS.
  • Tools of the trade: Foam-safe CA and kicker are a must, and then the usual suspects — hobby knife, Blenderm tape, screwdrivers, soldering iron and whatever else makes you happy at the Man Cave.

Assembly

Putting the Yak-54 together is a surprisingly fast process, just like with most profile foamies. The airframe assembly shouldn't take much more than an evening or two (that's how long it took me once I factored in the many distractions that new-daddy life brings), and putting the electronics on the Yak can also be accomplished in one evening. Can it be put together as part of an all-nighter? Sure, but that wasn't my case.

The manual contains plenty of photographs, but bear in mind that the instructions are still written in broken English and therefore can be a bit cryptic at times. Nonetheless, whatever doesn't make sense on paper ends up being self-explanatory after you stare at the pieces long enough.

Wings and fuselage

The build starts by gluing the wings to the fuselage, a task best accomplished when performed with both parts laying on a level surface. After that, the first layer of reinforcing emerges: Carbon fiber on the leading edges. This will add rigidity to the wing as well as protect it from close encounters with, ahem, obstacles.

Moving on, another CF bar gets installed along the vertical section of the fuselage, and this will help support the wing struts. My bar happened to be too short, yet Dualsky says it is not a production issue, just the (bad) luck of the draw on my kit. I happened to have some extra CF stock in the spares bin, so that was not a problem.

First up: Join the wings and add some reinforcing in the form of carbon-fiber stock. It appears we have a flat — albeit 2D — foamie now. The small piece of carbon-fiber stock that glues to the fuselage was too small on my kit, but I had plenty of scrap stock on the workbench. After that, a piece of thin ply and plenty of CF rods hold the wing in shape.
 

After attaching some reinforcements for the landing gear, the bottom part of the fuselage gets attached to its horizontal counterpart. Make sure they're perpendicular to each other, and you'll be in business. Then, attach the carbon-fiber struts (again, pay attention to those angles), and you're done.

The landing gear comes next, and it's simply a matter of attaching the carbon-fiber gear to the fuselage, along with the rest of the plates and such. Afterward, the wheels go in, followed by the wheel pants et al. And, as is the case with these kinds of planes, the one thing you must worry about is not getting glue into the wheel shaft.

Adding the much-needed rigidity to the fuselage is the final stop on this trip, and that's accomplished by cutting the CF bars to size and then arranging them from the wing back all the way to the empennage. Measure twice, poke once, glue and that's it.

Just because it's a feather-weight plane doesn't mean there's no room for details, so attach the wheel pants with some foam-safe CA and you'll have some bling-bling on your Yak. What keeps this fuselage from warping all over the place? CF rods, CF rods and more CF rods. Cut them to size, attach them in place and move on.
 
The main thing to worry about when joining the top of the fuselage to its horizontal counterpart is to make sure both parts are at a proper 90-degree angle.
 

Control surfaces

The ailerons, rudder and elevator are all pre-beveled out of the bag, so that's a big time-and-headache-saver right there. All that needs to be done is to cut small slits for the control horns to go through, then add some hinge tape (I went with my trusty Blenderm), and the rest is history, as they say.

The elevator and ailerons go first, but before you install the rudder, the top of the vertical fuselage has to be installed (the elevator wouldn't fit otherwise, and it's this part of the fuselage that has the vertical stabilizer). After that, hinge the rudder into place, add more carbon fiber to hold everything in place, and rejoice: A new plane is born. Only small details, such as the side-force generators on the wing and tail skid, need to be installed.

The kit also includes some airbrakes, which slide in and out of the ailerons. There is no need for gluing them to the control surface, so you can add them or remove them depending on your flying style and daily mood.

With a bit of Blenderm (or your favorite kind of hinge tape, for that matter) you'll have the control surfaces in place in no time. The side-force generators go on the wings with just a couple of drops of glue. Done.
 
Ailerons, or mega flaps? The look more like the latter, but once we put the control horns and servo in place, it'll be taken care of. The good thing about these airbrakes is that they are easy to put in and take out.
 

Electronics

Before installing the servos and control linkages, the control horns need to be put into place. They all come in a laser-cut, 1/64" plywood sheet, and unfortunately, it seems to be much too flimsy. So, in the spirit of beefing them up, I subjected those parts to a good soaking of thin CA. After the glue set, all the parts appeared to be up to snuff. Installing them was a breeze: Remove them from the ply sheet, set them in their rightful places and secure them with some foam-safe CA.

The same goes for the motor mount, even though the instructions simply say you can tape it into place. Not one to trust fast-spinning objects to a strip of Blenderm, I glued it in place with my favorite motor-mounting method: an ever-so-thin bead of Gorilla Glue. I then added a bit of tape for reinforcing, and that motor mount has been there ever since.

The servos get installed in a similar fashion, via glue. For the aileron, a plywood servo-arm extension is included, but I chose to go with the 3D arm included with my HS-55 servo.

The ailerons use the quintessential carbon-fiber-and-Z-bend kind of pushrod, and the installation is simple: Assemble, shrink and, once the length is correct, drop some CA on the ends of the heatshrink to hold everything in place.

In clear defiance of the manual, I glued the motor mount to the fuselage. After screwing the motor to it and adding the speed controller, it looks like we have a bona fide power house in place. The aileron installation is standard for an indoor plane: Short Z-bend made of piano wire, carbon-fiber rod and a piece of heatshrink to help with trimming and holding it all together.
 

For the elevator and rudder, however, a pull-pull system is used. The kit includes some string, but it failed on me after a few flights (while flying inverted, of course). So, if you have some non-stretching fishing wire, that might be a safer solution. A good thing to do is to wrap it around the servo and control-horn screws along the way, and even use a bit of glue once everything is trimmed to perfection.

After adding the rudder and elevator servos, I added the receiver. It's all a tight fit at the bottom of the fuselage. The pull-pull system is effective, but the included string produced some unpleasant results at one point.
 
How slow can you go? Put on the airbrakes and find out.
 

After that, screw the motor in, put the speed controller behind it, add the receiver wherever fits best and put some hook-and-loop tape for the battery. The back of my 3S pack lines up with the landing gear, while a 2S pack will have to go further up front.

And, with that, we can call it a day. The Yak is finished and ready for prime time. Not too shabby for a two-evening build, eh?

Well looky there: It's a finished Yak, and it only took me a couple of evenings. I'll be using a 8x4HD prop for outdoor flying on 3S, but once I step into the gym, I'll be switching it to a 8x3.8SF prop instead.
 
Depending on your battery choice, the Yak-54 from Dualsky will weigh in at anywhere between 4 and 5 ounces. As if this plane itself didn't have enough fuselage, the addition of side-force generators and the airbrakes will certainly help with knife-edge performance.
 

Flying

With a wingspan of 31 inches and weighing a mere 5.5 to 6 ounces sans battery, the Dualsky can be considered a hybrid when it comes to indoor/outdoor flight. When set up as a 2S, it has a light weight load of 4.25 ounces per square foot, while it stays at a reasonable 5 ounces per square foot when using the 3S battery. I've flown it both ways, in both venues (mostly the latter), and it handles just as pleasantly either way. It's going to feel like a bigger plane on the great outdoors, while indoors it will remain a bit floatier and gentler to handle when constrained by the four walls around you.

Taking off and landing

Just because the Yak has two wheels and a tail skid, it doesn't mean that traditional takeoffs are necessary. In fact, I personally prefer the traditional underhanded toss, which only requires holding the plane by the canopy and letting it go at half throttle.

Indoors, however, you will be able to rise off the ground, albeit slowly — don't expect a vertical take-off by any means, but rather a more scale-like attitude after a good five to 10 yards. And, unless you're flying off a paved surface, don't expect to have much success outdoors, for the wheels are far to small for such feats. It is what it is, though: A plane not meant for big wheels.

The return to solid ground is easily accomplished by maintaining just a hint of of throttle on your approach. It will plop down with ease, and it tends to keep the nose up rather well along the way, which I find to be a plus. There's nothing esoteric or unusual about the landings — and, frankly, that's how I like mine: Simple and uneventful.

Hand-launching: That's the way to go every time I take the Yak-54 to the park. Landings are quick and a breeze, as the plane plops down with ease. It will come to a stop very shortly after that, too.
 
You're going to need a paved surface or golf-green-grade grass for landings, as the landing gear is not all that resilient. What can I say? I keep my friends close, but my foamies closer.
 

Basics

Touted as an aerobatics and 3D machine, the Yak-54 is unsurprisingly nimble. It is not, however, an overly fast — even on three cells — plane, and that plays well with my affinity for high-torque, low-speed aerobatic aircraft.

In the air, it is a surprisingly gentle aircraft. Powered by close to 70 watts and boasting a light wing loading, it's not going to be too wild, either. I did not find any odd tendencies along the way — no adjustment of the thrust angle was necessary, and there wasn't much trimming required to get it going straight. Even on 3S, it felt more like a tame foamie with a knack for 3D flight than an all-out, motor-pulling-out-of-the-firewall-screws kind of machine. And I personally like it that way.

The power system worked like a charm, with plenty of power to spare (I'll take 70 watts per pound any day). It felt strong enough, but not overpowered by any means. With the 3S pack from Dualsky, I was able to get about six minutes of quasi-aggressive aerobatic performance outdoors, which was plenty for me. A smaller 2S pack, in the 300mAh range or so, should yield you about the same if not a bit less time within the comforts of an indoor venue.

I usually tend to be impartial to airbrakes, but for some obscure reason, I actually found myself using them more often than not on the Yak-54. And, ironically enough, I found myself forgetting to take them off when I went to fly it outdoors — and it didn't seem to bother me. I think it was the fact that I could slow the plane down just enough to practice the maneuvers and transitions more precisely while still using a 3S battery — but, in a weird way, I felt like they also acted as side-force generators of sorts and helped a good bit with knife-edge flight. Then again, that could just be my imagination running amok. Either way, I tended to use them a good bit both indoors and outdoors, even if they slow the roll rate down a good bit — and they are easy to remove, anyway.

Gentle yet nimble, there's no doubt which side is up and which one is down with this plane. Scared of flying low? Don't be. The Yak-54 is more durable than one would think. Trust me — I know.
 
Let's get up close and personal, shall we? Flown on a two-cell LiPo, it is a good plane to fly in close quarters. When it comes to indoor flying in small venues, I find high-alpha gives you plenty of room to roam around without having to worry about where the next wall is at all times.
 
You'll also get a good five to six minutes of flying time with the 3S pack. The Yak-54, due to its light weight, won't take breezes too well, so it's best enjoyed as a dawn or dusk aircraft.
 
It hovers indoors, it hovers outdoors. The Yak is rather nondiscriminatory, one could say.
 

The only semi-significant issue I encountered with the airframe was that the pull-pull string decided to call it quits on me — at the worst possible moment, no less (fortunately, it resulted in minor damage). There is an option for using carbon-fiber rods, but you do have to partially fund that system yourself. Switching to Spectra Line, however, took care of my woes.

Other than than, I found the airframe to be extremely rigid (2.3 gazillion carbon-fiber parts will certainly do it), and I didn't notice much flexing along the way (though the durability testing is coming a few paragraphs down). The color scheme is attractive in the air, but most importantly, is highly contrasting from top to bottom, and that's an important trait to have in aerobatic aircraft.

Enough with the basics, though: Let's see how it did in the nimble-maneuver department.

I found that flying with airbrakes made for a more pleasant performance, which allows me to focus on making my maneuvers more precise (or attempt to, anyway). It doesn't get much lower than that — unless you're down for a three-point landing.
 
Vertical performance and then some? Check. With a 2S pack and a 8x3.8SF prop, don't be surprised to get a good five minutes or so of aerobatic/F3P performance.
 
All harriers, all the time. That's how we roll around the backyard. Outdoors or indoors, 2S or 3S, the roll rate is going to be a bit slower with the airbrakes. That doesn't bother me, though.
 
Outside loops are just one of the many tricks for this Dualsky production. Hey, check me out! The checkered pattern certainly is helpful if you're going to be throwing the Yak all over the airspace.
 

Aerobatic performance

There's more to do than cruising around when your ailerons are the size of small municipalities and your plane has a watts-per-pound ratio of more than 150 watts per pound. So, let's put this mighty-yet-mini Yak-54 through its paces and see how it did in each of the categories.

CAN I GET A SECOND OPINION?

At a recent fly-in, I had the chance to catch up with my friend Chris Woodward, a local pilot, jack of all R/C trades and master of most. I figured he would be a good candidate to fly the Yak-54 and offer an alternate report on its flying characteristics.

I handed him the sticks and he flew it like it had been a lifelong staple of his hangar. He put it through a fine repertoire of rolling circles and torque rolls inside a small gym — and you can see part of it in the video.

His thoughts? Overall, he was extremely impressed with both the kit itself as well as the flight performance. Here's what he had to comment about it:

Pros:

  • It offers a nice balance between 3D and F3P.
  • It feels good and floaty in the air, and the airbrakes help.
  • It's easy to fly for a 3D plane — hovers are easy, and there's no wing rock in harriers.
  • It's inexpensive, especially as a combo. Chris even says he's planning to buy one.

Cons:

  • It comes out a bit heavy with 3S power setup. In our small gym, the lightweight 2S (250mah-350mah) was a better combination.

  • Loops: The simplest of maneuvers is accomplished, well, simply. There's enough elevator to make very tight loops (a must in low-ceiling venues), and I didn't feel like the plane needed any rudder correction to keep it from snapping out.
  • Rolls: Again, these are nice and axial and a non-event to perform. With the airbrakes in place, they're going to be a bit slow, but that's the nature of having airbrakes on.
  • Rolling circles: As performed by my friend Chris Woodward, these were also doable without the need for copious amounts of rudder.
  • Knife edge: I was extremely impressed in this category. I barely noticed any coupling issues, which resulted in an almost-elevator-free knife-edge experience. The side-force generators (and also the airbrakes) helped immensely, and it's slow enough that I could easily do it indoors. A bit more throttle and rudder also helped with getting some nice high-alpha knife-edge flight. This, by far, may have been my favorite maneuver of the repertoire.
  • Hovering: The Yak-54 settles down relatively easily, and stays in place quite well — even on 2S. Torque rolls (performed by Chris Woodward in the video) were also nice and clean. A bit less than three-quarters throttle was needed to keep the Yak hanging on its prop.
  • Harrier flight: Along with the knife-edge flight, this is the other area of flight at which this little Dualsky foamie excels. It displays little wing rock upright, but it is upside down where it, in fact, flies even better. It is stable, requires little correction, and can keep the nose up for as long as you would like. Two thumbs up in this regard as well.
  • Inverted flight: By no means it is as gentle as it it upright, but inverted it is still quite docile. It requires little elevator input to keep it level, and it has no odd tendencies along the way.
  • Spins et al: Given the fact that we're dealing with 3mm Depron here, I'd think twice before sending this Yak into a full-blown tumbler. Rigidity only goes so far, and there is a limit to what the carbon-fiber reinforcements But simple spins, flat spins, inverted spins, even waterfalls, are certainly doable (yet, depending on your ceiling height, they might be better accomplished outside).
  • Wall maneuvers: For a bit of comic relief, you can certainly plaster the plane against the wall and leave it there, holding it in place with a mixture of elevator and throttle. A fun maneuver it is, so check out the video for a more detailed explanation.

"Hey, I'm stuck! Get me outta here!" This is how you hit a wall — on purpose. Mighty fun to do, too.
 
Slow high-alpha flight: This is something that the Yak-54 from Dualsky excels at. Hovering is not a hard task to accomplish with this little foamie — it will stay in place relatively easily, for as long as you desire.
 
Let it torque, let it torque, let it torque! A bit of aileron input is all it takes to let it do its thing. Rolling circles are certainly doable, even on low rates.
 
Flying inverted doesn't require a lot of elevator input, and the contrasting color schemes also help. High-alpha inverted harriers just might be my favorite thing to do with this Yak.
 
Rudder-scratching? Done.
 

Is it for a beginner?

Despite its calm flying characteristics, the Yak-54 is far from a beginner plane. It is highly aerobatic, and wherever it is pointed to, there it shall go. And, despite its copious reinforcements, it's no bouncing-off-the-ground kind of plane, either.

I wouldn't call it a step-up from an aileron trainer, either. It would be a good fourth or fifth plane, however. It is a fine plane to hone your aerobatic skills with, and it does so with gusto.

No, regarding durability... I'll be beyond honest. We at the Monasterio Electric Aerospace Institute and Crash Test Facility© (motto: "Electrons Rule, Yet Gravity Always Laughs Last"©) had no mercy on this plane — no mercy whatsoever. Any kind of potential impact was inflicted upon it (though we will blame it on the walls that suddenly jumped up at the plane, of course). We smacked indoors, we smacked it outdoors. We smacked it nose-first, we smacked it rudder-first. The result? It took a licking and kept on ticking (sometimes after a squirt or two of foam-safe CA, though). But we were not kind to this poor fella, and the poor fella took it surprisingly well. The fuselage may break near the leading edge or near the trailing edge, but all in all, it is much more resilient to abuse than I had imagined.

I was pulling about 70 watts at wide-open throttle, and you could tell it. It doesn't take a lot of rudder to get the Yak-54 on knife-edge attitude, thanks to the decent amount of fuselage and the extra help the side-force generators offer.
 
I found the Yak to be a good plane to fly during my lunch when I can't make it to my bona fide AMA field. It helps me work on my freestyle routines without having to haul planes out to the wide-open spaces. Inverted, it will only take a touch of elevator, and it will be almost as docile as it is upright.
 
High-alpha inverted harriers, barely dragging the rudder: This is the stuff of which fun flying sessions is made of. Wanna go for a spin? The Yak-54 will take you there, but be gentle, as this is still a thin-depron foamie.
 
Touchdown, Yak! And we're airborne again.
 

Flight videos

Downloads
Type Name
Size
Chris Woodward and yours truly, putting the Dualsky Yak to the F3P test in a confined space.
28.31 MB
In the wintertime, when the weather is nice, you can take it outside, and fly the Yak with style.
19.46 MB

Conclusion

I like versatility in my hangar. I'm not one for indoor-only planes. If I want to go enjoy the good weather outside, I want to take anything and everything. And if it suddenly gets too chilly out there, I want to climb back in the truck and go to a gym. That's how I roll, and if that's your case as well, then the Dualsky Yak-54 might fit that bill.

A WORD OF THANKS I would like to thank the following for making this review possible: 2DogRC for providing the kit, motor, battery and speed controller; my good friends Andy Grose and Jay Garcia for the great photos and video; and my buddy Chris Woodward for his second opinion and contribution to part of the indoor-flying video segment.

It's a nice combination of indoor F3P and mild freestyle/3D, and it can be flown in the backyard without a problem. It's light and versatile, and it even survived our use an abuse here at the Institute. Poor fella, but it's still alive and well — a friendly companion to indoor meets and park escapades alike.

Pros:

  • Great design, and good use of materials to make it both rigid and light.
  • Versatile, outdoors or indoors.
  • Recommended power system works well on either two cells or three cells.
  • Surprisingly durable.
  • Easy-to-remove airbrakes add a new dimension to the flying characteristics.
  • Great knife-edge, inverted flight and high-alpha performance.
  • A good value for what you get.

Cons:

  • Instructions leave a bit to be desired.
  • Quality of string and plywood a bit sub-par, and I received the wrong size on some carbon-fiber stock.
Last edited by Angela H; Feb 11, 2010 at 05:24 PM..
 
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Old Feb 19, 2010, 03:35 PM   #2
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Great Review! I am confused though when you say "I'll take 70 watts per pound any day" If your motor produces 70 watts and the plane weighs only 5.5 ounces, you would have about 204watts per pound.
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Old Feb 19, 2010, 03:45 PM   #3
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Quote:
Originally Posted by joesmith285 View Post
Great Review! I am confused though when you say "I'll take 70 watts per pound any day" If your motor produces 70 watts and the plane weighs only 5.5 ounces, you would have about 204watts per pound.
Ha! I think I left the "per pound" there by accident. Nice catch.

Thanks for the kudos, though!
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Old Feb 19, 2010, 09:05 PM   #4
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If its any help, I have had excellent customer service from 2Dogs! Own three of their airframes. When I can, I will try this new one.
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Old Feb 20, 2010, 11:51 AM   #5
iumop ap!sdn w,I
 
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Nice review!

Here's a great video, shot in a great location.

Aviation History Museum Tour Guide Yak 54 foamy (8 min 7 sec)
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Old Feb 20, 2010, 06:50 PM   #6
on a vacation
 
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I heard that this is supposed to be a good airplane! Great review!
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Old Feb 20, 2010, 07:32 PM   #7
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Originally Posted by williamk1956 View Post
If its any help, I have had excellent customer service from 2Dogs! Own three of their airframes. When I can, I will try this new one.
Yeah, Mark is a great guy to deal with. I had never dealt with him until now, and he is one cool fella.

Quote:
Originally Posted by G.P. View Post
Nice review!

Here's a great video, shot in a great location.

Aviation History Museum Tour Guide Yak 54 foamy (8 min 7 sec)
Thanks!

Yeah, I saw the video a while back. The flying was superb, but you couldn't help but get distracted by the surroundings. What a great location. And the fact that the pilot was wringing it in such tight quarters was pretty remarkable, too!

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I heard that this is supposed to be a good airplane! Great review!
You heard right!

And I appreciate the kudos!
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Old Feb 26, 2010, 11:56 AM   #8
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hey, is it hard to fly indoors like that? i fly sport/aerobatic, and am looking to get into the 3d mode.
i would like to start by just kinda gliding around indoors without anything fancy, and throw it up a few notches every now and again. help!
seth
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Old Feb 26, 2010, 01:04 PM   #9
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Quote:
Originally Posted by airplaneoid View Post
hey, is it hard to fly indoors like that? i fly sport/aerobatic, and am looking to get into the 3d mode.
i would like to start by just kinda gliding around indoors without anything fancy, and throw it up a few notches every now and again. help!
seth
Seth,

The main thing you want to avoid is the walls.

Seriously, the trick is getting used to small venues. I've found that using the rudder becomes a pretty big deal, and it will help you immensely.

Another thing is weight, wing loading and prop selection. You want a light wing load, and you want props that offer thrust over speed. So, that way, you'll have a floaty plane with plenty of power.

Makes sense?
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Old Feb 26, 2010, 01:08 PM   #10
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i know what you mean by the prop, but not the wing load.
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Old Feb 26, 2010, 02:29 PM   #11
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i know what you mean by the prop, but not the wing load.
Wing load = Weight/wing area. It's usually measured in ounces/square feet.

Basically, the lighter the wing loading, the floatier the plane is going to be. Why? Because you have more wing area (which maintains lift) and/or less weight.

If you put a 6S pack on this plane, it's going to sink in short order. It's a lot of weight for a plane with a 31" wingspan. However, if you take the battery out and all the electronics, you're going to have a very, very light airframe, and if if it balanced correctly, you could toss it off the roof and it would float along to the ground. It wouldn't go anywhere, but it'd at least float along.

Makes sense?

So yeah, lighter wing loading is going to allow you to float along nicely, which also means you would need less throttle (and therefore go slower) while indoors. If you had a heavy wing loading, you'd have to be going full-throttle all the time to keep the plane in the air. Not good for indoors, unless you're nimble at the sticks.

Think gliders: Biiiiiiig wings --> biiiiiig wing area --> liiiiiiiight wing loading. That's why they have so much lift.
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Old Feb 26, 2010, 02:39 PM   #12
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that makes sence. thanks spackles!
seth
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Old Feb 26, 2010, 03:00 PM   #13
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that makes sence. thanks spackles!
seth
Happy to! That's what I'm here for.

Now you know the meaning behind "light flies right."
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Old Feb 26, 2010, 03:13 PM   #14
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cool thanks
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Old Feb 27, 2010, 05:51 PM   #15
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cool review & pics Napo ! it was really cool watching you & Chris fly in the gym.

Brian
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