Aloha and Welcome to my small speck of cyberspace! Dec 8, 2010 is the birth date of my blog. Never had one before, but my son encouraged me to have one, and it seemed like a good way to at least keep a log of my RC airplane building and flying. With the initial design kicked off by my son, I'll carry on from here and have fun with it. Now that I have it, I will use it to also keep track of my oil painting efforts, and any other ideas, hobbies, travels, or whatever else that come up. LIFE IS GOOD!

Update on 02/25/2011. It's been a few months since I began this blog, and I am enjoying creating and having it! I like documenting the things I have done in my hobbies, and sharing with my small family. I think Jer and Tad actually view it fairly regularly, as a means to see what I've been up to lately. At worst, it serves as a reference for my own use.

Update on 12/22/2011. This blog stuff is habit forming. My blog is a year old now, and I make an entry about every other day or so as that seems to be the frequency of doing something in one of my hobbies. Like my hobbies, this blog is a lot of fun, and it has become in itself another hobby that I enjoy.

Years are flying by...update on 01/11/2013. Still enjoying maintaining this blog even though hardly anyone sees it. I don't advertise it anywhere or to anyone, and it is mainly just a way for me to keep my own notes and thoughts on my flying, painting, and cars. If a stranger happens upon it, I think it is by pressing NEXT at the top of the current blog they are visiting, lol. It's a great device for me.

August 2014: still here! Took up flying RC helicopters one year ago and got hooked. Had flown micro Helis up to then, but got serious with 450 size for a couple months, then bought the Goblin 500 and Gaui X5 . Also got my Boxster in April 2013. Most importantly, Ariel was born 12/02/12 followed by Skylar 07/20/13, and they are little beacons of joy in our lives. Life is indeed good!!!

Saturday, May 14, 2011

Yak Attack!

Kimi posing with the refurbed Yak 54...ALL PAU!

I just finished the reincarnation of Jeremy's Nitro Models Yak 54.  This is his original Yak that crashed a couple years ago, then lay dormant after some brief wood repairs to the fuse by Merle and recovering my moi.  He flew the identical Yak replacement for the last two years with ridiculous success till it crashed in a 6'  low pass at high speed and banked to the right.  It never responded to commands after that and demolished itself in a very shallow but spectacular crash on the sod farm about six months ago.  I recently told Jer I would put all the old gear into the first plane again.  Here are some pics of the refurbished Yak 54!
Complete radio compartment installation in fuselage.  SPACIOUS!
EMS Heavy  Duty switch with LED.  Since we never figured out the exact radio failure cause for the crash, we did not want to reuse the old switch.
Added tray for easy strap down of receiver.  I think this receiver came from my Excelleron...we did not want to reuse the Electron receiver from the  second crashed Yak because we never figured out the cause of the crash.   Similarly, we used a new battery in case it was battery failure that caused the crash.
Fuel tank from my Excelleron 50.  New throttle servo tray from my AW Ultimate...works much better than stock location of servo centered DIRECTLY behind the fuel tank.  Stock location required much bending  of the throttle control rod to reach the servo.


Yak 54 decal sticker came from my 69" Yak that I never used.  Red star is from my Funstar decal sheet that I never used.
CRUDELY repaired and repainted cowl.  Many swatches of FG and nylon cloth covered with 30 minute epoxy rejoined the savagely torn and crushed (LOL) cowl.  My bright idea to coat the whole cowl with thinned epoxy met with a horribly bumpy result.  Lustercote aluminum base was followed with coats of the white then red.  The OS 70 Surpass II fit in the cowl openings with only minor cutting required for the glow plug access and needle valve extension.

Looks fine from 5' away, haha!
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1 comment:

  1. Midori DreamsMay 21, 2011 at 10:47 AM

    I finally got a chance to take another look at your blog, Dad! What cool pictures and documentation of the new setup you completed for me. Thank you very much! I love it.

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