It was pretty late last night when I finished up and I was beginning to get frustrated from not being able to find something that I laid down just 3.2569 seconds before, so I decided to update the reconstruction thread this morning. Not to mention the absolute disbelief of bumping my hobby knife off its perch and have it land...blade first....(of course) right through the open stringers of the belly of the freshly covered Yak. ARGH!!!!!
Talk about the feeling of a real swift kick to the
That's when I called it a night. Nothing....absolutely nothing I hate worse than a tiny little patch on a brand new or freshly covered plane. Fortunately it is in a very inconspicuous location and a really superb fix. I turned a 1/4" by 3/8" piece of white covering over to have the adhesive side meet the "inside" of the adhesive side of the belly covering...and applied a little 200 degree heat from my sealing iron. Unless a person knows it's there or the belly is inspected on the inside, it will be pretty difficult to even spot. Note to self and others: Keep sharp objects away from big boys and their toys when it is late and they are frazzled.
I spent most of the day arranging, re-arranging...then re-re-arranging the electronics in the Yak yesterday. I had many things to consider and this is why it took so long to lay things out to make them fit and look nice at the same time. First to consider was the fact that I "know" I lost at least somewhere around 1.5 pounds off the nose of the motor box due to the one and a half cans of paint that was on the firewall and adjoining structure. Along with the laminated 3" wooden standoff block I built to hang the 210 from when I was an idiot and cut the nose to allow for the originally planned 212 (4) cylinder. Also, the fuel tank no longer sits directly over the wing tube and now resides forward of that like any other new airframe. Next I had to consider the overall construction of the forward fuse as opposed to the original forward fuse. Though they are designed and constructed very similar, there is enough of a difference that I was afraid of the nose becoming way "too" light. Remember the can tunnel was shortened and so therefor that extra wood and construction is no longer present behind the "CG" as it was with the first fuse. Still, the extra weight of the wood from the motor box sides that are now "uncut" will help in this. I had to move the ignition batteries back quite a bit as there is no room forward of the fuel tank as in the original fuse. That small amount won't really be terribly significant by itself. But along with that, I still needed to offset that weight while also bringing a little more weight to the nose. So, the main receiver flight packs were placed forward about a good 10". The Smart-Fly Power Expander Pro was also moved forward about 6". I originally wanted to use my 5200mah 7.4 LiIon flat packs, but really couldn't figure out a way to secure them from any movement. Sooo....I chose to use my new "square" packs instead. Same-same on the batteries, just different configuration. Ah ha! That is going to work out nicely. Still maintaining my normal Rx. #1 on the left side of the fuse, Rx. #2 on the right side. (I use this configuration in all my planes to aid in my anal "charge/repair/flight" logs. Once I had everything laid out and was satisfied with their perspective location, it was time to secure everything down and fire it all up and do a functionality test. I didn't like the original placement of the accessability of the ports on the Smart-Fly, so I rewired the rx. to Smart-Fly and am now happy with location of all servo signal leads. Rudder servos in and operating perfectly, Smart-Fly Pin and Flag fail safe in position, Fuel tank tied down, Fuel filler cap installed, Multiplex harnesses in place and antenna leads secured, and rails built for Smart-Fly to rest on. I think it will work good. I was a tad tail heavy with the original fuse and expect it to still be just a tick tail heavy. But that is ok. I don't really like a perfectly neutrally balanced plane for the type of flying I do. Unless it is my Sukhoi. But then I don't toss it around like the others. Yeah, right....LOL.
Here are a few photos of what I got accomplished yesterday.
About all that is left is to hang the 210 on its new firewall, finish up the top of the motor box and install ignition and mount ignition LED's, install throttle servo, install main gear and tail gear, cowl, drill and install prop and spinner....and the fuse will be done. I still have to recover that darned right wing from the landing gear going through it, but that will not take long.
I am heading to Vegas this weekend so I won't be able to get much done on the Yak until next week. I still feel I can get her ready for a re-maiden a week from now, so stay tuned. More progress and photos to come. I am really looking forward to the Behemoth Yak flying once more.
