HobbyKing YAK 54 Build Log

This was my first order from the German warehouse and wow delivery really is quick. Got my package within 3 days! So unreal for a HobbyKing order :D.

Was very well packed like you can see on the pictures. The box was in another box together with some air pockets and the plane parts themselves were wrapped in bubble plastic. All wel fitted, not moving around, in the box.

It even comes with a manual. I wouldn’t expect too much of that though. Even wingspan in specs is not correct…

Assembly didn’t take long. The tail can be attached with a metal screw. The rudder needs to be clicked in the hinges. The wing just slides in and is secured in place with nylon screws. The landing gear just pops in the bottom where a plastic case keeps it in place. The tail wheel wasn’t glued on properly so I fixed that.
The propeller can be attached using the wrench that comes with the kit. Put the white plastics in front and peel them off when the prop is mounted. You then can stick the foam prop on it. The kit comes with a spare prop and spinner.
Next center the servo’s and adjust the length of the control rods before attaching to control horns. The plastics of these aren’t very rigid. I’ll just see how much they can take.
Then finishing the electronics I had some minor issues. For some reason the JST male connector of my 1000mAh 2s pack didn’t go smoothly in the connector already installed on the ESC. Later on, while I was checking movement of the controls it just burned up! I guess it wasn’t installed correctly. Luckily no damage to ESC or lipo. I just installed a new JST connector to both.
Another issue I had was fitting all the electronics in the fuselage. The canopy flips open but it has a bottom so you don’t have much space. You can slip the battery in the front completely so that is out of the way (remember to attach a slip to get it back out without touching the leads). But my receiver was too large to fit. So I cut out a piece of the bottom of the canopy to make it all fit. I now also can see the led on my receiver when the canopy is closed.
Something else here I had to glue back on was the metal part on the fuselage where the magnet of the canopy sticks to. Check it before maiden so you don’t loose the canopy in flight!
That’s it, I’m ready for the maiden. Not today though but I’ll keep you informed. Not sure how I will balance this plane without any notes on CG location in the instructions… well just put it at 25% of wing chord and adjust after maiden.

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