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Electric Stunt => Gettin all AMP'ed up! => Topic started by: Dennis Adamisin on April 18, 2014, 07:30:41 AM

Title: Caddy-Yak!
Post by: Dennis Adamisin on April 18, 2014, 07:30:41 AM
I have been working on a bunch of electric conversions for Brodak, this one in many ways is the coolest yet, even though it is on one of the more mundane subjects.

OK so you start with the Yak-9.  It is fairly representative of full scale, including the low wing. Biggest concessions designer Matt Kania did (1950?) was to make the wing flat and to use a rugged but decidedly unauthentic fuselage mounted gear.  When I started laying out the electric conversion I tried 5 different layouts (plus a 6th on the Mustang) but could not get one that got the battery low enough and still cleared the landing gear and also did not tear up the wing structure.  "If only the landing gear was out of the way and the wingtip was 1" higher."  (duh?)

So that's what I did.  The first phase of the mod was to move the landing gear to the wing and fit it with some authentic looking fairings.  Next step was to add 3 degrees (about 1") dihedral to the wing.  This allowed me to center the battery on the fuselage, the back of the box sits on top of the wing center, actually helps stabilize that joint.

The resulting build is a great leap forward in adding realism to Matt Kania's old design.  Vertical CG has always been a problem with the Yak-9 and Mustang, I got a hunch that the dihedral will be a nice improvement in that area.  Using the Arrowind 2810, 40A ESC, 4Sx2200 & Hubin FM-0c simple timer.  At 29 oz it should fly well too, hope to find out next week or so.  

The landing gear & dihedral mod will soon to be available as a kit; it will work on IC builds too. The wing conversion parts will NOT work on the original Sterling S-3 kit either.  Electric mod kit will also include the firewall mount & battery box.  It will take a really lenient CD to let this into an OTS event, heck even a Classic event.  Probably will not stand much of a chance in Profile either.  However it should be fun to fly and should look pretty cool doing all the tricks - and sometimes that is enough.


Its a Yak-9 built "Cadillac style", hence the title of this post.    8)    Stand by for the pending BOSS F-51 Mustang conversion...!


Title: Re: Caddy-Yak!
Post by: john e. holliday on April 18, 2014, 09:12:24 AM
Not everybody builds for competition.  The Yak looks great.   
Title: Re: Caddy-Yak!
Post by: John Rist on April 18, 2014, 09:34:20 AM
How close is it to the YAK 3-view.  Would it be a good alternate to the Brodak LA-5 for profile scale?  I have had good lock with an electric conversion of the LA-5. Another electric in profile scale would be great!  PS looks great.
Title: Re: Caddy-Yak!
Post by: Dennis Adamisin on April 18, 2014, 10:03:50 AM
Doc & John R - thanks for the kind words

The kit Yak-9 is recognizable but no where as near scale as the LA-5.  As is the Yak could probably be OK for an entry level (Fun Scale?) design for someone just wanting to fly in the event.  With some changes & TLC during the build it could be made more accurate; the canopy looks a little short & the belly scoop needs work.  Of course a more accurate color scheme and detailing would add a lot of scale persona, but it would still fall short of a serious scale model.  On the other hand it should out fly a lot of scale models - maybe it could make up some points in flight score?
Title: Re: Caddy-Yak!
Post by: Crist Rigotti on April 18, 2014, 04:57:30 PM
Very nice Dennis!