Q's Yak-54 as a pattern plane.

[Grow Pattern]

 There was a question or note, about this plane being used in pattern that I have been thinking about.

I flew one this summer with a YS 1.40L on the front. It came in under the pattern weight. I had to use a YS performance after market muffler because it did not cater for a more pattern conventional muffler.

It had plenty of vertical and basically flew very well. It had a big problem with the landing gear block breaking out very easily. That was fixed with an extra ply plate.  

I had an e-mail asking about its viability as a contest pattern plane. I found that the plane tended to fly much more like a sport plane than a pattern plane. Don't get me wrong, it is a good flying plane, but as soon as it got into a crosswind it required much more work to fly than a pattern plane. I also found that it wanted to over-rotate in snap-rolls. 

None of this is a surprise because the Yak-54 is really more of a purpose designed 3-D plane. 

I subsequently sold the plane to a very competent 3-D type pilot. We fitted an OS 1.60 and a Dubro iso-mount. He loves it, but I never see him flying any straight lines :-)

Regards,

Eric.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.f3a.us/pipermail/nsrca-discussion/attachments/20050126/f4aeaac1/attachment.html