QUIQUE'S AIRCRAFT CO. YAK-54

"... they produced a plane that really does blur the line between hardcore 3D PERFORMANCE AND PRECISION STABILITY."

An aerobatic hit!

QUIQUE'S AIRCRAFT CO. HIT A home run with its first foray into mass-produced ARFs. Its 72-inch Yak-54 designed by Wayne Ulery and Quique Somenzini is by far the best ARF of its type I have ever flown. By combining design geometry and careful setup, they produced a plane of topnotch quality that really does blur the line between hardcore 3D performance and precision stability.

ASSEMBLY

Since this was Quique's Aircraft Co.'s first offering, I expected a few stumbling blocks during assembly. Instead, I found a good assembly manual (a very nice surprise) to precisely guide me through construction. To help the pilot get the plane flight-ready, almost half of its 32 pages are dedicated to setting up the model for flying.

*Tail feathers The key to getting the horizontal stabilizer straight is to first center it in the fuselage and then measure from the tips to the front of the turtle deck to ensure that both sides of the stabilizer are the same length. Once the stab was set, I removed the covering where it would meet the fuselage and wicked a few drops of thin CA to hold the stab in place. I rechecked the alignment and then added a fillet of medium CA for extra strength.

When the horizontal stab and fin are set, glue the Robart HingePoints into place. Make sure that all of the hinges are perpendicular to the surface and that the pins are free of glue.

*Elevator, rudder and engine The elevator servos are in the rear of the plane, which simplifies the linkage and produces a cleaner installation. The pull-pull rudder servo is installed on mounting rails in the radio compartment and is placed on the fuselage centerline. I used a long servo arm to ensure that the cable geometry at the servo and the rudder was the same.

Before you install the engine, attach it to the engine mounts so that you have 5 ½ inches between the thrust washer and the back of the mount. Once I had positioned the YS 1.40FZ, I drilled no. 3 holes in the mount rails for the blind nuts and bolted the engine into place. The manufacturer recommends that the engine be mounted inverted to maintain the plane's lateral balance.

FINAL ASSEMBLY

The fiberglass cowl is attached to the fuselage with four screws. After a few flights, however, I found that the cowl seemed a bit loose from vibration, causing the screws to enlarge the holes in the cowl. I slipped tiny pieces of silicone fuel tubing over the screws to isolate the cowl from the screws.

The canopy is held in place by a front tab that slides into a slot in the firewall and with two screws at the rear. The cowl also overlaps the front of the canopy by about ¼ inch.

The two-piece wing slides onto an anodized-aluminum wing tube that fits through the fuselage. Each panel has two anti-rotation pins that double as securing points to hold the panels in place during flight. When installing the anti-rotation pins, I carefully measured the distance from the hole that accepts the locking pin to the root of the wing. The manual says 9mm, but the picture shows 8mm. According to Quique, 8mm is the correct measurement.

RADIO AND SETUP

The receiver, switch and throttle servo are all mounted on the tray in the radio compartment. Quique suggests a rather ingenious mounting method: secure a piece of masking tape to the bottom of the receiver, and then glue the receiver to a piece of foam which, in turn, you glue to the tray. This method keeps the receiver securely in place while isolating it from vibration.

The CG is critical to the airplane's flying characteristics. To balance the Yak, all I had to do was mount my relatively large 1500mAh Ni-Cd pack up against the firewall.

I used a YS 1.40 sport engine recommended by Quique, and I found it to be a perfect blend of power and weight. It had excellent throttle response and fuel economy.

FINAL THOUGHTS

I think Quique's Aircraft Co.'s Yak-54 is easily the best all-around flying machine in my hangar. It is as adept at IMAC maneuvers as it is at hardcore 3D stick-banging fun. Should I ever perform a "durability test" (crash), I won't hesitate to replace it with another one. On a vote for best aerobatic ARF of the year, this one is at the top of my list.

IN THE AIR

The APC 18x6W prop working in concert with the YS 1.40FZ engine provides all the power that 3D pilots expect from a plane of this caliber. When you combine power to spare with a beautiful blend of maneuverability and stability, the result is a topnotch plane.

CONTROL THROWS

Elevator: ±2 15/16 in. (high); ±½ in. (low); expo: 80% (high), 55% (low)

Aileron: ±1 ¾ in. (high); ±1 3/16 in. (low); expo 70% (high), 55% (low)

Rudder: ±2 ½ in. (high); ±1 11/32 in. (low); expo 45% (high), 15% (low)

GENERAL FLIGHT CHARACTERISTICS

* Stability: I really like the way the Yak handles IMAC maneuvers on low rates. The generous exponential really helps here.

* Tracking: there's nothing like a well-balanced plane to keep lines straight and true.