ShankRC (AviationStation.net)

Custom Built R/C Aircraft and Laser Cutting Service

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J-3 Cub Restoration Underway

Posted By on October 18, 2012

My how time flies….more than a year since my last post already!  Been doing quite a bit of flying this year and not a lot of building.  Lawn darted the Yak-54 a few weeks ago so it is no more.  Seems the Futaba micro servos didn’t like the blender maneuver…stripped the gears in both aileron servos, elevator servo, and rudder servo all at once.  Went to the ground like it was on rails.  Oh well, on to bigger and better planes.

The Sig 1/6 scale J-3 restoration is coming along nicely.  I just installed the servos tonight and am that much closer to covering.  All that is left to do is strip the covering from the landing gear and treat that fuel soaked wood up front.  Check out the progress pictures under Current Projects at the left.

 

 

Yak-54 Maiden

Posted By on March 28, 2011

Took the Yak out for its maiden this past Saturday and got 2 successful flights in.  Trimming was impossible due to the winds but it wasn’t a bad time considering I haven’t flown in over 4 years.  Using a flight simulator definitely keeps your skills up in the off seasons.

Airfieldmodels.com

Posted By on March 6, 2011

From time to time I run across a website that just blows me away with the amount of information made available and/or the craftsmanship of the site owner. AirfieldModels.com is one of those sites. The site belongs to Paul Johnson and he is a meticulous craftsman that should be an inspiration to any who browse his work. I plan to someday convert my building area to a magnetic system using the fixtures that he has designed and sells from the site. Take a few minutes (which will turn into a few hours) and browse his website…I think you will be amazed.


Yak 54 Ready for Maiden Flight

Posted By on March 5, 2011

After finishing up radio setup on the rudder, the Yak is ready to go. I didn’t keep track of total hours but I would guess it was somewhere between 15 and 20 from the box to ready for flight. The only thing I would caution anyone about if building this is the rudder horn setup. Other than that, everything went together pretty smoothly and as planned. You can check out the Gallery for all of the pics taken from the Yak 54 construction.

yak54037

Ready for her maiden.


Yak 54 work progresses…

Posted By on March 4, 2011

Put a few more hours into the Yak 54 ARF build…Be aware of the position of the rudder horn when you are installing it as I’ve found that it interferes with the elevator if mounted per the instructions. I had the horn mounted and glued in place before realizing the problem. I was going to fix the problem and move on but I didn’t see much sense in having a hacked up rudder on a brand new airplane so I placed a call to Great Planes tech support. They said that this plane has been on the market for 4 years and they have never had a complaint about the rudder horn but you can clearly see in the pictures that there is interference. They were nice enough to send me a new rudder so I won’t complain too much about it.

yak54018

Elevator halves joined and hinged.

yak54027

Test fitting the cowling and getting the prop clearance set.


Yak 54 arrived yesterday…

Posted By on February 24, 2011

The big brown truck delivered the Great Planes Yak 54 3D ARF ultimate combo from Tower Hobbies yesterday and work on it has started. You can see all of the pictures on the Yak 54 page.

yak54001

The Tower Hobbies Yak 54 Ultimate Combo comes with everything you need to get in the air. Ive made a few substitutions to the standard combo...I upgraded the radio system to the Futaba 7C so it is a little more future friendly and also substituted an AC/DC charger for the DC one that was included.

yak54002

As it is out of the box...typical of most ARFs, the covering needed shrunk down a bit but other than that all looks good.


Great Planes Yak-54 3D EP

Posted By on February 22, 2011

Next project to be featured will be a rather simple ARF… The Great Planes Yak-54 3D. I will be building this ARF for myself so I can get some long overdue (about 3 years) flying time in this spring/summer. Tower Hobbies delivery should be Thursday of this week so stay tuned for the first AviationStation.net build in blog format.

Transformation to WordPress is Complete

Posted By on February 21, 2011

Success!! All of the project pages have been successfully transferred to the new blog format and are viewable now. I will be updating them in the next few weeks to include captions with all of the pictures. I will also be adding Tips and Tricks, Workshop Hints, and many other members-only features in the near future so stay tuned. Also, be sure to sign up for the newsletter so you can be informed of new areas as they develop. Keep in mind that I hate spam as much as you do so your email address WILL be kept private and WILL NOT be given or sold to third party advertisers. Enjoy the site and as always, comments and suggestions are welcomed and considered.

2007 – Balsa USA Fokker DR1

Posted By on February 20, 2011

The Fokker DR1 construction photos are posted…captions will follow at a later time.


2007 – Great Planes PT40 Revisited

Posted By on February 20, 2011

The Great Planes PT40 page is now live. This was another project that was done during some down building time. It turned out to be a nice aileron trainer just as it would have if it had been built 4-channel the first time. The Great Planes PT40 is an excellent trainer airplane for anyone who is interested in getting started in the hobby. It is available as a kit through Tower Hobbies.

PT40-05

The finished product after some Monokote treatment.