[VA6WGO]

Well couple of weekends ago I had a big oops with my QQ YAK 102". I was doing low-slow pass rolling harriers and I lost the perspective where the ground was and I end up hitting the ground.

I snaped the landing gear, broke the whole bottom part of the fuselage and needless to say I came back home with the fuse in two parts. Besides the prop and the muffler, everything else seems to be ok with some minor damage in the left wing and the right elevator.

After trying to find a spare fuse (which I couldn't since this plane is no longer in production) I decided to rebuilt the fuselage. Here are some pics of the progress so far.

Cheers,

Will

[VA6WGO]

Here are more:
The fuselage is ready to be covered, there are a few little details I have to work on but I should be able to start covering it on Thursday.

I will keep posting more pics.

Cheers,

Will

[f4u]

I just bought a Carl Golberg YAK 54 for $40. Got two wing havs two stabs with elevators and about 2/3 of a fuselage. The rest was in a bag somewhat larger than confetti. The cowl is totalled but I can use it to make a new one. I started working like one of those guys who piece together air crashes. Within a week I sent pics to the guy I bought it from. He was totally shocked. Im glad that I started to build kits before buying ARFS. It helps a lot in rebuilding. Niceto see that you didnt give up and did repairs. Keep em flying. 53 years of building and flying. Tom

[VA6WGO]

Hi Tom,
It does take time to repair this things, I am not very experienced in the "building" part of the hobby I am more into the flying part of it LOL. With this little project I have learned a lot. I have never built a giant scale kit but after re-building this plane more likely I never will.

It requires a different skill set, patience and time and I have none of those three. This airplane was virtually inches from the garbage can, I wasn't going to fix it but it is a such a nice solid flyer and it is no longer in production so I was unable to purchase a new airframe. I didn't want to buy another ARF at this time of the year. So I decided to give it a try and fix it.

I will continue to post more pics.

Cheers,

Will

[VA6WGO]

I will be finishing the yellow lines between the cowl and the rudder probably sometime this week. I am working on the wheel pants and I am mounting the engine and all the electronics back today.

It's back from the dead.

Cheers,

Will

[always flying]

Will,

Send me a PM i have some extra decals for you?

Wow!...great job on the re-pair!..your the goods buddy! so now all wqe have is an extra cowl hey?

mannyh

[VA6WGO]

Hey Manny,

Yeah, I had an extra cowl kicking around, it sure came handy this time. I sent you PM.

Cheers,

Will

[bigguy]

Great thread!

Good Job!!

[BansheeBoy]

Will

As I said it nonce before. " This was a crash with honor". The plane is looking good and I must say you have surprised me on this one. If you have time this winter can you scratch build a DC 3 for me. I'll see you at the field next weekend with a new Yak because we both know I do only 1 major rebuild.

Jeff

[VA6WGO]

Well after four "tough" flights today, I found that my airplane is airworthy again (so far). The greatest thing was that no trim was required in any of the surfaces. After this major repair.

With all the extra epoxy and now using lighter mufflers (-5oz) my CG moved about 0.5 inches to the back which is still within the range as per the specs.

I am happy with it and I really hope that she will stay with me for the rest of the season, but HEY who knows and how low is too low anyway???

Not bad for a plane that was inches from the rim of the garbage can..

Back from the dead.

Cheers,