Ray’s
Yatsenko Model
We were at the World
Championships – day one had gone by, we had seen most of the models fly and
were now picking out the finer details like who owned which model, which motor
did it have in and most important where was the bar? We watched one of the
flyers walk out with one of those models with the large bubble canopy on top
like an inverted fish bowl. After take off the engine settled into a solid 4
stroke and the thought passed through my mind that it would never get through
the wingover going so slow. How wrong can you get! The guy hit the first corner
hard and the engine did not falter nor did the model slow down. It powered over
the top with hardly a break into 2 stoke. It began to sink into my brain that
although the engine was running slowly the model was doing lap times in the
region of 5.2 seconds. (A good speed) In the dives it was slowing down until the
bottom corner was hit and then it picked up and powered on to the next corner. I
turned to Jim and commented that this guy had something special and I could see
that he had noticed the same thing by the expression on his face. A couple of
more flights went by and then the same thing in a different model. This was
repeated several time and it became obvious that there were a lot of
these motors in use. These engines were doing everything you would want from a
stunt engine in a simple 2stroke form. Later we found these motors (Retro
Discovery 60) were for sale on site from the Yatsenko brothers who designed
them. Jim parted with money and I am sure I saw him wipe away a tear as the
money left his wallet amid a cloud of moths. As Jim was trying to catch the
moths because he does not like to part with anything, I was looking at the
superbly built models of Andrei and Yuri lying in their transport cases. These
models could be ordered from the brothers and were priced at $1500.
A thousand pounds seems a lot of money for a model aircraft but is only the cost
of fishing pole, a computer or camera so I thought “what the hell – go for
it”
Well that’s all history now as my new model arrived in late October.
The
Model
The model is six piece with a
span of 57 inches, a wing area of 700 square inches and weighs 59 ounces. The
aerodynamics are standard with nothing remarkable there but the wing panels seem
to be made in two halves (top and bottom) with the only wood visible being the
root rib and trailing edge. There are 4 ribs per wing panel, 3 of which are
solid polystyrene ¼” thick. The full depth spar is in the same material and
there is no leading edge spar. The wing skin being glass fibre. The fuselage is
moulded 1/16 balsa covered in glass cloth inside and out. The undercarriage is
plug in and made of titanium. The lead out tubes are springs and non-adjustable.
The props are a very light hard wood (possibly lime wood) and essential to the
effective running of the motor as are the supplied plugs. Everything about this
model and motor is quality right down to the carbon fibre spinner and machined
aluminium back plate/ prop driver. The model is designed to absorb the
inevitable vibration from 4 stroke running and it works with nothing being felt
down the lines. It was finished in a 2-pack paint in the colours of my choice
and comes test flown and trimmed. There is nothing adjustable on the model and I
have not felt as though anything did need any adjustment beyond that carried out
by Andrei.
Flying the Model
First flights were interesting
to say the least. I used the handle supplied (yes you get a handle and lines
with it) but found the response with 4 inch spacing was faster than I was used
to. Swapping to my Ether handle
with line spacing at 3 inches cured all that – thank goodness for adjustable
handles. The next thing to manifest itself was a 4.5 minute engine run. It only
took me a month to find out I was filling it through the wrong pipe! It’s good
when you are thick isn’t it!! With that sorted the run time became long enough
to do a full pattern plus 2 laps. As that was a bit tight we Emailed Yuri and
the information came back – don’t use nitro (I had been using 5%).
On straight fuel 20% castor and 80% methanol the time went up to 7mins
20secs(more than enough) but Yuri recommended a different mix and this I duly
ordered, through the local model shop, from Model Technics. This mix is 12.5%
castor, 12.5% Klotz synthetic and 75% methanol. Now that everything has fallen
into place to say that I am pleased with it would be an understatement – it is
magic. What do I put it down to – a very well engineered model and a dammed
good motor. Because the undercarriage is plug in I was able to order a spare set
without spats for use on grass.
Food
for thought
The recent World Championships
was won by Han Xinping from China using a well set up model with a good 2-stroke
motor in perfect tune. In use were 2stokes, both conventional and piped, along
with 4 strokes and even a diesel. What won the competition in the end and gave
Remi his high placing was the quality of the flying, surely put down to the
many, many hours of practice. What was noticeable was the very high number of
flyers using the Retro Discovery 60 and/or the Yatsenko model. I’m sure that
all these top flyers haven’t got it wrong and whilst I know that its use does
not guarantee higher placing, at least all I have to worry about now is my own
abilities.
Ray Lloyd