Great Planes certainly captured the look of the iconic fighter with their box art (above left). The Tx-R logo shows that this plane can be flown with virtually any transmitter when used in conjunction with AnyLink. The contents (above right) allow the plane to arrive undamaged and double as
a transport. The Tx-R version (below left) includes an ElectriFly BP series 200 mAh Li-Po and a DC charger. Close-up detail of the F-86 (below right) shows that this micro jet is not lacking any detail. The cockpit is clear and an included pilot can be painted and installed in the office.
er will fill the ElectriFly BP 200, 200 mAh two-cell Li-Po. Removing the model from the foam cradle,
I was immediately impressed with the sub- tle details such as panel lines, a clear canopy and accurate decals already applied at the factory. The canopy is easily removed thanks to two rare earth magnets and al- lows access to the battery location. The mag- nets do a great job of keeping the office firm- ly planted when flying. Another detail that was very obvious was
the intake and how smooth and clean it is. There are no bumps or portions where wires are evident, and more importantly to a scale pilot, no cheater holes! While the front of the intake does have to take some scale liberties in favor of performance, this is a small price to pay for such a model. I must admit, while studying the model in my hands, to making “jet like noises” and envisioning a sortie looking for a hapless MiG that might enter my zone. I challenge you not to do the same, especially since this model is almost the size of many popular scale plastic models. Getting the F-86 Sabre flight ready is
pretty easy. In fact, one would do best to start the sequence by charging the included flight battery. With battery charged I set
FLYING MODELS
about using some more new technology, Anylink. No longer am I bound to just the transmitter that comes within the box, but now I can use the radio of my choice, one that I’m comfortable with, and yes, dial in such things as expo. In this case, I turned to my favorite sport
radio, my Futaba 7C 2.4. I plugged in the Anylink to my Futaba and set about adjust- ing rates and throws. The manual gives the required throws but I set up the jet to have both dual rates and expo. This later turned out to be a good thing. I set my high rates at the factory settings
and put 25% expo on the ailerons, 15% on the elevator and rudder. Low rates, I dialed down the aileron to 70% with 20% expo; it may not look like a lot of throw, but trust me, it is plenty. I dialed down the rudder to 90% and added 15% expo and left the eleva- tor at the same settings as the high rates, but added 20% expo. Remember on Futaba, your expo is always a negative and channel three (throttle) is reversed. A final check of the flight surfaces deflection, high and low rates and the Sabre was ready for its first shake down. The morning of the test flight, I enlisted the photographic skills of Steve Barry, Edi-
tor of our sister publication, Railfan & Rail- road. While Steve certainly has experience shooting photographs of “F’s”, they tend to be more of the persuasion of F-7’s and F- 40PH railroad engines and tend to be more terrestrial in nature. We were fortunate to find the sky a brilliant blue and the sun in full force; unfortunately the wind was creep- ing in. Battery installed, cockpit in place, wind direction checked, camera ready, it was time to light this fire. Placing the model on a large section of as-
phalt I allowed the motor to spool up and gain speed as I slowly advanced throttle. I let the jet accelerate and when I was ab- solutely sure the plane had enough airspeed over its surfaces, I lightly eased back on the elevator. To my surprise the plane lifted off nice and scale. I turned the plane into the wind and immediately was faced with the choppy wind that had developed. Choppy as the wind was, the little 15-inch
model had no trouble penetrating the wind even at half throttle. I put in about three clicks of down elevator and settled in for some passes for Steve. The jet certainly has no problem with the “Turn and burn” pat- tern, aileron and elevator, but for nice look- ing turns at a slower speed and in a tighter
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