FMS 80mm EDF F-86 Sabre Jet PNP

[Elbee]

[davegee]

Thanks, Steve.

I'll be adding some things in the next day or two. Question: I did a short video, 19 seconds or so long, that showed the gear and door retraction cycle that I just finished up. Unfortunately, it is about 14.7MB and it is rejected when I try to put it online with a update on HS. Is there some program that you know of that can reduce the memory size to an acceptable level so I can show things like this to other interested viewers?

Thanks,

Davegee

[davegee]

I'm pleased that we now have a new, dedicated section for the somewhat new FMS F-86F aircraft. I did have one of the Freewing F-86s several years ago and had a blast with that. It eventually wore out over the years and I parted it out for use in other newer models.

But I'm delighted that FMS did come out with this F-86 model. I got on Chris Wolfe's RC Geek website and followed along with some of the improvements he has made on his. For instance, I removed the cheesy stock pilot and added a scale F-86 Jock (1/10 scale) that Chris offers in his business. That definitely looks better.

The main and nose landing gear doors in the stock setup work ok, although when the gear is down, the doors should be retracted flush with the fuselage. On the model, the just hang down, very unscale, to me (however on the ground without hydraulic pressure holding them up, they drooped down, similar to what a P-51 Mustang does with its main gear doors.). I took a unused extra E-Flite P-51D door/gear sequencer to make the nose gear door work like it should. The main gear doors are a bit tougher. I did see something on You Tube where a guy was able to use a servo with cables that go into the fuselage to sequence those doors the way that they should be. Not much room to put servos in the main wheel well area or wings on this aircraft. I again borrowed from Chris' ingenious method of using fishing line that sequences the main doors pretty much the way they are supposed to work and operate on the real thing. Not perfect, but certainly good enough, for me. (If you look at one of the photos below you'll see that all the gear doors are retracted as they should be with the gear up.)

I have 6 flights on mine so far, all with no damage or bad landings, to date. At my altitude (5,000' MSL) the aircraft has a higher True Air Speed than at sea level so it is moving a bit more quickly, especially without any headwind to slow the groundspeed a bit for landing. I find the speed brakes are very helpful for slowing the airplane down for a comfortable landing, even doing "wheelies" rolling down the runway a bit. Reverse thrust on our short, rough runway is really essential, I think.

I look forward to reading reports from others who are flying the FMS F-86 to compare notes and maybe improve our airplanes a bit for better performance.

[Grossman56]

Looks great Dave, glad to hear you got the gear door problem solved. The only other thing I could think of is a micro servo, but again, how much cutting is involved.

Grossman56
(Dangerous Dan)

[davegee]

Looks great Dave, glad to hear you got the gear door problem solved. The only other thing I could think of is a micro servo, but again, how much cutting is involved.

Grossman56
(Dangerous Dan)

Hi Dan: there is probably something that could be thought up using a micro servo or something like that, or even the idea where a regular servo is placed in the main body of the fuse, forward of the gear bay, and two cable attached to the gear door actuators to sequence them. But for this try, the fishing wire seems to work well for now. They are easily removable for something else down the road, if desired.

Did you get the 9 second video MP4 clip I took last night of the retraction of the gear and gear doors? If you did, please email it to me or even better yet, if you could post it here on this thread, that would be great so others could see it. My memory or band width or whatever was too large for my footage taken with my I Phone to post it here.

Cheers

Davegee

[handyman220]

I'm glad to see a thread started on this model from FMS. I have the Huff waiting in the box.

[davegee]

I'm glad to see a thread started on this model from FMS. I have the Huff waiting in the box.

I think you're going to like this model, handyman. Please chime in as you wish to tell all of us about your thoughts about the airplane.

Cheers

Davegee

[davegee]

I took my FMS F-86F and got my 12th flight of its short career in this morning. I am totally liking this airplane! The RC Geek improvements to the landing gear doors to be more like the real thing was a good and positive step to take. Also, RC Geek's 1/10 scale "F-86 jock" bust was repainted to look the part in 1952, and displays nicely.

Flying wise, even on the Very rough runway our club uses, it survives best as it can. What I would give for a patch of smooth, black tarmac to operate out of! But I make the best of what is available, and deal with it. In the air, it is very stable, flies with authority in our thinner air (5,300' MSL) and with landing flaps and speedbrakes fully deployed, lands like a "kitten" and you can do "wheelies" for some distance, or at least get a nice smooth landing. I don't fly it in big crosswinds with its narrow gear, but with all landings so far, it hasn't had a tendency to drag a wing on takeoffs or landings.

I think I'll give it a rest for a few days while I fly some of my other airplanes in the "stable."

I'll attach a couple of pics of the F-86 on the ground. The first photo shows the stock look of the FMS F-86 with the main gear doors hanging down while the gear is down. While this is how the plane would look with hydraulic pressure removed making them droop down (think North American P-51s on the ground with all power removed, the main gear doors hanging down) the second photo is how the airplane actually should look with power on the airplane. The gear doors retract while the gear is down, on the ground, or in the air. This is thanks to RC Geek's ingenious way he came up with a way to do this on his airplane, and I copied his result. I'm very happy with it.

Not a big deal, but for me, I love doing what I can to make historic aircraft like this look a little more realistic, within reason.

Cheers

Davegee

[F106DeltaDart]

Aluminum covering job is now mostly complete. Unfortunately both aileron servos have died (one completely, one intermittently), so I’ll have to tear up the bottom covering to replace them before the maiden flight.

[Elbee]

F106DeltaDart,

Wow!

Beautiful work.

Very realistic IMHO.

Stripe colors look spot-on.

Bravo Zulu, Sir.

Best, LB

[davegee]

F106DeltaDart,

Wow!

Beautiful work.

Very realistic IMHO.

Stripe colors look spot-on.

Bravo Zulu, Sir.

Best, LB

Nice job with the covering! What material did you use for this?

Well done!

Davegee

[F106DeltaDart]

Thanks guys! Aileron servos have been replaced, and I'm hoping for a maiden flight on Friday. I filled all the panel lines, and used a filler primer to get a smooth surface. Then, I covered panel by panel in 6" wide aluminum tape: https://www.amazon.com/BOMEI-PACK-Al...1zcF9hdGY&th=1

[F106DeltaDart]

Got the markings in from Callie. Maiden flight coming soon.. The model is painted after Robbie Risner’s aircraft. After his wingman lost his engine Mig hunting in China, Risner incredibly used his airplane to push the jet to a bailout point. Sadly, his wingman did not survive recovery from the water, but it remains an amazing feat of airmanship.

[Elbee]

F106,

Amazing story, beautiful livery, and great work.

Nicely done, Sir.

Best, LB

[F106DeltaDart]

Maiden Flight has been completed! Flies quite nicely, however I did collapse the nose gear on the 2nd flight, but it looks to be a fairly easy fix.

[davegee]

Maiden Flight has been completed! Flies quite nicely, however I did collapse the nose gear on the 2nd flight, but it looks to be a fairly easy fix.

Hi F106DeltaDart. Very nice job on the metallic finishing and markings. I took mine up for its 24th flight this morning. Great flight although on landing it was a bit of a tailwind, and rolled to the end of the runway, even with full speedbrakes and reverse thrust. Caught a wingtip as I tried to keep it on the runway at the very end at a very low speed. Just a bit of foam damage on one wingtip that I"m fixing now. Really love this airplane, one of the best foamie jets I've flown.

I vaguely remember that story of the pilot "pushing" the other pilot out of Chinese hands until he could eject out over the sea. Too bad it didn't work out for the pilot who ejected, but it was a phenomenal amount of heads up and brave thinking by Risner to give it a try. Great story. I think it happened again during the Viet Nam war with two F-4s in a similar situation. Neil Armstrong did something similar when a cable took out several feet of a wing while on a low altitude attack in his F9F Panther. He was able to climb to about 15,000 feet or so and ejected over the water. Fortunately for him, he was rescued shortly after he splashed down in the freezing waters.

Have fun, and send more pics when you want to share some.

Cheers

Davegee

[Elbee]

F106DeltaDart
Congrats, Sir.

I am envious, she is a thing of beauty.

Best, LB

[F106DeltaDart]

Thanks Dave and LB! Nose gear is patched up and ready to go. I 3D printed a nose gear reinforcement piece that was posted in the RCgroups thread. Should help avoid further issues. Will be packed up Monday for the drive out to St George, UT for the John Morgan electric event.

Dave, I remember reading about the Vietnam incident as well, “Pardo’s Push”. Another incredible feat of airmanship. Hopefully I’ll have some more pics from St George next week!

[davegee]

Thanks Dave and LB! Nose gear is patched up and ready to go. I 3D printed a nose gear reinforcement piece that was posted in the RCgroups thread. Should help avoid further issues. Will be packed up Monday for the drive out to St George, UT for the John Morgan electric event.

Dave, I remember reading about the Vietnam incident as well, “Pardo’s Push”. Another incredible feat of airmanship. Hopefully I’ll have some more pics from St George next week!

Yes, that's it! I read it in an aviation magazine several years ago. Neil Armstrong during his combat tour in Korea had the presence of mind (not to mention that his engine was still working and the plane was somewhat flyable for a few minutes) to attempt to get out to sea where he could eject and air-sea rescue was waiting for him. Obviously, it worked out for him!

I was wondering, can you pinpoint or detail anything about the nose gear mishap on your F-86? So far I have not had a problem, but if there is something to beware of, I'll incorporate inspections of that area more in the future.

Have fun in St. George! I flew out there with my late father in law in his turbo Cessna 182 many years ago for a Barbershop Singing event he was involved with. Beautiful country down there and I bet a great place to fly RC. Your silver bird highlighted with the red rocks behind should make for some stunning pics!

Cheers

Davegee

[F106DeltaDart]

Will do! Packing it in the trailer for the drive today,

As for the nose gear weak spot, for me it was two fold. Just on the aft side of the steering servo, the plastic mounting tray is very thin. It cracked there and caused the support linkage to collapse. The second issue is that these support trays were glued from the inside of the air intake, likely as the halves of the model were being assembled. This puts the glue (which was very sparsely applied) in tension where it is weakest. Most other models would mount parts from before for that reason.

The small 3D printed support bracket in the RCG thread solves this by bracing the upper sides of the plastic mounts against the plywood battery tray, which is much more rigid.