Official Freewing 80mm EDF F-86 Sabre Thread

[billd3]

TE

[xviper]

^ I have a huge collection of used servos from old, dead planes. I’d use a servo tester and test all the servos I have that are the same brand and type until I found 2 that center exactly the same. Put those two into the plane and use a servo reverser on one of them. If you don’t have used servos laying around, you could go to the hobby shop and buy a couple of servos after you test them for center. Again, if you can’t find a reversed servo, get a servo reverser.
PS, in reality, a gyro acting on a servo will rarely (if ever) approach full travel when stabilizing that servo (or set of servos), so it’s not so important if the max throw is a little off for that purpose. If the difference in max throw doesn’t cause the plane to roll during a tight loop, again, it’s not enough to worry about.

[Laserdude]

I need some help.
On the 86 the elevators have one standard servo and one reversed. Mine do not center the same leaving the servo arms at different angles causing the elevators to have a different amount of total throw. They are about half a cog difference so moving one servo arm one cog does not fix the problem. I corrected the problem by plugging one servo into an auxiliary channel, mixing it with the elevator channel, and then adjusting throws to get an equal amount on each elevator. I would like to get back to the two servos on a y harness and using just the elevator channel so that I can add a stabilizer. Any ideas?
Thanks

[DCORSAIR]

This plane just looks like something I have to have!!

I love that it uses 6s batteries like a lot of my other airplanes.

So I ordered one 😁😁🍿

Your going to like it, like I said before, mine is at least 3 yrs old or older and has many many flights, its beat to death, I never thought a foam jet could last this long, lol, it is bone stock with the old first generation 80mm fan/motor, it was given to me from a guy who smashed it into a fence which broke it in 1/2, he gave it to me and I glued it all back together and its still flying today and it has the original main retracts, but I had to replace the front one, I fly it inverted with the tanks on and fly it all the time with them on as well, lands so easy, just flies great with nice scale looks, this is one I would replace if mine finally crashes or it looks so bad I have to retire it to the trash can......

[marwady]

This plane just looks like something I have to have!!

I love that it uses 6s batteries like a lot of my other airplanes.

So I ordered one 😁😁🍿

[Kokopellimusic]

Love mine. I did the V2 upgrade of the motor and esc. Nice improvement.

[Evan D]

I agree. I swapped in a low power 90mm fan in my original one. I bought one of the new HP ones a few weeks ago and love it. Great EDF trainer and all around plane.

[Beeg]

I've always loved my Freewing F-86 with it's classic lines but it's performance in the original setup was a bit anemic. It sat in the hangar being flown rarely and I didn't want to spend the money but finally broke down and did the EDF/ESC upgrade. I wasn't sure it would be worth the additional cost for the upgrade parts but I'm now glad I did. It is a definite improvement and transforms the Sabre into an even more fun model yet still handles and lands like a trainer. Before, flying around with the drop tanks took a pretty high power setting but even with them on now it scoots along nicely with a lot less throttle. Clean configuration still isn't as zippy as an Avanti or T-33 but pretty close. If you have an old Sabre hanging in storage it makes it way better than the original Sabre.

[flyinhigh042]

Nice flying plane.

https://youtu.be/xK7g06BF3ng

Well done!

[radfordc]

Nice flying plane.

https://youtu.be/xK7g06BF3ng

[xviper]

On my last flight today I had an interesting occurrence. When it was time to land I dropped the gear and entered a downwind leg. I hit the flap switch and the plane immediately rolled hard to the left...past 90 degrees of bank. I immediately reversed the switch to the flaps "up" position and the plane recovered and landed OK. Turned out that the plastic clevis for the left flap had sheared off the cross pin so that the clevis was totally disconnected. Not sure why this happened but it could have been fatal.

Same thing happened to me a few years ago with my ViperJet. The control arm on one of the flaps had come unglued (yup, they were all glued, not screwed). Luckily, I had the mindset to undo what I had just done (flipped the flap switch back).

[radfordc]

On my last flight today I had an interesting occurrence. When it was time to land I dropped the gear and entered a downwind leg. I hit the flap switch and the plane immediately rolled hard to the left...past 90 degrees of bank. I immediately reversed the switch to the flaps "up" position and the plane recovered and landed OK. Turned out that the plastic clevis for the left flap had sheared off the cross pin so that the clevis was totally disconnected. Not sure why this happened but it could have been fatal.

[radfordc]

I flew 4 flights on my new F-86 today and what a nice flying jet. I ordered the PnP version with the 12 blade outrunner motor. First thing I did was swap in a 9 blade 1920kv inrunner system for better performance...and it proved to be fantastic.

Reading through this thread I was somewhat concerned about flying from a bumpy, grass strip. Turned out to be a non-problem. I did change the nose gear slightly....put in a larger wheel and a 3mm spacer to raise the nose and increase AoA for takeoff. The F-86 literally jumped off the ground in only a short distance and climbed out with authority. I was flying with a RT 4400 mah battery and performance was really good. Most of the flight was at 50% throttle or less and only going to full power for steep vertical climbs. From a high speed pass, pulling to vertical the plane continued to climb until I decided that it was probably going to go out of sight if I kept on. By the 4th flight I had increased the timer to 4:30 and was still landing with 40% left in the battery pack.

This one is a worthy addition to the fleet.

[radfordc]

This is a most definitely buy them both answer. If the question was a first and (not only) jet, the F-86 hands down. Both fly incredible, but the F-86 has more forgiving flight and stall characteristics over the T-33. It's also more forgiving in a minor crash, and can fly much slower, so if you're a newbie, and if this is your first jet then....I'd suggest the F-86.

However if this question was a one and only jet, then the T-33. Due to it's higher performance, still amazing flight characteristics, scale fidelity, and power setups efficiency. Although an easy jet too fly, it's no where near as easy or forgiving in flight or while landing as the F-86. Properly balanced, the F-86 will literally land itself.

Both are excellently priced, compared to other simular edf jets, so to me this is a noooooo brainer. Buy both, cut your teeth on the F-86, and then show off your airshow skills with the T-33.

P.S. I have both and love both, I've had the F-86 since 2015, I've got I've got more flights on her than any other bird in my hangar!

Ordered both tonight. Wanted to get ahead of the price increases! My jet fleet now includes the F-86, T-33, Mig-21, Su-30, Su-35, Me-262, Gripen, and BAE Hawk. (Mig-29 RIP).

[xviper]

I think the Sabre, by way of its design, would be much smoother in take off and landing. Deltas tend to be very pitchy when lifting off from the ground and when power is suddenly cut. The configuration of the Sabre is not too unlike that of the ViperJet. Those two brothers from Slovenia had one with skis and it performed the very same as when it had wheels.
Anyway, the Sabre ski jet will be a next winter project, assuming I don't smash the heck out of it this season.

[C17loadmaster]

That was a great maiden! I’ve always wanted one of the Mirages. That was definitely the first RC video I have seen that captured something burning up as it entered the atmosphere. The plane flew great from what I could tell. Maybe you could incorporate slight elevons into your takeoff configuration like the mirage. Being as the two airframes are basically as different as you could get, the outcome may not be what I’m thinking.

[xviper]

It would be awesome if it was as easy as gluing the oversized drop tanks on, but adding something to the bottom to strengthen them up and make them a little bit slicker of a surface to rotate off of. Like the plastic protectors that come glued onto the ME-262's nacelles.Only issue I can see is actually rotating for takeoff... You would be restricted by the exhaust port, which is only a few inches from the ground. You would need a good amount of speed.... but I'm sure it can be done.

I think skis would work even better than the floats do on my Mirage. When the snow/ice is hard and cold, skis should slide really well. Thinking about it some more, it might be better to remove the wheels and adapt the skis to the struts - just disable the retracts so as to not accidentally retract them when the skis are on.
Here's a video of one of my first flights of the Mirage on floats. It goes really fast on take off. It took me a few flights to ease up on the ELE so it didn't LEAP into the air and to also not high alpha so much on landing when the power is cut. That was all to do with practice with throttle management. BTW, not only was this the Mirage's maiden with floats but it was it's maiden - brand new plane, never flown with wheels. I used the stock wing tank mounts (reinforced) and floats from a HobbyKing Tundra. I cut out the mounting section from the Mirage's wing tanks to use for standard attachment (magnet) but reinforced with a little glue. The bottom of the floats were lined with clear Gorilla tape.
This F-86 should be just the same when it comes to adapting floats and I've seen a Viperjet with skis, so that should be also an easy do.

[C17loadmaster]

Your response and picture gave me a jab in the side (an idea that I should have come up with myself). Our winter can be 6 months long, most of those with ice and snow at the flying field. My F-86 has been hanging from the ceiling all winter long, just waiting for its turn to fly again in the late spring. If I don't crash and break this plane to pieces by next winter, I'm going to install skis on it and make it another snow jet. "Another", you may ask? I currently have a Mirage 2000 Tiger meet EDF with floats on it that I fly in winter. It performs so well and helps me with my jet addiction for the other 1/2 of the year. In fact, I may switch to skis for the Mirage as the floats add too much aerodynamic "oddness" to the flight characteristics. An F-86 with skis would be a great addition.

It would be awesome if it was as easy as gluing the oversized drop tanks on, but adding something to the bottom to strengthen them up and make them a little bit slicker of a surface to rotate off of. Like the plastic protectors that come glued onto the ME-262's nacelles.Only issue I can see is actually rotating for takeoff... You would be restricted by the exhaust port, which is only a few inches from the ground. You would need a good amount of speed.... but I'm sure it can be done.

[xviper]

I'm looking forward to Summer flying!

Your response and picture gave me a jab in the side (an idea that I should have come up with myself). Our winter can be 6 months long, most of those with ice and snow at the flying field. My F-86 has been hanging from the ceiling all winter long, just waiting for its turn to fly again in the late spring. If I don't crash and break this plane to pieces by next winter, I'm going to install skis on it and make it another snow jet. "Another", you may ask? I currently have a Mirage 2000 Tiger meet EDF with floats on it that I fly in winter. It performs so well and helps me with my jet addiction for the other 1/2 of the year. In fact, I may switch to skis for the Mirage as the floats add too much aerodynamic "oddness" to the flight characteristics. An F-86 with skis would be a great addition.

[DCORSAIR]

Like me, I don't use any flap/ele. mix on mine, I just drop the flaps and land, there are no surprises really with the F-86, it does drop the nose a little, but I like holding a little elevator on final anyway, so yes, what works for others may not work for you. The F-86 is a great flying jet, relax and have fun with it, I fly with the drop tanks on and use a 5000 60C lipo, had to carve a little foam under the cockpit to fit, I get around 3-1/2- 4 minutes and I don't fly slow, mine is the original F-86 from about 3 yrs ago...