Hello, and welcome back to Scale Me Down,
and to an exciting exclusive where we'll
unbox, build, and review
this Arrows Hobby 64mm F-86
Sabre.
This model was kindly supplied for
review by Steve Webb Models, and it's
distributed by J Perkins.
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support the channel.
I really love these little EDF jets and
I fly them all the time, so I'm really
excited about this one - but let's see
first how it went together ...
Just like other models from the Arrows
Hobby range, assembly is really quick and
simple - although this time we don't
need any glue.
The parts have a very smooth finish, in
fact at a glance you wouldn't know its
foam !
The wings are in two halves, and join
with this carbon spar and these plastic
inserts.
The wings have both ailerons and flaps,
so just poke these wires up into the
fuselage.
They are secured into place with these
four machine screws using a
2mm allen key.
The elevators have handed servos that
are connected with a y-lead so you
don't need any fancy radio gear - just a
five channel receiver.
As we fit the tail surfaces, you'll
notice the labeled servo connections, and
also these special connectors with
little plastic clips so there's no
danger of them coming unplugged as you
pull the wires tight.
The tail is fastened with three more
bolts, and unlike its smaller cousins
this one is fitted with a rudder.
The main wheels clip into position
whilst the nose leg is retained with a
grub screw,
whilst the fuel tanks slide aft to lock
into position.
Next, we'll fit and bind a receiver and
then set the control throws.
Notice the slop free ball linkages.
The clear instructions make setting the
throws and center of gravity easy.
All done, and the assembly took just 15
minutes.
It did really only take 15 minutes to
put together. It's very quick and easy.
Now I have removed the fixed landing gear
because the grass is a bit long today ,so
let's see how she does from a hand
launch.
For this review, I'm trying out these 50c
lipo packs from Radient.
Solo hand launching is dead easy due to
the generous wing area.
However, there's no finger grips like
there are on the 50mm jets, so I
find the best way was to grip the
fuselage from behind the wings.
There's loads of power on hand, although
it's not blisteringly quick but the
flight handling is very precise and
predictable, and the slow flight handling
is excellent.
The stall is benign and predictable both
with and without flaps.
The flaps didn't seem to have much
effect in flight, but they're probably
useful for shortening the takeoff roll
if you fly off wheels.
This model is a lot of fun - you're going
to require a few battery packs !
Just on this note, with this 2200
mAh 4s pack pushed all the way
to the front of the bay it still
required 40 grams of nose weight and you
get 3 minutes and 40 seconds of flight
time, so I would recommend the
2600mAh 4 cell packs.
Trying the rudder now. There's quite a
strong yaw/roll couple, so stall turns
and point rolls will require practice.
The North American F-86 Sabre was the
USA's first swept wing fighter when it
was introduced in 1949,
and it saw action against MiG-15 jets
over Korea.
This model does a good job of capturing
the scale outlines and delivers a very
scale-like flying performance.
I suspect that the dummy underwing fuel
tanks are slowing it down a bit, but they
are handy to land on
and it skates along on them pretty well
which should probably protect the belly
a bit.
That was fabulous fun !
It's not blisteringly quick, but I love
the way that this model just grooves - it
flies like it's on rails,
and I can see that this could easily be
my go-to model for this summer.
A big thanks to Steve Webb Models for
supplying this model for review, and if I
were you, I'd get one quickly before they
all sell out. Thanks for watching and
we'll see you next time.