[4stripes]

The beautiful weather forced me to fly the maiden F-86 flights today (12 in total)! Powered by a stock FREEWING 90mm fan/motor, a CYCLONE POWER 85 amp ESC, a 5000mah 6S 70-90C NANO-TECH battery the machine took off in 100' of pavement and climbed out at close to a 40 degree angle (without slowing down)! My C of G was forward of recommended location by about 1cm but it seemed perfect on T/O and in the air. The plane is rock solid and has plenty of power. Landing speed is slow and stable.
I was worried that it might be underpowered but those fears were completely wrong. It easily flew at 1/3 throttle and at full power it climbed with enough speed to do two full rolls before running out of steam (from level flight).
The only complaint I have is the FLY FLY wheels halves want to separate. They will have to be secured together before something breaks.
Most flights I landed after my 5 minute alarm sounded. One lasted 7 minutes and almost ended in a deadstick. Thankfully it can fly with very little power or it might have ended badly. The battery gave no warning of power degradation before it completely died. The battery was not warm at all and there was no sign of puffing. Any of my other batteries would be junk after being fully depleted like this was. It later performed fine after a charge of over 5600mah.
Now it just has to be finished in it's Canadian markings taken from a Mk 1 Sabre PX101 (19101) located in Edmonton in the Alberta Aviation Museum. Red wing tips, nose and rudder tip will add some colour to the aluminum finish.

I apologize for the lack of decent flight shots but my photographer was still in school. I'll post some once it is finished.

[Guest]

congrats on your flight..try and get some video if you can.

Good work
Glad you came around with the paint job selection

[Guest]

Way to go Eric!

Wow! You must of been bitten by the jet bug real bad. Its getting hard to keep up with you. Every two weeks your maidening a new jet. And thats not a bad thing.lol

Trev

[Bob Byrnes]

Great stuff Eric. I'm glad you went with a Canadian Scheme. It will look very similar to mine. If you get the same level of fun from yours, you are in for a treat. Good information on the nano-tech batteries. I just bought some new packs, but, did not go for the extra cost of the new technology. Maybe next time. My other pal "Eric" just received the new Mig -15 yesterday and we may have a real Korean war replication in the air before too long.
Best Regards to you and the other two team members.

[mark_]

Congrats on the maiden Eric!

[4stripes]

Bob B.
Did your friend get the FLY FLY (hobby topgun) Mig 15? I'm considering it but am put off by the size. It's larger than the F86 which is wrong as it was smaller. I love the way the F86 flies, and perhaps a larger airframe will fly on the 90mm setup. This jet flies like an overpowered trainer. I just don't want to invest in a more expensive power plant (ie 8S as I have plenty of 6S batteries already).
I'm happy to have settled on the CDN scheme (not to mention it's easier to paint)! Will try to apply the homemade decals today.
Cheers

[Bob Byrnes]

Yup. it's the new Hobby Topgun Mig. I was out at his place today and it is big. There are several improvements on the jet however. Real hinges that install easily instead of tape, spars in the wings and a more proper ducting with provision for the esc to be in the tailpipe. The elevator servos mount to enable a Y-harness instead of using two channels,there is a pilot bust and the floor of the cockpit is foam. A rudder with servo hidden in fin. It also has a proper nose ring and overall is an upgrade on the earlier Fly Fly/Hobby Topgun stuff. It is a shame it is not more in line sizewise with the Sabre, but close enough for some fun chasing each other around. I stopped at the Oshawa airport and looked at their Sabre on the pedestal at the gate. It is in City of Oshawa Squadron colours and might make a nice simple scheme also.

[Tex Gehman]

Originally Posted by 4stripes

Now it just has to be finished in it's Canadian markings taken from a Mk 1 Sabre PX101 (19101) located in Edmonton in the Alberta Aviation Museum. Red wing tips, nose and rudder tip will add some colour to the aluminum finish.

"The Canadair Sabre" by Larry Milberry has a bit on 19101. If you can read the text above the picture, it says that it is really an F-86A assembled from mainly American made parts. I don't know of it being flown in any RCAF unit, as it was a one-off beast as the first Squadrons were made up of MkIIs.

The picture shows it in Canadair civil markings with military numbers on the tail which strangely were:181-010. Tex.

[4stripes]

Thanks Tex,
I don't have Mr Millberry's book but I have the same photo and I make the number out to be 191-010. I phoned the Alberta Aviation Museum today and one of the staff (Paul Squires) was kind enough to provide some details of the aircraft. It has PX 101 under the wings (no roundels) and the wings are actually MK V wings (not sure when the change was made)! The good thing is my wing fences are correct. The aircraft was the first Sabre produced by Canadair and it's the only MK I built. It spent all it's operational life in Cold Lake and was mounted on a pedestal in front of 700 wing Air Force Association. Before that it was a gate guardian in Namao AB. Not 100% sure but PX may stand for PROTOTYPE EXPERIMENTAL. The latest colour scheme was redone from it's pedestal days. They may or may not be accurate from it's last flying days. I do like the scheme and I only need to apply the decals to finish. Today all paint was completed and it's looking great (red and black on the aluminum). I'm going to try home made water slide decals. If they don't work out, simple paper photo's will be modge podged on like my little F16. Modge podge will cover the entire model once complete to give an even semi-gloss finish. I'll post some pics once finished.
Cheers