[RAAF Avon Sabre]

Why did I decide to jump on board? Does the world need another Sabre build blog? Feel free to pass on this entry, my story is similar to a few others however hopefully it is encouraging to those mentioned in my first post.

I started in RC in the early 90s with a 2 metre floater glider (a Gentle Lady). I chose gliding as it was quieter, didn’t have all the mess associated with 2 stroke fuel and the pilots looked a lot less stressed than the power guys. However I still wanted a plane that looked like a real plane.

I soon discovered slope soaring and PSS in Silent Flight magazine (thanks to Simon Cocker and others) and joined the PSSA. I built Andy Conway’s Hawk and also part built Howard Metcalfe’s F-15. However life got in the way and flying stopped. I did get to a PSSA meeting near York in 2000 thanks to the generous hospitality of Michael Kitchen while I was on holiday in the UK.

In 2019 I my interest was rekindled. I started reading RCM&E and looking at the PSSA website and visited my old glider club. The whole hobby seemed to have change with new technology, foam models, batteries, radio technology etc. A lot to learn. All of the guys at my old glider club now had an electric motor in their models and only 10% built their own models.

I read the Sabre mass build articles in RCM&E and read many of the build blogs here and eventually ordered my kit in June thinking that it would take a long time to get to the other side of the world with logistics impacted by the pandemic. Martin and Gordon got the kit into the postal system within a couple of days and it arrived less than two weeks later with Australia Post even delivering it on a Saturday!

I have been getting my building board sorted out, thanks to some of the comments on the Sabre blogs and the other blogs about that on the model flying website and am about to start building. I won’t have much to contribute, I’ll probably manage to still come up with some new novice/”daft” questions though (a few in the pipeline already!).

[RAAF Avon Sabre]

Well, I’m very late to the party, in fact if it weren’t for COVID-19 the dance would have been held (the mass build fly-in) and the party would be over. I must be the last to start!

Like others, I would like to start my blog by thanking Martin and Gordon for their time and effort in developing the Sabre model, producing and selling the kit and contributing to the various blogs. Also thanks to Phil Cooke.

At the risk of sounding like an Oscars speech I would also like to thank all those who have written blogs about their respective builds and contributed suggested answers to those who have asked questions. This includes both the experienced builders with their skill and knowledge and the less experienced with their questions. I think if it weren’t for all the build blogs I might not have decided to build my own Sabre.