My New Toy

[GrumpyGnome]

Just ordered a new toy .....

 

http://www.brchobbies.co.uk/?page=shop&action=additem&item=563

 

never had an EDF before but always had a soft spot for these 'odd' Saab planes.

 

I'll let everyone know how it goes.

 

GG

[Dusty]

Looks nice  wont miss that colour !

[Mowerman]

I'll be watching

[GrumpyGnome]

All I can say re the flying is ....................................

 

Wow !

 

Verticals out of sight, good at low (hah!) speed, easy to hand launch, reasonable duration on 3S 1300 LiPo.  Highly recommended.

 

I'll post a full review when that nice Mr Ashby puts it in the review section  

 

Amazing what can be done with a lump of polystyrene.  It aint quiet though !

 

GG

[TonyS]

GG,

Tried the link but it comes up with no such item.

What Saab is it? 

If it flies as well as my little F-9F you'll be a happy chappy. Having said that mine won't go vertical. I love building models but there's a lot to be said for buying a 'lump of polystyrene' and just getting out there. 

Look forward to the review.

T 

[Mowerman]

I've seen and heard it fly.

Awesome !!!

[David Ashby - Moderator]

Will do but what's the model GG - the BRC link isn't working ?

[Dusty]

Link not working as it looks like they have removed the model from the shop.. Anyway here is the model that is in question saab?

[GrumpyGnome]

Hi folks,

 

Yes Dusty, that's the one - in bright yellow !

 

Not sure why it's not in the BRC shop anymore - they must have stopped stocking it.

 

David, it's an E-Do Saab J35 Draken - the yellow one in Dusty's link.

 

GG 

[Stephen Grigg]

Looks jolly exciting GG

[GrumpyGnome]

I promised a review of sorts …….

I’ve had a hankering to try EDF for a while but was put off by the relatively high price for something I really wanted. I was just about to order a Phase 3 F16 when I spotted the Draken on the BRC web site. I’ve always had a soft spot for the plane so bit eh bullet and ordered it; £104.99 incl Motor, Fan, ESC and servos – not bad at all I thought.

BRC’s usual great service saw it arrive within a couple of days. Opening the attractive box (wouldn’t be a review without a comment about the box … saw just a few parts:

• Two stubby wings with servos installed
• A fuselage
• A fin
• Bag of smaller foam parts containing the dorsal ariel, nose radome (?), two rockets and a drop tank
• Bag of hardware including landing gear and plates
• Some 6 minute epoxy
• Instructions
• Decals

Not a lot !

First decision – landing gear or not. Jets look silly with wheels hanging down so that was a quick decision ! I couldn’t see big dangly drop tanks and rockets lasting very long on a belly lander so they went back in the box too.

Stick the wings on with epoxy; stick the smaller bits on with UHU Por; remove the nosewheel.  All very fast and very straightforward. Only problem so far is getting some epoxy on the wings……….touched it up with some yellow paint mixed to about the same colour.

Next job – Rx. I decided on my Spekky as I’ve heard the rumours of electrical ‘noise’ and I didn’t want to risk it.

After a couple of hours, I was ready for the decals. These are a bit odd being very very thin but stick-on not water-slide. I stuck them on although I did doubt their longevity……………..read on !

There, done, and looking very smart. And very very yellow !

At this point I couldn’t resist trying the fan. Top tip – don’t do it indoors and certainly don’t do it if there are cats about. This thing is noisy. But it does move an impressive amount of air. Now let’s just wait for the wind and rain to stop….

Okay, no rain, gentle breeze so off we go. Flew all the other planes in the car before getting up enough courage to fly this little yellow beasty. Okay then, let’s go for it. Find the right model on the Tx, switch on and carry it to the strip. Quick wiggle to make sure he flappy bits flap and the noisy bits make the necessary decibels and then no excuses left. Being a bit wary of lack of flying speed and sink, I launch it like Steve Backley in his hay-day. Leaving behind a flurry of decal shaped confetti ! Heck, it’s noisy and quick ! Quite an adrenaline rush. After a couple of minutes, I try slowing it down and doing a few low passes – it goes well at low speed too ! Few minutes later it’s time to land – surprisingly easy and not noticeably faster than some of my other planes. Phew – I can breathe now. Swap the batteries and off we go again. Pretty much the same as first flight but with less confetti – mainly because there are only a few left on from the first flight !

I’ve now had 20+ flights with it having had just one mishap when I lunched far too slowly in dead calm and reshaped the foam nose somewhat ! Some Por, some filler and some disguising paint and it’s serviceable again – even my best friends couldn’t say it’s as good as new though………

The only other things I’ve done are excavate some foam from inside the cockpit to get my LiPo further forward and added some reinforcing tape on the bottom.  

So, let’s sum up.

Good Stuff

• Cheap
• Looks nice – at least at first. Pretty far from scale with lots of cheater holes but umistakenly a Draken
• Good performance. Fast – compared to the other planes I have anyway ! Very very fast rolls; nice big loops; just about unlimited vertical performance. Good manners at low speeds 
• Easy to hand launch – two of the cheater holes underneath are in a perfect position for this.

Not So Good Stuff

• Being foam it gets scruffy quite quickly
• The power train is not the highest quality with a sort of rough spot at about 50% throttle, and it’s rather noisy
• Decals need to be stuck on with your own glue !
• There is a sort of Dutch Roll at most speeds but it’s not a big issue
• You’ll need to reinforce the area in front of the larger cheater holes as using them for had launches breaks the foam at the front of them quite quickly
• Orientation - it's all yellow !  It also gets very small very quickly.

Recommended ? Oh yes ! I think it’s a great intro to EDF.

Feel free to ask any q’s or make any comments.

GG