ELECTRIC FLIGHT U.K. - British Electric Flight Association

The Suki
Last year at the Wings & Wheels show I chanced upon a Wattage F86 Sabre kit
going at a sale price of £39. I couldn’t turn it down, considering the full price of
this is normally around £63 including the fan unit, special Wattage 400 size motor
and wiring, it was excellent value.
Domestic neglect ensued until the completed machine was sitting pristine on the
lounge carpet, straining to get outside and tear up the sky.
I installed the 3-cell pack of Kokam 2000mAh LiPo cells (I am now getting used to
spending without fear!) and my son hand-launched the brave Sabre in search of
MiG 15s. My early dream of owning a ducted fan model that really looked like a
jet was realised. OK it was small and from a kit, but I was pleased that I had
assembled and successfully flown it. I was surprised how fast it was with an
inexpensive brushed 400 motor.
After several enjoyable flights I decided to make it even smarter by covering the
exposed polystyrene foam fuselage in tissue, put on with thinned PVA. Than a
couple of coats of Humbrol aluminium and reapplied decals made it look magnificent.
The model was fitted with a GWS Naro 4 channel receiver (lightweight but with
full length aerial) that had given years of very good service previously in a jetstyled
400 powered wing. This was covered with a matt non-metallic FibaFilm
and had given no control problems even at distance.
Soon after the Sabre got its new coat, pronounced glitching was experienced when
22 E.F.-U.K.