Having trouble slowing this down to get a decent landing. Also seems to take a couple hundred feet to rotate and take off. I have plenty of power and am wondering do I have a nose heavy condition. Anybody have this and did you add weight to the nose. I've seen videos of the jet taking off in 30 feet or less and not taking the whole runway to land. Every time I try to lighten the nose the jet seems to be tail heavy in flight.

Have one but still in build and not flown yet. However.... things necessary for jets pretty much across the board: 1 - make sure the stance on the ground is just a bit nose-up; 2 - remember that to fly, it has to have enough speed to build lift, and that may well take a good 150' or more depending on lots of things, like how heavy, how much power (batts good ones?), type of runway surface, etc.

Be aware that EDFs in general are more like real-world counterparts than the typical high-wing RC plane is. Wing loadings are somewhat higher, which means more speed is necessary to keep them flying. There's less wing area to generate lift at low speeds. Overall, they're supposed to fly like a jet does - which means you've got to fly them that way.

Speeds will be higher on landing than a Cub or Mustang, simply because of the intended use of the plane and the design of parts that goes with that use. There are always exceptions to this, but if you fly it like a jet it will work fine. Get used to thinking this way, provide for enough room in flying and landing, and it will become second nature to you quickly.

Just don't expect, or try, to fly it like you would a typical foamy warbird.

It is a handful to fly and land properly that's for sure.

I had my maiden flight yesterday after trying for 2 weeks. The narrow rubber wheels would dig into loose dirt on the ground and make takeoff very difficult as the plane could not build up enough speed. After several days of rain here in NY, we had a full day of sunshine and the dirt on the field was smooth and hard. The f86 wheels could not dig into the hard surface and so the plane lifted off in about 50ft. It flies very nice and has a long glide when setting up for landing.

Did you add any weight to the nose?

A thought... my Venom F-86 is (bigger, of course) very, very sensitive to CG, especially so when it comes to forward CG. 3 or 4 mm makes all the difference in the world here, between a smooth, sweet, scale-like takeoff and a very fast, lousy-handling skateboard. Do be sure to have the nose slightly high when it's sitting on the wheels, as a slightly positive AoA is very important for takeoff on jets. If the plane has no up-tilt on the ground, AND a forward CG, it's not gonna want to rise except with a lot of elevator, and then it's gonna shoot straight up. With resulting stalls and misery.

Check the CG; if it's less than at least 25% of the chord then move it back a few mm and see how that reacts. And above all, keep speed up to where it flies on the wings, not on thrust.

Originally Posted by tigermoth

Did you add any weight to the nose?

Hello Tigermoth, I did not add any weight to the nose. I am using a 2200 4S 40c battery and it balances perfectly on the balance point in the manual.

Has anyone changed the wheels on their F86? I can't find wheels that fit.

I think my added weight up front might be causing my problems. I use the same battery as you do. The aoa is basically set on these so there is not much I can do about that.

You can always use a larger front wheel, or smaller mains. That will help AoA to something more approaching usefulness. You don't need much here; just a couple of degrees makes it wayyy better.

Thanks. I will try smaller mains.This is one good looking arf that I am having trouble figuring out.I think most of my problem is added weight up front. I will remove and test fly.

You shouldn't have to add weight up front. Remove the weight and try again.

Removed the weight and crashed.Went into thick woods so I have written it off. This jet absolutely refused to fly without about an ounce or more up front. With my setup the weight made the diff between flyable or not. I did remove some of the weight and got better and slower landings but it still needed a good bit of runway to get off. I have another built that I flew this morning and it also needs the weight to fly.All in all I think that I will leave it alone as is and just keep close watch and attention while flying. It still is a very good arf as far as I am concerned.

Truly sorry to hear of all your troubles. Hope the second one treats you better. Still putting mine together, may be ready by the middle of next week ( I don't work too fast any more...) and when it goes up I'll check back in and report what it does.

Found the F-86 with little damage. Weight will go back in for flight. The 3 that I have built all needed the weight to fly properly.