F9F Panther EPO Jet AIRFRAME ONLY

The F9F Panther is a fairly solid kit from Hobby-Lobby. My first kit-only airframe arrived damaged from shipping, but HL was very good about returning the damaged kit and shipped a new one out before the damaged kit was picked up by UPS. The replacement arrived in perfect condition.

Assembly was not too bad, though I ended up using c/f hollow spars to join the wings and horizontal stabilizer fins on the tail. The tabs on the fuse don't exactly lock in the wings, you need to apply pressure by hand and hold until the glue dries. Additionally, you also need to ensure proper alignment of the wings and tail fins while gluing by applying pressure, the tabs and guides alone do not assure alignment. I'm not a big fan of airframes that go together in this manner as it prevents you from using the stronger, slower-cure glues. I used quick-cure white Gorilla glue on the airframe, it bonds stronger than epoxy and remains flexible after it cures, 5-minute epoxy would have made gluing easier, but epoxy adds more weight and doesn't hold as well as a polyurethane glue such as Gorilla Glue. It was VERY nice to have the servo horns already attached to the ailerons and elevator, those screw-in horns are nearly always a pain to deal with so it was nice to see them preinstalled for a change.

I used my own power setup, hence why I purchased the airframe-only version - stock 64mm fan and 4800Kv Wicked motor with 60A Castle ESC. Also used 9g MG digital servos for ailerons and the elevator. On this power setup the F9F Panther does about 80-85mph full throttle, very fast, quite a bit faster than the F-86 Sabre on the same setup. The F9F is not aerobatic but it's fast and looks good in the air, has a nice scale appearance and easy to see at far distances. The plastic tabs on the bottom protect the airframe from damage during not-so-ideal landings, they are well placed and look good on the fuse as well. I will not be installing the optional landing gear as I plan on flying during the Winter, will be nice to belly land on snow.

Overall, the F9F Panther is another nice EPO offering in 64mm size from Hobby-Lobby. Good flight characteristic and 1-2 hours of assembly time.